A longtime leader of police departments in the Washington suburbs, Manger came out of retirement and took over the congressional police force six months after the insurrection, following the previous chief’s resignation amid strong criticism of the department’s preparation.
“When I was watching the events on January 6,” he told my colleague Tom Jackman when the new chief was named, “it was the first time since I had retired that I wished I wasn’t retired.”
About 140 officers were assaulted by the Trump supporters, including 80 Capitol officers and 60 District officers. More than 1,265 people have been arrested, as of Thursday, according to the Justice Department, with more than 440 charged with assaulting police or impeding law enforcement. Five men from different states were arrested just last week, as the investigation continues.
When he arrived at his new workplace, Manger found it beset with low employee morale. “They felt that the department had let them down, and that their leadership had let them down,” he told me this week. “There was a clear sense among many in the department that there were intelligence failures, equipment failures, planning failures and leadership failures. The one thing that did not fail was the courage and resolve of those who fought to keep the Capitol safe that day.”
One thing that made his job easier and the Capitol complex safer now than 36 months ago were reports that outlined needed improvements, including one from a task force led by retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré.
“The lessons learned from January 6 were certainly drastic lessons,” Manger said. “I had the advantage of having Gen. Honoré’s report plus all the IG (inspector general) reports. So, I had the advantage of really having a checklist of things that needed to be done to put the Capitol Police in a better position to keep this campus safe.”
Manger discussed the changes in an interview with The Post, which has been edited for clarity and length.
Q: Honoré’s report recommended adding 854 Capitol Police officers. What is the staffing now?
A: We’re in a much better position, but it’s very much a work in progress. In January of 2021, we had about 1,800 police officers. And right after January 6, we saw attrition really increase to levels that we had not seen before in the history of this department. If I had to pick the biggest problem that we needed to solve, it was having adequate staffing to meet our mission, to meet all of the responsibilities that we have. We went on a very aggressive campaign to recruit and hire good people. Today we have over 2,000 officers. We continue to ask for more positions in our budget, as we have in the past three years. We’ve asked for not only additional police officers, but additional special agents, additional civilians. But we still need more and quite a few more.
Q: Have your intelligence capabilities improved since January 6?
A: They have. They’ve improved a great deal. If staffing was the number one issue, intel was right up there with the top priorities that we had. We were not sharing intel the way we should have. We were not gathering it. We were not operationalizing it. All of those things are being done now. Now every single police officer has a department-issued cellphone and they get intel updates daily. They get multiple updates over their phone. So, we’re disseminating this information in real time. We have daily intel briefings for the department and we participate in briefings a couple of times a week with our law enforcement partners around the D.C. region. We’ve hired a new intel director. Our intelligence division has grown into its own bureau, and it’s grown by more than 50 percent.
Q: Another recommendation was for a quick reaction force.
A: We have quick reaction forces that are here on the Capitol campus. We created and expanded our first responders unit. These are officers that aren’t assigned to a post. They are patrolling the campus. If somebody is menacing a congressman’s office, which happens quite often, we’ve got folks that can instantly respond to that. We’ve created probably one of the largest bicycle units in the country. During demonstrations, they’re able to line up and use the bikes as a barrier to keep the crowds in a certain area. We’ve created crowd management units, as well as significantly expanded our civil disturbance unit.
Q: You were speaking earlier about attrition. Did a lot of your officers simply quit after January 6? Why was the attrition so great then?
A: I think a lot of people did quit because of January 6. I think January 6 was the catalyst for a lot of people leaving. Our attrition rate has not been as high since then … But I must say that those who stayed have been a part of making the agency better. Most stayed, I believe, because they believed in the mission so strongly that they wanted to be a part of making the USCP better. That’s why I joined the USCP.