![]() ![]() That they apparently did not carry out such a directive, as discovered by the Globe, has drawn bipartisan condemnation. “I became immediately concerned and asked committee staff to instruct the US Capitol Police to make sure it does not happen again,” said Lofgren.Ī Democratic aide to that panel, called the Committee on House Administration, said it verbally directed Capitol Police to proactively install two duress alarms in each office before the beginning of this Congress. The issues with the duress buttons prompted Representative Zoe Lofgren of California, a Democrat who at the time of the attack chaired a committee that oversees the Capitol’s police force, to ask her staff to make it clear the problem needed to be fixed, she said. Yet multiple members still find themselves without them, sometimes for weeks at a time, according to a Globe investigation, leaving some on Capitol Hill unsettled as Congress opens back up to the general public. ![]() Their absence from some offices, including that of Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley, raised urgent questions two years ago about a key layer of Capitol security. They are installed and responded to by the United States Capitol Police, and are a backstop for members or staffers when calling for help over the phone is not possible. Panic buttons, or duress alarms, are a network of hidden triggers that the Globe is not describing in detail for security purposes. 11 of this year, as she unpacked her things three weeks after moving into a new office, she found that simple note - “check duress button” - and realized she did not have one. 6, 2021, when several members of Congress reported the chilling detail that they didn’t have functioning panic buttons in their offices, Representative Jahana Hayes put a sticky note on her desk with a reminder to confirm that her own was there. ![]()
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