Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger will face questions this week about safety at the Capitol complex after a series of incidents involving visitors and staff trying to bring weapons inside.
In January, officers arrested a man with a gun concealed in his waistband who had just taken a tour of the Capitol, prompting an internal review of the breach.
In March, a staffer working for Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., was arrested at a House office building entrance when officers found a loaded handgun in his bag, according to Capitol Police. That incident is also under internal review.
Some lawmakers want assurances that police are doing more to stop weapons and ammunition from slipping through the cracks. Manger, who is retiring in May, is expected to address those concerns and more during a House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee hearing Tuesday, and other committees with jurisdiction over the Capitol Police are taking note.
“The recent screening failures are unacceptable,” House Administration Chair Bryan Steil, R-Wis., said in a statement. “I am in frequent communication with Capitol Police and the House Sergeant at Arms to ensure the Capitol campus is both fully secure and also open and available to the public.”
Rep. Joseph D. Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, said he was “working to ensure officers have the training and technology to perform more effectively.”
“The Department’s culture must also change from that of a police department — which is reactive and focused on building prosecutable cases — to a proactive protective agency laser-focused on safeguarding Congress,” Morelle said in a statement.
The scrutiny comes as tourists descend on Washington for cherry blossom season and after an eventful stretch on Capitol Hill. Officers screened more than 100,000 people at the complex in the period between Donald Trump’s second inauguration and his address to a joint session of Congress, according to a person familiar with campus security.
The force is already stepping up its procedures to prevent lapses or weapons getting through, a Capitol Police spokesperson said.
“These few instances were human errors — human errors that could have, but thankfully did not result in anyone getting hurt. Complacency or inattention, even for a second, cannot happen,” the spokesperson said in an email.
At building entrances, visitors and staff walk through magnetometers and place bags on conveyor belts. During the January incident, the magnetometer alerted to the man’s waist, but he was allowed to enter the Capitol Visitor Center after a secondary search, according to a police affidavit that describes surveillance footage of the interaction. It was only later, after he had already taken a tour, that officers found the man with the gun in his waistband, the affidavit says.
James A. Faber was charged with carrying a pistol without a license, and the case is pending in D.C. Superior Court.
Members of the public are prohibited by law from bringing firearms onto the Capitol campus, though regulations offer some exceptions for lawmakers.
Capitol Police stressed that in most cases, people caught with prohibited items express no intent to harm Congress. Still, some worry that weapons could be going undetected in a busy complex where thousands of staffers come to work.
On March 4, officers arrested Ogles’ press secretary Giancarlo Mandato, who attempted to enter the Cannon House Office Building with a handgun loaded with 13 rounds of ammunition, according to police. He had an active license to carry in D.C., and the gun was registered, police said, though local law bars possession of large-capacity magazines of more than 10 rounds. The arrest occurred on the morning of Trump’s joint address to Congress, and police were reviewing whether anything was missed during screening on a previous day.
Mandato’s LinkedIn page lists him as a current employee of Ogles. A spokesperson for the office did not respond to multiple requests for comment. While a summary of the incident appears in the force’s weekly crime blotter, details had not previously been reported.
Michael Hopkins, a Morelle staffer, was arrested in December when a bag search at a Cannon building entrance turned up magazines and ammunition. Morelle’s chief of staff said Hopkins was no longer employed in the office immediately after the incident. Hopkins pleaded guilty to attempted possession of an unregistered firearm and reached a deferred sentencing agreement in February, according to court records.
So far this year, at least seven other people were arrested after being caught with ammunition or weapons at doors to the Capitol, the Library of Congress, or the House and Senate office buildings, the police blotter shows.
On Feb. 27, a person was arrested after attempting to enter the Library of Congress with brass knuckles, according to the blotter. On Jan. 8, a man tried to bring a machete through security as former President Jimmy Carter was lying in state. The arrests paint a picture of the range of potential threats that police look for on a daily basis.
“Much credit to Chief Manger and the Capitol Police, who are consummate professionals and consistently work to keep us all safe in Washington and in our districts,” said Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., ranking member on the Legislation Branch Appropriations Subcommittee. “I would hope everyone who depends on the Capitol Police for safety would take their advice to the letter, particularly regarding access to Capitol grounds.”
Extra measures
In response to the recent incidents, Capitol Police said they have put extra measures in place.
Manger, in written testimony that will be delivered before the Appropriations subcommittee Tuesday, said all officers who conduct security screenings have undergone refresher training. Sergeants have been assigned to monitor all screening posts three times per shift, and a lieutenant has been named Security Screening Program manager.
Manger also wrote that a new artificial intelligence software was installed on all X-ray machines in August 2024. That AI software is designed to help officers identify prohibited items and weapons.
“It is important to note that none of the screening failures that occurred this year were the result of technological failures but were from human error,” Manger wrote. “In each case, our technology correctly identified the prohibited item that was being brought through the screening process.”
Visitors to the Capitol have begun to notice the changes.
Mili Steele-Hollenbeck, who has been leading student tours of the Capitol for over a decade, said she normally budgets roughly half an hour to get through security at the Capitol Visitor Center. During two trips earlier this month, Steele-Hollenbeck said it took double or triple that time to get through security. The line to get in at times stretched all the way onto First Street.
“They just had a lot of people taking a long time. And bags kept having to be sent back through [the X-ray machine],” Steele-Hollenbeck said. “I don’t know if what they were told to look for has changed, but they were certainly being more meticulous about what they were doing.”
Bob Burnette, who also leads school tours, said he arrived at the Capitol with a group of 55 students around 8:30 a.m. March 11 for an 8:50 a.m. tour. The group didn’t get to security and into the building until close to 9:30 a.m., he said. Once they did, he said he asked a CVC employee about the delay.
“They told me I’ll need to budget for more time — that this is the new norm,” Burnette said.
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