Steven Sund

Steven Sund is a thirty-year law enforcement veteran in Washington, DC. He served for over 25 years with the Metropolitan Police Department in the District of Columbia (MPDC), where he rose in the ranks from patrol officer to commander of the elite Special Operations Division (SOD), where he oversaw several highly specialized units from 2011 through 2015. In 2017, Sund was selected as the Assistant Chief of Police for the United States Capitol Police in Washington, DC. On June 13, 2019, Sund was named the tenth Chief of Police for the United States Capitol Police, serving until April 2021. 

Sund has been one of the lead planners in dozens of major events designated as National Special Security Events (NSSE) by the Department of Homeland Security and has been a member of the United States Secret Service NSSE Executive Steering Committee (ESC). These events included State Funerals, the 2001, 2005, 2009, and 2013 Presidential Inaugurations, the 2015 Papal visit.

Chief Sund is a recognized expert in critical incident management and active shooter preparedness and response.  His experience includes being the incident commander at the 2009 shooting at the National Holocaust Museum, the 2012 shooting at the Family Research Council, and the 2013 active shooter incident at the Washington Navy Yard. He was also instrumental in the response on June 14, 2017, when a left-wing extremist attacked Members of Congress conducting baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia. Sund has also been the Incident Commander (IC) on dozens of criminal barricades and hostage situations. Sund has lectured on incident command, active threat response, special event management, and the Defense Support for Civil Authorities (DSCA) for various private and public organizations including the Defense Institute of International Legal Studies (DIILS). He has taught incident command at George Washington University and special event management for the United States Secret Service.

Sund has testified before numerous congressional committees regarding safety, security, and the January 6, 2021, attack at the United States Capitol. In January 2023, he published a best-selling book about the institutional failings that occurred on January 6 titled Courage Under Fire, Under Siege and Outnumbered 58 to 1 on January 6.

Chief Sund received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from Johns Hopkins University, and a Master of Arts in Homeland Security from the Naval Postgraduate School. He also completed the Police Executive Research Forum’s Senior Management Institute for Police and the FBI’s National Executive Institute.