OPINION | The Capitol attack was a massive failure by law enforcement and intelligence. We can’t let it happen again.
Jan. 6 was not simply the story of a failed politician and his supporters’ willingness to commit violence to keep him in power. It is also the story of the greatest security failure in Washington, D.C., since the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. | Samuel Corum/Getty ImagesDonell Harvin is a homeland security expert and educator with over 30 years of public safety service. He oversaw the Fusion Intelligence Center for the District of Columbia on Jan. 6, 2021.
On the day of the Capitol riot, I oversaw the Fusion Intelligence Center for the District of Columbia, which is tasked with the collection, analysis and dissemination of threat intelligence for the local government. I testified for the committee on three separate occasions. And it’s clear the report does not fully contextualize or analyze the vital security issues and failures that took place.
The committee report surmises that going forward, “the best defense against [the danger to the Capitol] will not come from law enforcement, but from an informed and active citizenry.” This is poetic at best, misleading at worst. The thoughts and actions of those who want to incite or commit violence can’t be controlled, especially when they use the First Amendment as a shield.
The second recommendation is one that I offered to the committee, in realizing that there were no lead federal agencies coordinating or planning around the events of Jan. 6. Designating these types of high-threat events as a National Security Special Event would ameliorate the command-and-control vacuum that we experienced during that time.
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