(WHTM) — The acting Pennsylvania State Police commissioner said the agency will change how it handles threats against lawmakers after several said it took them weeks to learn they’d been named on a hit list.

Lt. Col. George Bivens said a review found a breakdown in communication as PSP investigated Adam G. Berryhill, a Lebanon County man now charged with making terroristic threats for posts targeting 20 Democratic state lawmakers. That error prevented Capitol Police and the Sergeant-at-Arms, both tasked with protecting lawmakers, from receiving updated information as the investigation uncovered more details.

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Democratic and Republican leaders unified in recent days in calling for a better process to handle threats. In a letter to House and Senate leadership on Wednesday, Bivens said they will get one.

He announced the creation of a political violence threat unit within PSP’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation. The unit will focus solely on investigating threats against elected officials. Members of the unit will work with PSP’s Tactical Intelligence Unit investigators to ensure threat information reaches agencies responsible for protecting lawmakers.

“Please know that your safety is of the utmost concern of the PSP,” Bivens wrote to the lawmakers. “I am confident that these changes will address shortcomings we have identified in this recent occurrence.”

The incident was the latest amid increasing threats against lawmakers in Pennsylvania. A New Mexico man was sentenced in March for threatening to bomb Shapiro’s home, and police charged a Carlisle man in February for allegedly threatening to stalk and injure the governor’s family.

Pa. governor mansion attack, security upgrades prompt new oversight push in Harrisburg

Last year, a Harrisburg man broke into the state-owned Governor’s residence and set it ablaze while the governor and his family slept inside. The assailant, Cody Balmer, pleaded guilty to attempted murder and other charges in October.

And it was in Butler that a gunman attempted to assassinate President Donald Trump during a campaign rally, wounding the president and two others and killing an audience member.

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