The Metropolitan Police Department has no responsibility.

The green line is the so-called extended jurisdiction zone. The Metropolitan Police Department has the primary jurisdiction. All of these offenses that you see on here were investigated and reported by them. Our only role out there is that there are congressional facilities located in that area.

The line in fact is drawn to encompass the congressional facilities. For example, there is a facility in the 600 block of East Capitol Street, which is why the line is drawn on 7th Street. The boundaries are limited by the fact that there are congressional properties beyond the perimeter. We go out to visit these properties to be sure they are secure.

And the extended jurisdiction gives my officers the authority, should they see a crime occurring on their way to or from these congressional facilities, to assist some citizen in distress.

I think that is extremely appropriate. It would be an outrage for a Capitol Police officer to see some person being mugged while they are going out to visit a congressional facility and say, Gee, I will call a cop for you. That would be a horrible situation and we would not advocate that in any way.

That is really the purpose out there. We are not out there for the general prevention of crime. That is the responsibility of the Metropolitan Police Department. We are out there protecting congressional facilities. Very incidentally, if we should observe conduct that requires action, it is my direction that they shall take some action.

Mr. PACKARD. You do not have routine patrols out in the extended area. They simply are responding to calls for help or to respond to a criminal activity.

Chief ABRECHT. They could be out there just checking the congressional facilities, going out there to make sure they are secure. Mr. PACKARD. But they are not assigned routine patrols.

Chief ABRECHT. They are not out there wandering about the neighborhoods to see if anybody is being robbed on the street. It is not their responsibility.

Mr. PACKARD. I suspect there are people, employees on Capitol Hill that live in that extended area, that may have a misconception then of your role, because I have received reports that the police, the Capitol Police, are never around. You are not intended to be patrolling their street, is that what I am hearing?

Chief ABRECHT. That is absolutely correct, sir.

Mr. PACKARD. If nearby residents have a robbery, or if they have someone breaking in, then they call and you respond to that? Chief ABRECHT. No, sir.

Mr. PACKARD. That also goes to the Metropolitan Police?

Chief ABRECHT. Our arrangement is this: if a citizen calls with a crime in progress in that extended jurisdiction, the instructions to my people are as follows: they are, first, to call the Metropolitan Police Department and say we have received a report of a burglary in progress. Then they are to notify my people, who may be out checking a congressional facility. We have received information that there is, for example, a burglary in progress in the 600 block of A Street S.E.

If any Capitol Police Officers are close by, then they are permitted to respond. But the primary response is the responsibility of the Metropolitan Police Department. And only if our people happen to be in the neighborhood are they to respond. We are not going to receive those calls. We are not the 911 system for that neighborhood. The Metropolitan Police Department is.

Mr. PACKARD. Mr. Miller, do you have any questions?
Mr. MILLER. I live here on the Hill.

Chief ABRECHT. So do I, Congressman.

Mr. MILLER. Which I enjoy. This is my second term of my third year here. I have seen the Capitol Police between 1st and 2nd often. So I do see you all around the lot. But is that just because we are so close to the Capitol.

Chief ABRECHT. If you are in Southeast, you are on the route to Providence Park. The park is a congressional property. It is located between 2nd and 3rd Street, between D and E, a big open field. It has a long history. It was once to be the page dorm, I believe.

In any case, the Congress acquired it many years ago and it is now our property. And we have the jurisdiction there. So we have to go up there, and there are other Congressional facilities nearby, such as the Capitol Power Plant. We also visit properties where there are residences of Members who have been threatened, things of that nature.

Mr. MILLER. Do you know where all the Members live? Do you know that information?

Chief ABRECHT. Only if they bring it to our attention. We do not have access to that information.

Mr. PACKARD. So on congressionally-owned facilities, you do monitor, patrol and respond to any criminal activity on our properties? Chief ABRECHT. Yes, sir.

Mr. PACKARD. And that is part of the reason why we see officers outside your primary service area, in the extended area?

Chief ABRECHT. That is the primary reason why you have seen them, sir.

RELATIONSHIP WITH METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT

Mr. PACKARD. Explain the relationship that you have with the Metropolitan Police, as it relates both to your primary service area, and to the extended area.

