USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – More than 70 Capitol Police officers have left the force since the Jan. 6 riot, a union leader said Friday.
Gus Papathanasiou, chairman of the Capitol Police Labor Committee, said the resignations and retirements reflect low morale on the force after the deadly attack that injured 140 officers. Overall, the department is operating with 233 vacancies below its 2,070 authorized full-time positions, he said. What keeps me up at night is not the challenge of hiring and training more officers, but keeping the officers we have right now, Papathanasiou said.
Officer Brian Sicknick, who was sprayed with a chemical spray during the attack, died the next day from strokes, according the D.C. medical examiner. Capitol Police Officer Howie Liebengood and D.C. Officer Jeffrey Smith died by suicide in the days after the attack.
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Pamela Smith Named First Black Woman Chief of U.S. Park Police
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
Published April 8, 2021
USPP Chief Smith (AP Photo)
Pamela A. Smith, a 23-year veteran of the United States Park Police, will lead the nation’s oldest federal law enforcement agency.
Chief Smith, who becomes the first African American woman to lead the 230-year-old agency, immediately remarked that she would establish a body-worn camera program for USPP within 90 days.
The program will initially begin in San Francisco and be implemented across the country by the end of the year, Chief Smith stated.
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Pamela A. Smith
Pamela A. Smith, a 23-year veteran of the United States Park Police, will lead the nation’s oldest federal law enforcement agency.
Smith, who became the first African American woman to lead the 230-year-old agency, immediately remarked that she would establish a body-worn camera program for USPP within 90 days.
The program will initially begin in San Francisco and be implemented across the country by the end of the year, Smith said.
“Body-worn cameras are good for the public and good for our officers, which is why I am prioritizing implementing a body-worn camera program within my first 90 days,” Smith offered in a statement.