Roll Call is reporting that “U.S. Capitol Police Chief Kim C. Dine has submitted a letter of resignation to the Capitol Police Board, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the situation have confirmed.”
As Breitbart News reported earlier this week, Dine’s tenure as Capitol Police Chief has been troubled.
Dine’s failure to release the Capitol Police event report of the New Year’s Day incident in which then Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) sustained gruesome injuries is just the most recent controversy in which Dine has been involved.
As Roll Call reports:
Dine’s stated intent to leave the agency comes at a moment when frustrations have come to a head, not just from rank-and-file officers but from the Capitol Police Board. The board made the decision to hire the former police chief from Frederick, Md., in December 2012, confident he could restore trust and accountability in the ranks after long-simmering discontent with Dine’s immediate predecessors in the top brass.
The chief’s letter of resignation comes amid reports of conflict within the department, which employs 1,775 sworn officers and 370 civilians. A recent CQ Roll Call report detailed growing frustration among rank-and-file officers regarding alleged policies passed down from department brass that officers should not participate in “low value” stops around the Capitol campus. The officers said the top priority was combating terrorist threats against the Capitol and lawmakers, with day-to-day policing taking a backseat.
Lawmakers questioned Dine about officer morale at a recent House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, following the reports. Dine has also been under scrutiny for the handling of a car chase the night of the State of the Union, which ended without an arrest despite the fact that the suspect was driving without a license. Members of Congress also grilled Dine after the October 2013 fatal shooting of Miriam Carey, as well as the decision to call back officers from the September 2013 Navy Yard shooting.
For his part, Reid has been very supportive of Chief Dine’s leadership.
“I’m for a strong Capitol Police. We need to give them more resources, rather than less,” Reid said on March 3.
“I do everything I can to be a stalwart protector and defender of the Capitol Police,” Reid added later at a March 13 press conference.
“They have a job that is very very difficult. We see the uniformed people trying to help us, and they do help us,” Reid added. “I’m not going to be picking apart something that somebody that doesn’t like the Chief or the Sergeant at Arms.”
“I think they do a masterful job. I support the Chief of Police, I support the new Sergeant at Arms, I support the old Sergeant at Arms,” Reid concluded.
On Wednesday, Reid named former Senate Sergeant at Arms Drew Willison as his new Chief of Staff, a move that raised concerns about conflict of interest.
As Breitbart News reported, in his role as Senate Sergeant of Arms Willison was a member of the three person Capitol Board, which supervises Capitol Police Chief Dine.
Willison held that position on January 1, 2015, the day on which Reid sustained severe injuries in his Henderson, Nevada home and was transported to St. Rose Dominican Hospital in Henderson by his Capitol Police security detail.
The Capitol Police under Dine’s leadership have refused to release the event report of that incident, which should have been filed by Reid’s security detail.
Breitbart News asked for Willison to release all communications he had with the Capitol Police during the days between December 31, 2014 to January 6, 2015, but, to date, Willison has stonewalled that request.
Breitbart News has asked Capitol Police spokesperson Kim Schneider to confirm or deny the Roll Call report of Dine’s resignation but has not received a response.
Breitbart News has also asked Senate Sergeant at Arms spokesperson Becky Daugherty to confirm or deny the Roll Call report, but has not received a response.
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