U.S. Capitol Police

The U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) traces its history to John Golding, a watchman who was hired at an annual salary of $371.75 in 1801, a few months after the seat of government had moved from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. Golding had no specified legal authority or arrest powers other than a citizen's right to temporarily detain a suspect until assistance was provided by the marshal of the District of Columbia. In 1823, a detachment of U.S. Marines supplemented the watchman during reconstruction of the Capitol, which was completed in 1827, the year that President John Quincy Adams expanded the watch staff to four: James Knotts, J. A. French, Samuel Goldsmith, and Ignatius Wheatley.

Their primary duties were to protect members of Congress and to separate vagrants, thieves, and persons of ill reputation from other visitors to the Capitol building. Their duties were subsequently expanded to include protection of the grounds of the Capitol and control of the traffic through and around Capitol Square, particularly after local residents had breached a fence to allow cattle to graze on the grounds. When President Adams's son was beaten in the Capitol rotunda, Washington's municipal statutes were extended to the Capitol and the federally owned grounds around it. This occurred in 1828, the year the USCP cites as its founding, even though personnel were not yet referred to as the Capitol police.

The first use of the phrase Capitol police was in an appropriations act for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1852. A few months later, Representative George Washington Jones (D-TN) recounted on the floor of the House that the Capitol Police consisted[Page 861] of a chief making $1,450 a year, four assistant police officers, each with annual salaries of $1,100, and two individuals hired to patrol the grounds and gardens at a rate of $3 per day. While pay for the force was included in appropriations bills, operating funds came out of contingent expenses for the House of Representatives and, later, the Senate. The officers of this period paid for their own uniforms and were armed with only hickory canes. Badges were not issued until the Civil War.

After the Civil War, in the Appropriations Act of March 2, 1867, the size and annual compensation of the Capitol police was spelled out: $2,088 for one captain; $1,800 for a lieutenant; $1,584 each for 29 privates, and $1,150 for a watchman. The impeachment of President Andrew Johnson in 1868 increased awareness of the Capitol police, who provided security throughout the tumultuous proceedings. In 1873, administration of the Capitol police was assigned to the sergeant-at-arms of each house of Congress and the architect of the Capitol Extension, a panel that is called the Capitol Police Board today. The authorized strength of the force fluctuated between 32 and 49 until 1898, when Congress, after declaring war on Spain, increased it to 67.

Legislation passed in the mid-1870s gave the Capitol police powers to arrest and detain violators, but they were still obligated to pay for their own uniforms, although they were provided arms at government's expense. It was also at this time that special monies were provided to the police for extra work when the House of Representatives became involved in the controversy over popular votes and electoral votes in the presidential election of 1876 between Samuel J. Tilden of New York and Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio. Two decades later, funds were appropriated for Capitol police protection involving the 1897 inauguration ceremonies of President William McKinley and Vice President Garret A. Hobart, setting a precedent for future inaugurations.

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