PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Two years have passed since the U.S. Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob, mostly supporters of then-President Donald Trump, violently breached security.
Steven Sund was chief of the U.S. Capitol Police that day. He served from June 2019 to Jan. 8, 2021.
While top U.S. leaders blamed him for a lack of security oversight, he said fault lies within the confines of needed congressional approvals — and, he said, not much has changed since then.
Sund recently authored a book, called “Courage Under Fire: Under Siege and Outnumbered 58 to 1 on January 6.” He’ll be at the National Liberty Museum Tuesday evening for a discussion led by the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia.
He spoke with KYW Newsradio’s Ian Bush about Jan. 6 and the days that followed.
Ian Bush: Two years on from that day, that attack, what has stuck with you the most?
Steven Sund: I think what has stuck with me the most is just what the individual officers went through. It’s a very personal event that happened that day. I had 2,223 employees — that’s including sworn-in and civilian — and to hear the stories and see how it still impacts them is something else. I’ve had a number of officers contact me and say, “Hey, I ordered your book, it arrived today. I’m just not ready to read it.”
Bush: You resigned as chief after the attack. Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had called for your resignation. With the benefit of hindsight, what do you wish you’d done differently that day? What do you wish had been done to help you that day?
Sund: As the chief, I’d gone and attempted to get National Guard three days in advance. And it was just because I was worried about the size of my perimeter and the limited number of officers I had to staff it — not because we had intelligence that was showing there was going to be an attack on it, just concern for the size. Once we are under attack on Jan. 6, I made dozens of calls. I brought in 1,700 law enforcement officers from 17 different agencies that helped my men and women turn the tide when the military wouldn’t assist us. There was nothing else I could do.
The thing I wish is when Speaker Pelosi went on national TV less than 24 hours after the attack and called for my resignation, saying there was a failure of leadership at the top, I wish she only knew what we went through, what I went through to protect her that day. And, what I faced trying to bring in assistance because of some of the policies and some of the security structures we have on the Hill and also the reluctance of the military to provide us aid.
Bush: Is it safer today than it was on Jan. 6?
Sund: The chief that’s in there, [J. Thomas Manger], he’s an experienced chief. He’s trying to work on some of the issues that he’s allowed to work on. I think they still have the issues with the security structure. People don’t realize, on Jan. 6, I had a federal law that was put in place by Congress that prevented me from calling in federal assistance without first seeking the approval of the Capitol Police Board. To bring in the National Guard in advance, which I tried to do on Jan. 3, not only does it need Capitol Police Board approval, it also needs leadership approval, and I couldn’t get that.
Now, they fixed one part of that. In an emergency, the chief can call in the National Guard without now going to the Capitol Police Board. But in true congressional fashion, they made it revocable. They made it look like it’s easier, but they still have a security structure that is overseen by politically appointed people, politically aligned oversight committees. That is a recipe for disaster.
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