Governor’s Residence Assessment

San Diego, CA – Retired PA State Police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller and his team conducted a detailed Risk and Vulnerability Assessment of the Pennsylvania Governor’s Residence following the April 13, 2025, arson attack that resulted in extensive damage to the Governor’s official residence in Harrisburg. Miller’s consulting firm, Jeffrey Miller Consulting, LLC was retained to conduct an independent review of security protocols to identify gaps and make written recommendations to mitigate the vulnerabilities that were exploited in the commission of this attack. 

“During our Risk and Vulnerability Assessment, we examined the security measures that were in place at the time of the April 13, 2025, attack to determine the underlying factors that permitted the suspect to breach the security perimeter and initiate fires in two separate areas of the residence before fleeing from the scene. In doing so, we conducted a comprehensive review of security systems at the Governor’s Residence to include:

• Access control 

• Criminal Intelligence 

• Surveillance and technology 

• Personnel deployments

• Integrated Operations Center

• Communications 

• Life Safety 

• Fire Suppression 

• Hostile Vehicle Mitigation 

• Outer and Inner Perimeter

• Barriers 

• Threat Assessment

• Training

• Emergency Plans and Drills

• Environmental Conditions

In addition, we met with State Police Major Case Team investigators and were briefed in detail on the criminal investigation being conducted into arson and other crimes in this case. 

We also conducted in-person interviews with personnel that were on duty at the time of the attack, and supervisors in the chain of command of the State Police Executive Services Office. We benchmarked the Executive Services Office against other executive services deployments in other states where state police have responsibility for executive protection of the Governor and Lt. Governor and their families. We reviewed previous assessment reports prepared by the State Police Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Team (RVAT) as well as engaging in our own detailed site visit to review firsthand the conditions, defensive security measures, and risks in existence at the Governor’s Residence. An interview was conducted with current RVAT members to discuss the new assessment they recently initiated following the attack on the Residence. 

The above recounts some of the steps that we undertook during our assessment to identify the systems that failed and permitted this dangerous attack to occur. 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.

The sensitive nature of the specific findings uncovered as a result of our review precludes their release to the public for obvious reasons. Security measures in place to protect the Governor and his family are treated as protected information. Likewise, the detailed recommendations that we have made to the State Police and Governor’s Office to mitigate the security gaps moving forward cannot be shared publicly. 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. I am certain that the State Police and the men and women charged with protecting the Governor and his family will learn from this incident. I have every reason to believe that the State Police and Governor’s Office will act swiftly to implement our recommendations given the serious and thoughtful way they were received. In fact, we witnessed a number of changes being implemented by PSP during our site assessment.

I would like thank Governor Shapiro for his trust in our ability to assist in protecting him, his family, and future Pennsylvania Governors and their families that live for a time in the Governor’s Residence.

We would also like to thank Colonel Christopher Paris and Ltc. George Bivens for their cooperation and assistance in providing our team with the access we needed to conduct our independent assessment.”  

For more information on Jeffrey Miller Consulting, LLC visit JeffreyMillerConsulting.com.