Chief ABRECHT. We have an excellent relationship with the Metropolitan Police. As you may know, I am a former Deputy Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department. When I came up here I had several meetings with Chief Thomas and we did a lot to resolve any tensions, if there ever were any between the two forces. We have a mutual understanding of what our role is up here.

Their role is the primary one in the extended jurisdiction. We are responsible for the Capitol grounds. We have tried to take everything off of their shoulders that occurs on the Capitol grounds. We know they are very busy and understaffed and in very difficult

straits.

We have said they need not worry about what goes on on the Capitol grounds. I have sent them a letter clarifying the fact that we are perfectly prepared to take any calls for service at the Library of Congress, where they were sometimes receiving calls.

Mr. PACKARD. Mr. oversee the security Does the chief repo operational matters

Mr. GREENE. He weekly. If there is We discuss the situ the Police Board, b Chief Abrecht can I We are closer wit Police Board is est of Congress and th bers and the privat

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We have those As far as the me suggestion that y it several times a will continue to le Mr. PACKARD. Hill itself. We h.. different structu. Senate and the Ho the board or additi ing? I want to Question. How and how did th Response

the fact that of the two H

of August 7, 1882. General supervision of the Capitol Police by Capitol Police Board-with the Architect of the Capitol as a member-is contained in current statutory authority under Title 40, Section 212(a) of the United State Code.

Mr. GREENE. I believe the current makeup consisting of the Sergeant at Arms of the Senate, the Sergeant at Arms of the House and the Architect is the proper configuration for the Police Board with the assistance of the Police Chief.

PAYROLLS

Mr. PACKARD. At the risk of expressing my own personal feelings-the choice of words may reveal my feelings-but the current arcane practice of having two separate rolls, the House and the Senate, is it working as well as it should? Are there ways of consolidating the two rolls, the Senate and the House rolls, and I am not just talking now about the payroll and the recordkeeping, but the actual operational and administrative work of the security operations of the entire Capitol Hill area.

Is it wise to continue the separate rolls, the House and the Senate rolls?

Chief ABRECHT. Other than the payroll, it is completely united. There are no separate operational decisions.

Mr. PACKARD. But is the salary schedule the same for both sides? Chief ABRECHT. Absolutely.

Mr. PACKARD. The only difference now is that the salaries are being paid for out of different categories?

Chief ABRECHT. There are constant little annoyances we keep running into. There are slight differences in leave without pay. The House has leave without pay, the Senate does not have leave without pay. There are little administrative things that drive us, you know, quite mad. But in terms of the

Mr. PACKARD. In your judgment, those all can be consolidated into one?

Chief ABRECHT. Absolutely. If we became one personnel system, that would all disappear. It would be great for us.

Mr. PACKARD. Would we save FTEs? Would we find a way to reduce the personnel if we made those total consolidations?

Chief ABRECHT. Probably not. They are really administrative annoyance rather than things that cost money.

Mr. PACKARD. But there would be, you feel, some savings if we unified the payroll and the recordkeeping?

Chief ABRECHT. I don't think there would be financial savings. To be truthful, I don't think I can say that. There would be administrative smoothness. It would be better from a morale standpoint. There are many reasons for doing it. I am not sure cost savings would be one of them.

Mr. LIVINGOOD. One of the problems when you have two separate payrolls, if the Senate decides on a pay raise and the House has not decided to do the same, you have one-half of the Capitol Police getting a pay raise while the other half does not. Someone has to play catch up. That is one of the inherent problems in having two payrolls.

Mr. PACKARD. Do you have, with the two rolls, the House and the Senate rolls, do you have disparity in pay?

Chief ABRECHT. When I spoke, I showed what you might call my police bias. I was thinking of our uniformed force. We currently do have a disparity with our civilian personnel, in that the civilian personnel on the Senate roll have received a cost-of-living increase for the current fiscal year, the COLA that was given to all the Federal Government employees, and as yet it has not appeared on the paychecks of our House roll employees.

Mr. PACKARD. For the record, how many civilian employees and sworn officers do we have? How are they assigned?

[The information follows:]

Chief ABRECHT. Our current authorized FTE strength is 1281, of which 206 are civilian and 1075 are sworn. I have a chart to submit for the record that gives the breakdown. I also have another chart that will show where we currently have our personnel assigned. At this time we have 51 total vacancies, for both sworn and civilian personnel.