DOMESTIC DARKNESS

The former assistant director of intelligence for the Capitol Police offers an inside view of the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

Farnam, who came to the force shortly before the mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, was well trained in intelligence gathering. Not long after she arrived, she began to hear murmurs, and she knew what she and her fellow officers were up against, “what kind of people made up that crowd…the extremist groups they belonged to, the bizarre and far-reaching conspiracies they believed in, the hatred that drove them.” Yet senior officers within the force ignored the alarms she raised and did so even long after the fact, discounting her because she was a woman in what was perceived to be the man’s world of law enforcement and because she didn’t come from a police background. Moreover, she writes, the USCP held to an ethos of secrecy. “I was told on more than one occasion that I was not allowed to share any information or documents with outside agencies,” Farnam writes, in part because the legislative branch wasn’t subject to Freedom of Information Act inquiries. The politics of the place, the author makes clear, are as divisive among the police as among legislators. Running down the long list of perpetrators on Jan. 6, Farnam also plainly demonstrates that some police officers served as conduits of information to the crowd. She closes with a set of recommendations for a future USCP that’s more attentive to intelligence matters. “Work with other governments to fight hate and track extremism, including designating more groups as terrorist organizations,” she urges, while calling for harsher penalties for those who commit violence at political protests and those in power who—and here she names names—abet them.

Politics watchers will find this portrait of an agency in need of reform alarming—and most urgent.