Security report into arson at Pennsylvania Gov. Shapiro's home won't be made public

Yahoo

05-05-2025

The Brief
A consultant paid to review security at the residence of the Pennsylvania governor says his team's findings won't be made public.
Retired state police Col. Jeffrey Miller said that the "sensitive nature" of the findings "precludes their release to the public for obvious reasons."
The dangerous breakdown in protection has raised questions about how the intruder was able to elude state police security.
HARRISBURG, Pa - A consultant paid to review security at the official residence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro after it was firebombed by a late-night intruder said Friday that his team's findings will not be made public.
What they're saying
Retired state police Col. Jeffrey Miller said in a statement that the "sensitive nature" of the findings he has given to Shapiro and state police "precludes their release to the public for obvious reasons."
The dangerous breakdown in protection has raised questions about how the intruder was able to elude state police security as he climbed a 7-foot (2-meter) fence and smashed two windows, then crawled inside and ignited destructive fires with two gasoline-filled beer bottles.
"I am confident that if fully implemented, the key recommendations that we have made will prevent an attack of this nature from succeeding in the future," Miller said. His San Diego-based security consulting firm is being paid more than $35,000 for the work.
Paula Knudsen Burke, the Pennsylvania lawyer with the nonprofit Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said portions of the report could be released even if the full report isn't.
"It seems we're spending taxpayer dollars to review taxpayer paid employees working in a taxpayer owned building," Burke said. "It seems taxpayers should have some visibility into what their money is used for."
Dig deeper
Miller and his team assessed security at Shapiro's official residence and has recommended how to "mitigate the gaps discovered," as Miller put it in a contract document filed with the state. They interviewed state police employees about duty assignments the night of the attack and about security monitoring systems that were in place.
They also looked into fire suppression, the outer and inner perimeters, training and other factors.
State Police Col. Christopher Paris said some of Miller's recommendations have already been implemented.
"The State Police value the trust of the people we serve, and I believe that this review by an independent examiner with first-hand knowledge of our Commonwealth government will help us continue to earn that trust," Paris said in a release.
Myles Snyder, the state police's communications director, said Friday that Paris agrees with Miller that the report should not be made public, and Shapiro press secretary Manuel Bonder deferred to state police about disclosing the details. The Associated Press has filed a request that state police release the document under the Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law.
Shapiro has thanked police and firefighters for rescuing him and his family, but also said there were security failures at the three-story brick Georgian-style residence that sits along the Susquehanna River more than a mile (1.6 kilometers) north of the Capitol.
Pennsylvania House Minority Leader Jesse Topper, a Bedford County Republican, has pressured the administration to give parts of the report to lawmakers that show what went wrong with the governor's security. He has said, however, that he understands that plans to enhance the security shouldn't be made public if it compromises the governor's safety.
"However, in terms of the accountability of what happened and how it happened, I think that is a question that needs to be answered and that those answers need to be provided to the people's representatives here in the House and the Senate," Topper said Thursday in his Capitol office.
Topper said Friday that he had not received a response to an inquiry about whether lawmakers — who may be called upon to approve more money for enhanced security — will be allowed to read parts of the report.
Miller was named to lead the state police in 2003 by then-Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat, and spent nearly six years in the top job. He has also been a senior security official with the National Football League and held other security related posts.
The backstory
A Harrisburg man, Cody Balmer, 38, has been charged with attempted homicide, arson and other offenses for the attack on the state-owned Harrisburg residence about 2 a.m. on Sunday, April 13. The fire caused an estimated millions of dollars in damage but no one was hurt.
Shapiro fled the residence along with his wife and their kids — he has since clarified that only three of their four children were home — after being awakened by police. They and their guests had participated in a Passover Seder the previous evening. A message seeking comment was left for Shapiro.
Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo has said investigators are assessing whether religious or political bias could explain why Balmer expressed "hatred" for Shapiro, who is Jewish.
Balmer, who denied having a mental illness despite his family's comments to the contrary, is accused of breaking into the residence in Harrisburg in the dead of night early Sunday and starting the fire.
"As bad as the outcome of the attack was, we are grateful that the actions of members of the Executive Services Office in immediately evacuating the Governor and his family to safety prevented any injuries or loss of life," Miller said in the statement.
Shapiro splits his time between the Harrisburg mansion built in the 1960s and the family home in Abington, a Philadelphia suburb. The Democrat is seen as a potential White House contender in 2028.
In a 911 call less than an hour after the fire, Balmer said, "Gov. Josh Shapiro needs to know that Cody Balmer will not take part in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people," according a recording released by Dauphin County. When asked what he might have done had he encountered Shapiro, Balmer said he would have hit the governor with a sledgehammer, police said.
Balmer subsequently turned himself in at the state police's headquarters in Harrisburg and remains jailed without bond.
Balmer's family has said he has a history of mental illness, which Balmer denied at a brief court appearance. Proceedings in the criminal case are on hold while he is evaluated to see if he is mentally competent to stand trial.
The Source
Information from this article was provided by the Associated Press.