Starting with Monday's counting and certification of electoral votes, followed by the state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter and the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, January marks the first time the United States has had three national special security events in a single month. So-called NSSEs are events that may become a target for terrorists or criminals.

What You Need To Know

  • January marks the first time the United States has had three national special security events in a single month

  • So-called NSSEs are events that may become a target for terrorists or criminals

  • Washington, D.C., is the location for the Jan. 6 counting and certification of electoral votes, followed by the state funeral for late President Jimmy Carter and the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump

  • There are currently no credible known threats in Washington, D.C., officials said Friday

“As of this moment, there are no credible known threats here in the District of Columbia,” Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith said during a briefing about security preparations Friday. 

Since the New Year’s Day truck ramming attack in New Orleans and the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas, the Washington police department increased its officers’ presence “out of an abundance of caution," Smith said.

Starting Sunday, she said, the Metropolitan Police Department will go into “full activation” to position additional officers with specialized training that can be deployed anywhere in the district at a moment’s notice.

The Metropolitan Police Department is one of several agencies the U.S. Secret Service is working with to implement a comprehensive plan to secure the nation’s capital during the certification of electoral votes, Carter’s state funeral in the city Tuesday through Thursday and Trump’s inauguration Jan. 20.

“Back-to-back NSSEs are a unique situation,” U.S. Secret Service Washington Field Officer Special Agent Matt McCool said at the briefing, where he explained the agency will bring in additional agents and officers from across the country to supplement staffing and implement “a multitude of seen and unseen security measures,” including drones.

The Secret Service is also working with the FBI, the Washington National Guard, the Defense Department and U.S. Capitol Police, which lost four officers to suicide in the weeks following the Capitol attack in 2021. Another 150 Capitol Police officers were injured.

Monday will be the first time the counting and certification of the electoral votes has been designated as an NSSE. It marks the four-year anniversary of the U.S. Capitol riot, when supporters of then-president Donald Trump stormed the building to protest his election loss.

“We’re living in a heightened threat environment toward government and elected officials,” Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger said. “Our nation’s capital is prepared to ensure that the legislative process will proceed without disruption and our government will have a peaceful transfer of power.”

He said the U.S. Capitol Police are “better staffed, better trained, better equipped than ever before to protect our Capitol and to protect our Congress,” having implemented all 103 recommendations coming out of the U.S. inspector general’s report on the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.