SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — The around-the-clock cameras at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco residence were not being monitored at the time of the attack on her husband Paul Pelosi on Friday, according to a press release from the United States Capitol Police Department.
USCP released a statement on Wednesday afternoon detailing why the department was not able to stop the break-in and attack at the Pelosi home. According to USCP, the Command Center connects to about 1,800 cameras across the U.S. USCP says these cameras provide the police with the ability to collect evidence from any camera’s location at any time.
USCP says that these feeds to the Command Center are used to monitor the speaker’s residence in San Francisco 24 hours a day when she is home. Since the speaker was in Washington, D.C. at the time of the attack on her husband in their Pacific Heights residence, USCP says the cameras were not being actively monitored.
Command Center personnel saw the police activity on the screen, and they used the feeds to assist investigators after the incident, according to USCP. The department is now completing an internal security review to gather input and questions from various Congressional stakeholders, the UCSP says.
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Capitol Police have already received some critical support funding from congress since the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. USCP says this funding helped the agency to implement immediate improvements to security measures.
The USCP is aiming to enhance the protection of congressmembers when they are outside of Washington, and the department will also be implementing new protective options to “address concerns following Friday night’s targeted attack,” USCP said.
The department went on to note that the current political climate challenges their work.
Our brave men and women are working around the clock to meet this urgent mission during this divisive time. In the meantime, a significant change that will have an immediate impact will be for people across our country to lower the temperature on political rhetoric before it’s too late.
United States Capitol Police
The assault highlighted nationwide concerns about violent political rhetoric as well as increasing threats against public officials since 2016. This statement comes after multiple lawmakers at the state and federal levels openly criticized the lack of protection for the Speaker’s family at the time of the incident.
David DePape, the man accused of attacking Mr. Pelosi in his home on Friday night, made an appearance in court on Tuesday where he plead not guilty. Once in custody, DePape told police he was going to “hold Nancy hostage and talk to her. If Nancy were to tell DePape the ‘truth,’ he would let her go, and if she ‘lied’ he was going to break her kneecaps,’” the affidavit read.
