A little reminder about the ridiculous size of the Capitol Police.

The Capitol Police have over 2,000 sworn officers. A police force dedicated to protecting Capitol Hill has more personnel in its service than the police forces of most of the country.

Congress’ private cops are the 19th largest police force in the country. It’s a larger force than the police forces of Atlanta, Baltimore, Denver, or Milwaukee with a massive $460 million budget.

That’s 4 cops for every congressman and woman.

And with 535 elected officials in the House and Senate, that’s a ratio of 4 cops for every congressman and woman.

Meanwhile the high-profile members get a private security detail of 6 cops.

House members had 3,695 staffers (total 6,880 nationwide) and Senate members had 2,342 staffers (total 4,120 nationwide) working in their D.C. offices for a combined 6,037 people.

Between members of Congress and their staffers (not to mention kits, cats, sacks, and wives), that’s over 6,500 people to be protected by 2,200 sworn officers. Or a cop per 3 employees.

The Honore report, pushed by Pelosi, wants to add over 800 positions to make the Capitol Police the 8th largest force in America. The union (of course there is one) claims that the force is desperately beleaguered. 

“We are struggling to meet existing mission requirements even with the officers working massive amounts of forced overtime,” he said. “In the next 3-5 years we have another 500 officers who will be eligible to retire. Many of these officers could put in their retirement papers tomorrow. I’ve had many younger officers confide in me that they’re actively looking at other agencies and departments right now.”

Remember, we’re talking about a force bigger than all but 18 major cities whose job it is to simply protect Congress. At some point, you have to ask why Congress needs a force this size… especially since it can’t do its job.