HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania State Police brass have tapped a former commissioner to lead the third-party review of their agency’s handling of the arson attack on Gov. Josh Shapiro’s official residence.
Jeffrey Miller, who headed the State Police for six years until his retirement in 2008, will conduct the assessment, which could take weeks or longer to complete.
“The public expects and deserves an independent examination of the events that transpired during this unprecedented attack on our government leadership,” State Police Col. Christopher Paris, the current commissioner, said in a statement. “By entrusting this review to an independent examiner with first-hand knowledge of our Commonwealth government, I believe we will continue to earn that trust and, more importantly, the public’s confidence that we are doing everything possible to prevent anything like this attack from ever happening again.”
State Police told Spotlight PA the scope of the review will be broad — encompassing everything from the agency’s protection equipment and technology to its response to the security breach at the residence — but it is not yet known whether the findings will ever be made public.
A spokesperson has said only that information about the review could become public if disclosure does not “jeopardize the integrity of the investigation, the safety of Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family, the safety of our Members, the security of the Governor’s Residence, and the judicial process” in the case of Cody Balmer, the 38-year-old Harrisburg resident who allegedly confessed to the attack.
The spokesperson also said the findings will be presented to the governor’s office.
Balmer, whose mother has said suffers from mental health problems, has been charged with attempted murder, arson, and other crimes in the early morning siege at the governor’s stately residence on the banks of the Susquehanna River, just outside downtown Harrisburg. Police said Balmer scaled the nearly seven-foot perimeter fence, broke windows, and threw three homemade Molotov cocktails, starting fires in several rooms.
He also briefly entered the residence before fleeing and later turning himself in at State Police headquarters. He allegedly told law enforcement that had he encountered Shapiro while inside the home, he would have beaten him with a hammer he was carrying with him.
Since then, State Police officials have been tight-lipped about their handling of the attack, in which Balmer escaped without detection, despite the fact that officials say officers were looking for him.
A special unit within the agency is responsible for protecting the governor, lieutenant governor, and their families, but the scope of their work is kept strictly confidential. Spotlight PA has reported that the agency maintains an office inside the residence, and staffs it around the clock — although it is not known how many troopers were present when the attack occurred.
Miller, according to a biography on the website of his private firm — Jeffrey Miller Consulting LLC — served for nearly 25 years with the State Police, and was the agency’s commissioner for almost six years before retiring in 2008.
While running the agency, he gained national attention during the 2006 shooting inside a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster County, where a gunman shot 10 girls, killing five. At the time, he was widely praised for his calm, measured approach toward providing the public with information about the deadly attack while respecting the Amish community’s desire for privacy.
After retiring from the State Police, Miller, a Harrisburg native, worked as director of strategic security for the NFL, and was later promoted to serve as its chief security officer. During his tenure, he briefly came under scrutiny after a video surfaced of former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice punching his then-fiancée inside an Atlantic City casino elevator.
At the time, the Associated Press reported that the video had been sent to Miller at NFL headquarters, but Miller repeatedly denied receiving it. The video became public after TMZ released it several months after the attack, prompting outrage at the violent footage.
He resigned from the NFL in 2016 to work for a private security firm on the West Coast, and now runs his own consulting company. According to the firm’s website, he provides security consulting services focused on counterterrorism and risk mitigation, with clients that include professional sports teams, universities, and police departments.
