U.S. Capitol Attack: Former Senate Sgt. at Arms talks about safety and security one year later

WASHINGTON, D.C. — One year after the January 6th attacks at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., there’s plenty of criticism of how law enforcement responded.

At the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, police are saying how they’re preparing for the one year mark of what happened last January 6th.

>> Timeline of events to Jan 6, 2021 attack on Capitol Hill

“We are aware of several events planned for Thursday. Most of them are not much concern to us,” said U.S. Capitol Police Chief, Tom Manger.

One year later, Drew Willison, a former Senate Sergeant-at-Arms, gave his takeaway on the events.

Six years ago, his job was tasked with keeping lawmakers safe.

“Still amazed that it happened, still discouraged that it happened,” Willison said.

Willison is also still trying to understand how it happened.

“There were failures. And they needed to be addressed, no matter what the Intel was, or what the fogginess of what people knew. And Capitol Police were not deployed the way they needed to be deployed that day,” Willison said.

Willison believes it is unrealistic that something similar to the January 6th attacks will ever happen again.

“I think I think it’s the sort of thing that sort of happens once in a generation, I think,” he said.

Willison also said that one key aspect for police right now is being able to evolve with any threat.

He says police need to be ready to change how they respond to any potential situation or possible threat of violence.

©2022 Cox Media Group