A Capitol Police officer who works the night shift said he and others expected to work on the day of the attack but were sent home
A Capitol Police officer told Insider that he and others expected to pull an extra shift last Wednesday but were sent home instead.
The understaffed force was overwhelmed when a pro-Trump mob broke into the Capitol. Authorities did not retake control for hours.
The officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, blamed top brass for leaving the force understaffed and unprepared to deal with the mob.
"Lack of manpower caused the entire freaking disaster," he said. "We just didn't have the numbers."
The Capitol Police did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
A US Capitol Police officer blamed department leadership for leaving the force understaffed last week for the pro-Trump protest that resulted in rioters storming the Capitol building and wreaking havoc.
The officer asked to remain anonymous, citing department policy not to talk to the media without permission.
He said he was working the night shift last week and found it "puzzling" that he and his colleagues were sent home earlier than expected on Wednesday. He also said nobody asked him to come back after the attack.
Insider contacted the Capitol Police for comment twice but had not received a response by Monday, two days after the first request.
The officer said everybody in the department knew in advance about the pro-Trump march and thought it would be an all-hands-on-deck situation.
The officer packed a backpack full of protein bars and coffee, expecting to work into the afternoon after his regular shift ended at 7 a.m.
But instead, he said, top brass sent his shift home at 10 a.m.
"Naively, I thought, well, they must know something that we don't. Maybe they have intel showing they're not going to come up on the Hill," or "they don't think they're that violent," he said.
"I trusted that they knew what they were doing by letting us go home," he said.
"Then, of course, I woke up in the afternoon to my wife telling me they breached the Capitol," the officer said.
The officer said he checked his phone, expecting to find a bunch of missed calls asking him to come into work, but was shocked to find none at all.
"They didn't even try to recall us," he said.
The officer said he thought it was especially odd that his bosses would turn down extra officers given that many of his colleagues were out sick because of the coronavirus.
"Lack of manpower caused the entire freaking disaster," he said. "We just didn't have the numbers."
The officer was clear that he thought the people ultimately to blame for what happened were the rioters.
But he said senior officers shared part of that responsibility for the low staffing levels and for not having other agencies quickly on hand to help.
He said that he wasn't sure why help was declined but that a lot of agencies didn't like to accept outside help because "they're reluctant to admit they need it."
He said it was the "right call" for Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund to resign in the wake of the siege, as the situation could "absolutely" have been avoided.
"If we had every hand on deck and accepted outside help, I do believe we could have stopped them from getting in," the officer said.
Sund told The Washington Post on Sunday that he called for reinforcements six times on Wednesday but was blocked and ended up getting little help.
Not taken as seriously as BLM
The officer said he saw a big difference in how his department prepared for this summer's Black Lives Matter protests and how it tackled Wednesday's pro-Trump demonstration.
"I worked the George Floyd protests over the summer, and that was an all-hands-on-deck kind of situation. We were all up for that. They didn't send anyone home for that," the officer said.
"Why wasn't this taken as seriously as they took the potential of violence from the George Floyd protests? Because they took that pretty f---ing seriously," he said.
The Capitol Police have also been criticized over the smaller number of arrests made during the Capitol siege on Wednesday than in BLM protests and anti-Trump marches in Washington, DC.
The officer said he could see why more arrests weren't made in the moment, because every arrest occupies an officer who could otherwise help secure the area.
He gave a possible explanation for why more arrests were made at other protests. He said that some marches had "mass-arrest teams" but that he didn't think any were working on Wednesday.
He said these teams were built for situations in which a demonstration is peaceful and protesters are trying to get arrested "to make a point." He said he wasn't sure they would have been appropriate on Wednesday, when every officer was needed to defend the Capitol.
The Capitol Police did not respond to Insider's request for confirmation that no mass-arrest teams were working on Wednesday.
The officer said it wasn't clear to him why officers didn't make more arrests when the rioters started to retreat on Wednesday.
"It sort of baffled me for a second, but I'm sure the goal was to keep as many officers in the field as possible," he said.
"I'm sure the thinking was 'We got them on camera. We can go through and look them up later and get them after the fact,'" he said.
He said the disparity in the treatment of the Trump mob and the BLM protesters could be seen as tacit support for the rioters.
"It looks like we're favoring white nationalists over peaceful protesters protesting unlawful shootings," he said. "I get that it looks terrible."
Questions about Capitol Police loyalty
The officer also addressed two videos that appeared to show some officers opening barricades and ushering people into the Capitol complex and one officer taking selfies with some Trump supporters.
Both videos led many to question whether the department or some of the officers were complicit in the breach.
The officer who spoke with Insider said that he worked with a lot of Trump supporters but that none were so fanatical as to risk their jobs in aiding an insurrection.
The officer said that he didn't recognize the cop who posed for a selfie with the Trump supporters but that he hoped he wasn't inviting that attention.
He also said he had "no idea" why some officers were caught on video opening gates and waving people through.
"Maybe there's a tactical reason for that," he said. "I don't know of any officer that would willingly just stand aside and let these guys through. If they did it, it's because they were either ordered to or forced to."
Since Wednesday, two Capitol Police officers who responded to the attack have died. Brian Sicknick died of injuries he sustained. Howard Liebengood died of an apparent suicide; it was not clear whether his death was related.
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