J. Thomas Manger, who spent 21 years as a police chief in the wealthy Washington suburbs of Montgomery and Fairfax counties, was named Thursday to take over the U.S. Capitol Police as it tries to regain its footing in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. More than 80 Capitol officers were assaulted, two later died, and its commanders were found to have ignored warnings of a violent attack.
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Manger was selected by three members of the Capitol Police Board — the sergeant-at-arms of the House and the Senate, and the architect of the Capitol — as well as top congressional leaders, who oversee the police department. He succeeds Chief Steven A. Sund, who resigned days after the insurrection amid heavy criticism of the department’s lack of preparation, and interim chief Yogananda D. Pittman, who was head of Capitol Police intelligence before Jan. 6.
“The Congress is fortunate to have a seasoned decision-maker,” the board said in a statement, “who will lead with integrity, draw on his regional experience in strengthening partnerships with law enforcement partners, and make intelligence-based security decisions.”
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Manger will start his new job Friday, the board said, overseeing a force of 1,800 sworn officers.
“When I was watching the events on January 6,” Manger said in an interview, “it was the first time since I had retired that I wished I wasn’t retired.” He said he had worked on preparing for numerous protests in Washington with other police chiefs, and “I felt like with the experience I had over the past 20 years, I could help.”
Manger said he had read every official report written about the Capitol Police and Jan. 6, and “every one of them has recommendations, probably close to 100. I looked at every one of them, a lot of them having to do with intelligence, staffing, or training and equipment. My goal is to prioritize these things and work on as many as we can at a time.”
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The new chief said he wanted to assure the public that Jan. 6 was “not typical of the work they do. They have protected that Capitol, the membership, and it all went smoothly. People might come to the wrong conclusion that the department is dysfunctional. It’s not. It’s a department of great men and women, and I’m confident going forward we’re going to be able to accomplish the things we need to accomplish.”
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Manger, 66, is a familiar face on Capitol Hill. In addition to having served as chief of two nearby suburban departments, he was the president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, a group of police chiefs heading nearly every large city and county department in the United States and Canada. In that role, he testified before Congress on issues such as immigration enforcement and drug abuse, and consulted on policing issues with the Obama administration.
D.C. Police Chief Robert J. Contee III said before the announcement, “I think Tom is an excellent choice. He is familiar with the area. He was the chief of two major police departments, Fairfax County and Montgomery County. His reputation is impeccable.”
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Manger takes over a police department that remains under intense scrutiny as various investigations probe the depths of the Jan. 6 insurrection, including the law enforcement response as thousands of supporters of President Donald Trump streamed toward the Capitol after a White House rally. A Senate report issued last month found that Capitol Police intelligence officers and commanders knew as early as Dec. 21 that protesters planned to bring guns and other weapons to the Capitol, that they were sharing maps of the Capitol campus, and were discussing best entry points and ways to trap lawmakers inside.
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“The attack was, quite frankly, planned in plain sight,” said Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
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The Capitol Police, in its response to the report, said it could improve its intelligence gathering but maintained that “at no point prior to the 6th did it receive actionable intelligence about a large-scale attack.”
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About 81 Capitol Police officers were injured, some severely, along with 59 D.C. police officers, federal prosecutors have said in court filings. One Capitol Police officer suffered a fatal stroke after responding to the attack, and one Capitol and one D.C. police officer died by suicide within days of facing the mob.
The department has asked for increased funding for more officers and better riot gear. The New York Times reported that more than 70 officers have retired or resigned since Jan. 6, some doing so in disgust without having another job lined up.
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In addition to Sund’s prompt resignation, the House sergeant-at-arms and the Senate sergeant-at-arms also resigned. Their replacements, William J. Walker in the House and Karen H. Gibson in the Senate, along with J. Brett Blanton, the architect of the Capitol, and acting police chief Pittman form the Capitol Police Board, which has oversight of the police, along with Congress through its appropriations and authorizations.
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The Police Board hired the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington-based think tank that provides support, training and research to many large U.S. police departments, to conduct the search for a new chief. While the organization solicited applications for the job, it also surveyed the sworn and civilian employees to see what they wanted in their next chief, said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the think tank.
“They wanted someone experienced,” Wexler said. “Someone who would listen to them, who was sensitive to the issues of wellness and safety.” He said the respondents were evenly divided on whether the new chief should come from inside or outside the department.
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Manger didn’t initially apply for the job, which attracted more than 50 applicants, Wexler said. The organization’s staff recruited Manger to apply, and he did. Wexler said the police board wanted someone who was familiar with the D.C. region and experienced in working with other agencies during crises, and Manger had done that extensively.
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Born and raised in Baltimore, Manger’s family moved to Silver Spring, Md., when he was a teenager, and Manger graduated from Montgomery Blair High School. He then attended the University of Maryland intending to major in journalism, but instead switched to a program which aimed him toward a career in policing and earned a degree in criminal justice in 1976.
Manger began his law enforcement career in 1977 with the Fairfax County Police Department. He rose through the ranks to become chief of police in 1998, where he expanded community policing efforts and also increased hiring when the department was having trouble reaching full staffing, a problem the Capitol Police also face.
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Manger took over as Montgomery County police chief in 2004 and served until 2019.
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Since Montgomery has a significant immigrant population, Manger was tasked with maintaining good relations with those communities even as they endured gang violence. Manger became a prominent advocate for local police remaining separate from federal immigration agencies, so that immigrants would still cooperate with police, and he noted that immigration “detainers” could not be used to keep defendants in jail beyond the limits of their local criminal charges.
Peter Hermann contributed to this report.
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