NCJ Number
113011
Journal
Police Studies Volume: 11 Issue: 2 Dated: (Summer 1988) Pages: 81-91
Date Published
1988
Length
11 pages
Annotation
In the early 1980's, the protective mandates and jurisdictions of the U.S. Capitol Police and the Supreme Court Police were expanded to allow them to protect legislators and justices, respectively, away from their normal jurisdictions.
Abstract
Previously, when these office-holders traveled, they had to rely on piecemeal, ad hoc security arrangements largely outside their own institutional control. The new powers and arrangements, in turn, established a degree of protective parity among the constitutional officers in the three branches of Government. A variety of factors explain the statutory changes, coming 75 years after the President and 30 years after the Vice President had received comparable protection in law: i.e., the inadequacy of existing arrangements and authority; improved professionalism and capabilities of the two police forces; changing environmental conditions, especially a rise in terrorism and in the number of specific threats and assaults against individual legislators and justices; concerns about each branch's independence and equality, while continuing to rely in part on the executive for basic protective services; and the growing institutionalization of Congress and the Court. (Publisher abstract)