Protecting the Capitol

Because police forces are security forces, it is common for officers to seek more money, staff, equipment, etc., by leveraging the idea that security is suffering without them. Thus, it is important always to be cautious when officers offer up tales of ill-preparedness and impeding calamity.

By the same token, however, a failure to properly equip a police force does actually threaten security, which is a much bigger issue than, say, delaying the replacement of dog-eared but usable textbooks in a school.

So when, as The Hill’s Jordy Yager reported on Tuesday, U.S. Capitol Police captains, lieutenants and sergeants write memos year after year complaining that they do not have the tools they need to do their jobs in the event of an explosive attack on the Congress, it is important to take notice and then, if necessary, to take action.

This newspaper abhors the careless waste of taxpayer money; we do not, for example, endorse the building of a gold-plated Capitol Visitor Center (CVC).

But we also recognize the Capitol as the pre-eminent symbol of America’s democracy (just as the Statue of Liberty is the pre-eminent symbol of its freedom), and it is unconscionable that this great building and its environs should be inadequately protected for the want of wise spending on necessary equipment.

Internal documents seen by The Hill suggest that “the two major threats to the United States Capitol and the congressional community” are from suicide bombers and car bombs.

At the top of the bomb squad’s concerns is that it needs more cars, especially for off-duty members. In the event of an attack on the Congress now, off-duty members trying to get quickly to the Capitol would have to drive in their own cars, without sirens or lights, and hope that other motorists respond obligingly to their efforts to get through.

Even the vehicles that the bomb squad possesses are inappropriate for their work, the officers say, because they cannot be fitted with the latest bomb disposal equipment. The Capitol Police are supposedly a premier police unit — they should be, given what they are protecting — so they should have the latest and best equipment and training.

If corners need to be cut somewhere to save money, let them be corners of that great white elephant called the CVC. Maybe the purchase of the most sophisticated audio-visual equipment or some other such pleasing amenity could be delayed until after the police have made sure they can respond appropriately when one of the country’s enemies tries to blow a corner off the Capitol.