The number of concerning statements and direct threats made against members of Congress, their families and staff ticked up again in 2024, according to figures released Monday by the Capitol Police.
There were 9,474 incidents investigated by the force’s Threat Assessment Section last year, up from 8,008 in 2023 and 7,501 in 2022. That figure is only slightly lower than a peak of 9,625 recorded in 2021.
It is more than double the number the department said it investigated in 2017, the first year of publicly available threat data.
“We must continue to enhance our protective and intelligence operations to keep up with this evolving threat environment,” Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said in a statement.
Manger pointed to changes after the attack on the Capitol of Jan. 6, 2021, citing 103 inspector general recommendations closed out by the force since then. “But we must keep working to ensure the safety of the Congress while the Members are away from Capitol Grounds,” his statement continued.
Threats and concerning statements were made via mail, email, telephone, social media and the internet, according to the department, though it did not provide a detailed breakdown by type or severity. The number of cases investigated tends to increase during election years, Capitol Police said.
“Decreasing violent political rhetoric is one of the best ways to decrease the number of threats across the country,” the department said in the release.
Last year, Manger announced the creation of a Protective Intelligence Operations Center to help handle threat reports against members, monitor residential security for members and analyze intelligence. The department also hired a group of special assistant U.S. attorneys, based in Washington, California and Florida, tasked with prosecuting cases of threats against members.
The moves to more aggressively address threats to members came after a series of high-profile incidents in 2023. Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar was carjacked in the Navy Yard neighborhood in Washington; Minnesota Democrat Angie Craig was assaulted in her Washington apartment building; a bat-wielding man entered the district office of Virginia Democrat Gerald E. Connolly and assaulted his staff; and an aide to Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul was stabbed on the street in Washington.
More recently, a rash of so-called swatting attempts targeted members between November and December of last year.
Manger has touted the ways in which the department has improved since the Jan. 6 attack, including by offering better equipment and training, staffing up and establishing clearer procedures for special events. But as recently as this winter, he repeated a familiar call for more manpower.
“Who knew that threats would go through the roof? Who knew that the tactics [of] folks that want to disrupt the lives and disrupt the work of members of Congress would result in having 50 people swatted in the last month, people disturbed in the middle of the night in their homes?” Manger told a Senate panel in December. “The heightened threat level in this country has not gone down, and so we do need additional resources.”
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