U.S. Capitol Security Checkpoints Return

Reuters | November 17 2004

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Police have reinstated checkpoints around the U.S. Capitol, drawing a protest from Washington's representative to Congress, who called them inadequate protection against attacks.

"Primitive security that has become a joke in the region does not make us feel more secure," Eleanor Holmes Norton, the city's non-voting delegate, wrote in a letter to the U.S. Capitol Police. "The effect is at best cosmetic, at worst illusory."

She said she would ask for congressional hearings to give Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer an opportunity to explain his decision to bring them back.

A temporary "security perimeter" was set up around the U.S. Capitol in August. It ended only after the U.S. government lowered the terror threat level on Nov. 10 for the financial services industry in New York City, northern New Jersey and Washington.

The checkpoints were set up to inspect cars and trucks and avert any possible car bomb attack. They have clogged traffic and angered Washington residents, who were relieved when they were lifted and angered again when they came back less than a week later.

A Capitol Police spokeswoman defended the checkpoints and said their return should not have come as a surprise.

"Although there is no specific threat to Capitol Hill... we still feel the Capitol remains a potential target. So our security posture is a random deployment of the checkpoints right now," Sgt. Contricia Sellers-Ford said in a telephone interview.

Norton said she feared the "military-type checkpoint security" around the Capitol might be "creeping permanently into place."