To a great extent, the Georgia state capitol had not been fenced and had inadequate police personnel. The attack by President Donald Trump’s supporters on the building on January 6, 2021, resulted in the transformation and improvement of security for the citadel of democracy and members of Congress (Zauner, 2021). At first, surveillance cameras were installed around the building to monitor all activities, and a new fence was erected to curb unauthorized individuals’ entry.
Secondly, within the last three years, the capitol police have enhanced their intelligence gathering and communications by increasing their coordination with other agencies, including the special weapons and tactics (SWAT) team (Aljazeera, 2021). There has been the development of a critical incident response plan and the training of police officers regarding riots, less-than-lethal exercises, and shooting scenarios. For the whole project, the legislators approved a plan to allocate $1.9 billion to construct a fence and make other security enhancements at the Georgia state capitol (Grisales, 2022). There has been a hardening of doors and windows to improve the capitol grounds and the surrounding infrastructure.
I suggest the government hires more law enforcers and reconstitute the dissolved mounted police unit to improve security. In addition, since there lacks a permanent barrier around the structure, an integrated retractable fencing system should be erected. Lastly, I recommend the formation of a quick-reaction force to handle emergencies. Before the attack by republican members, the number of police officers around the capitol was approximately 1000 (Aljazeera, 2021). However, the police presence has been enhanced by deploying more than 2300 United States capitol police officers and nearly 500 law enforcers from other agencies (Zauner, 2021). The increased availability of security officers would ensure that the members of Congress are not attacked.
References
Aljazeera. (2021). US capitol security needs a significant upgrade, the report concludes. Aljazeera. Web.
Grisales., C. (2022). A year after the capitol riot, work remains to prevent another attack. GPB. Web.
Zauner., B. (2021). Security near the Georgia state capitol remains high alert ahead of expected protests. Fox Atlanta. Web.