Thread by @heytherehaley

“Do what we’re trained to do!” We obtained recordings of internal Metropolitan Police radio traffic from the day of the Capitol attack. Synchronized with footage from the scene, they reveal what officers saw and said in real-time as they came under siege. nyti.ms/2PaPQQo

The recordings begin around 1 p.m. — right after the first breach of the building’s outer perimeter. MPD are called in as backup for Capitol Police, and we hear Inspector Robert Glover mobilizing his forces to respond.

“Cruiser 50. 64-54. 64-54. Mount up.” At first, Glover sounds calm. He tells Civil Disturbance Units (CDU) 64 and 54, MPD’s mobile bike squads, to mount up. They’re often dispatched in response to protests and large crowds.

But they quickly learn this isn’t a typical crowd. “CDU 12 up to help maintain the lines! They’re throwing bike racks!” The change in Glover’s voice is striking. Within minutes of arriving, he calls for another CDU, this one in hard gear, and for DSO, the munitions specialists.

“Be advised, the speech ended.” As Glover calls in officer injuries, the gauntlet only grows. Trump’s speech is over, and an intel unit warns that even more people are on their way to the Capitol. The crowd escalates its tactics — reports of explosions are heard over the radio.

As the fight becomes increasingly desperate, Glover authorizes his team to deploy more crowd-control munitions. “One sting ball deployment authorized. One sting ball deployment authorized to hold the line.” Here’s what that looks like.

But it’s still not enough. And when Glover asks about the several hard platoons that he has requested to fend off the crowd, he’s told there is only one currently available. “There’s 42, it’s the only other one until later.”

Now, it’s just past 1:45 p.m. and the police are about to take a major loss. “Cruiser 50. They’re scaling the scaffold!” The crowd breaks through scaffolding onto the building’s northwest steps. This puts them behind the lines of Glover and his team still on the lower terrace.

It also gets them closer to breaching the building — and at 2:12 p.m., that becomes a reality. But Glover and his team are still battling on the lower deck to keep the rest of the mob from taking over the entire west front of the Capitol.

Glover even requests backup from another agency. “Jock radio, can the Park support us with horses?” Photo metadata shows that mounted Park Police were active on the mall that day around the time Glover made the plea. But no horses arrive in time to help his team hold the line.

Around 2:28 p.m. — the police line crumbles. “Cruiser 50, we’re flanked! 10-33. I repeat, 10-33, west front of the Capitol! We have been flanked and we’ve lost the line!” Glover, finally, calls a 10-33, the last resort for officers in trouble. All hands.

What you hear in this video is only a fraction of the radio recordings from the day. They tell a story of the ferocity of the crowd: “Cruiser 50. The crowd is using munitions against us! They have bear spray in the crowd!”...

...the desperation of the officers under siege: “Unless we get more munitions we are not gonna be able to hold! We have multiple injuries!”...

...and the lapses in and obstacles to the police response: “We can’t get to you, we’re locked. That door they all came through is locked! How do we get to you?” nyti.ms/2PaPQQo

Credit also to @robinnyc7, @nytmike, Danielle Miller, @markscheffler for a herculean effort in synchronizing audio with footage and digging into the inner workings of the police response that day. Thanks also to @DrewJordan_NYT, @Poorpotatoface, Fraser McCulloch, and @johnismay.

There is more reporting to come from Visual Investigations on what happened at the Capitol on January 6. Follow that storyline, and all of our other work, here: nytimes.com/spotlight/visu…