Top cop on Capitol Hill is out

WASHINGTON – What many critics consider a reign of error is apparently over for the man responsible for keeping the nation's capital and lawmakers safe.

Miriam Carey

U.S. Capitol Police Chief Kim C. Dine reportedly has submitted a letter of resignation to the Capitol Police Board. It's not known if the board has accepted his resignation.

Roll Call reported Dine's resignation was confirmed by multiple sources with direct knowledge of the situation.

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Dine was hired in 2012 to fix a Capitol Hill Police department in disarray but has overseen a series of mishaps and public-relations disasters.

WND has reported extensively on perhaps the worst scandal of the Dine era, the deadly shooting of the unarmed suburban mother Miriam Carey by Capitol Police officers and uniformed Secret Service agents after she apparently did little more than mistakenly turn into a White House entry kiosk, then immediately try to leave.

She was chased by officers and shot dead in her car with her infant daughter in the back seat, in the shadow of the nation's Capitol on Oct. 3, 2013.

Informed of the facts of the case, famed civil libertarian Nat Hentoff told WND, “[T]his is a classic case of police out of control and, therefore, guilty of plain murder.”

Carey family attorney Eric Sanders told WND:

"We wish Chief Dine well, but, his last order of business should be to fully disclose all documents related to the Miriam Carey case and voluntarily settle all claims against the U.S Capitol Police without the need of unnecessary and costly litigation."

Sanders has been preparing to file a $150 million lawsuit against the Capitol Police and the Department of Justice after failing to get what the Carey family considers an adequate explanation for the death of Miriam.

WND has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain a copy of the investigative report of the Carey shooting.

The investigation into the actions of the Capitol Police officers and Secret Service agents was conducted by the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department.

That investigation was reviewed by the U.S. Attorney's Office for Washington, D.C., which is a branch of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Last summer, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced no criminal charges would be filed against the officers who shot and killed Carey.

But the investigative report was never released to the public.

The Carey killing was one of a number of highly publicized incidents that brought criticism upon Dines.

His officers were reportedly upset when a suspect was let go after a high-speed car chase that ended across the street from the Capitol during President Obama's State of the Union Address in February.

The suspect was not arrested despite reports that he had reached speeds up to 60 mph, ran seven red lights, almost hit several officers, had no license and may have been the lookout in a robbery at gunpoint.

Roll Call reported rank-and-file officers were upset with Dine's policy that officers should not conduct "low value" stops around the Capitol.

Officers said normal policing duties had been downplayed in favor of stopping terrorist threats and protecting lawmakers and the Capitol.

Lawmakers grilled Dines in February about low morale in his department.

Dine was also criticized when officers were called back from the scene of the deadly Navy Yard shootings in Sept. 2013.

According to the Washington Times, "a specially trained and equipped SWAT team was ordered not to assist D.C. Metropolitan Police responding to the Navy Yard shooting rampage."

And just this week, controversy began swirling over the Capitol Hill Police department's possible role in the injuries sustained by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.

See the video of Sen. Harry Reid, R-Nev., defend Capitol Hill Police:

WND reported on Wednesday that several media outlets had picked up on a report that claimed Reid was not hurt by an accident involving exercise equipment, but that he was beaten up at his Henderson, Nev., home by his brother, Larry, on New Year's.

The senator’s office said Reid’s Capitol Police security detail was with him at the time of the injuries, and they accompanied him to a hospital in Henderson, Nevada, on New Year’s Day.

Breitbart News asked Capitol Police to verify Reid’s injury claim by providing an incident report by that security detail, but the news organization reported it had been stonewalled.

After numerous phone calls and emails, Lt. Kimberly Schneider, public information officer for the Capitol Police, sent a statement on Monday to Breitbart:

“The U.S. Capitol Police does not discuss security or law enforcement sensitive information regarding the operations of the U.S. Capitol Police, or the security of Members of Congress.”

The website has since asked “both the Inspector General of the Capitol Police and the Capitol Board to provide the public with the details surrounding Reid’s New Year’s Day injuries as well as into the conduct of the Capitol Police in failing to properly report those details.”

Follow Garth Kant @DCgarth