at the middle of the article is one of the main beefs from unhappy anonymous sources; they are speaking out against current Chief Yogananda Pittman; excerpt

[....] Pittman's promotion to acting chief after Sund resigned frustrated officers who believe she bears some responsibility for the failures of January 6.  Before Pittman was promoted, she was assistant chief for protective and intelligence operations, a job she was in for just over a year.

US Capitol Police sources have told CNN that, with planning, their agency and others would have been well equipped to hold the line against insurgents overrunning the Capitol. Pittman told Congress there were 1,200 people "on site" that day -- a number disputed by officers who said they could have held the line at the Capitol while awaiting backup if they'd had that many. The agency employs more than 2,300 officers and civilians.

Three sources familiar with the matter said the 1,200 figure likely represents officers across the Capitol complex, including all the outlying office buildings. Those are must-staff positions across the campus, two sources said, and most wouldn't be allowed to respond as backup to what was happening at the Capitol.

One source said there were hundreds of other officers across the campus spread among the communications building, the Library of Congress and the House and Senate buildings.

"But at the Capitol, wasn't no damn 1,200 officers. Hell, no," the officer said. "Maybe 1,200 clocked in that day but no 1,200 people out there at the Capitol."

That source estimated that with another 200 officers at the west front, they could have held a perimeter until DC Metropolitan police arrived.  

"Where were they? If we had 1,200 people on site, why were there only five (officers) when the crowd first entered the Capitol grounds to get onto the west front? That's what pisses people off," another source said.

'Are you going to back us up?'  [....]

The Covid problem is mentioned as affecting morale in the article: a Covid outbreak that has infected dozens of people within the Capitol Police. 

This made me think of how the same factor might be affecting forces across the country which they had to weather WHILE THEY WERE BEING PROTESTED AGAINST. Not just unappreciated but treated as representing the evil Derek Chauvin. And then they had to police the actual protests. While health workers were lauded as heroes, they also had to work and expose themselves, but take hatred at the same time.

 I found this data on that for police across the country:

Honoring the fallen: 264 cops killed in line of duty in 2020 with COVID deaths top cause

Jan. 11, 2021

WASHINGTON (ABC7) — A staggering 264 police officers were killed in the line of duty in 2020 representing a 96% increase compared to the previous year, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

As of Dec. 31, 2020, the 264 officers killed consisted of federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial officers in the line of duty compared to 135 officers who died in the line of duty in 2019. The Memorial Fund's report also records the deaths of officers in the category of "other" causes, which includes COVID-19 deaths, which is up 300% compared to other causes last year.

Approximately 246 of the fallen officers were men and 18 were women with the average age of the fallen officer 47 years old with at least 17 years of service on the job and on average. Each fallen officer left behind two children [....]

Overall I have read several articles now warning about an "essential worker" problem ready to blow. The only ones who got some thanks for working while the rest of us were all sitting home was the health care workers. And most people even stopped thanking them. While a lot of them are being vaccinated now, they are really stressed out and burned out much worse than the rest of us. Must go double for police as they were not only taken for granted, they were protested against as the enemy by huge crowds for months and had to deal with having to confront those actual crowds.

The situation of poor morale is not going to get better overnight even if society lauds them now and you can be certain that's not going to happen 100%. What was once a thankless shitty job is now doubly so