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| The History of the United States Secret Service |
| The United States Secret Service Uniformed Division is similar to the Capitol Police
and is in charge of protecting the physical White House grounds and foreign
diplomatic missions in the Washington, D.C. area. The Uniformed Division was
originally a separate organization known as the White House Police Force, but was
incorporated into the US Secret Service in 1971 as the Executive Protective Service
and was renamed the Secret Service Uniformed Division in 1977.
In 1968, as a result of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy's assassination, Congress authorized protection of major presidential and vice presidential candidates and nominees (Public Law 90-331). Congress also authorized protection of the widows of presidents until death or remarriage, and their children until age 16. Congress passed legislation in 1994 stating that presidents elected to office after January 1, 1997, will receive Secret Service protection for 10 years after leaving office. Individuals elected to office prior to January 1, 1997, will continue to receive lifetime protection (Treasury Department Appropriations Act, 1995: Public Law 103-329). |
| Table of Contents |
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| Uniformed Secret Service agents |
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| President Kennedy just before his assassination |
| Physical attacks on the President of the United States quickly remind everyone of the role the Secret Service plays in providing personal protection for the president and his family. In recent years, Presidents John Kennedy, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan have been attacked while appearing in public. President Ford was not injured. President Reagan was seriously injured but survived, and President Kennedy died from the attack. The Kennedy assassination spotlighted the bravery of one Secret Service agent who was guarding Mrs. Kennedy. Her bodyguard was Clint Hill, who was riding in the car directly behind the Presidential Limousine when the attack began. While the shooting was taking place, |
| Hill leaped out of the car he
was in and sprinted up to the car carrying the President and the First Lady. He
jumped on to the back of the moving car and guided Mrs. Kennedy off of the trunk
where she had climbed and back into the rear seat of the car. He then shielded the
president and the first lady with his body until the car arrived at the hospital.
The period following the Kennedy assasination was probably the most difficult in the modern history of the agency. |
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The Service also investigates forgery of government checks, forgery of currency
equivalents (such as travelers' checks), and certain instances of wire fraud
(such as the so called Nigerian scam) and credit card fraud.
The Secret Service also has concurrent jurisdiction for violation of federal computer crime laws. They have created a network of 15 Electronic Crimes Task Forces (ECTF's) across the United States. The Secret Service will soon be establishing 9 more Electronic Crimes Task Forces. These task forces create partnerships between the Service, federal/state and local law enforcement, the private sector and academia aimed at combating technology based crimes. In 1998, President Bill Clinton signed Presidential Decision Directive 62, which established National Special Security Events (NSSE). In that directive, it made the Secret Service the federal agency responsible for security at events given such a designation. Effective March 1, 2003, the Secret Service was transferred from the Department of the Treasury to the newly established Department of Homeland Security. |
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| Agent leaping onto the car to assist the President & First Lady |
| Press reports indicated that morale among the agents was "low" for months following the assasination, reports that caused President Lyndon B. Johnson to call agent Rufus Youngblood and threaten to replace the Secret Service with agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. (The call was recorded and released several years ago.) |
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| The agency investigated charges that agents were out carousing in local saloons
until all hours during the trip to Dallas. (No agent was ever disciplined for what
happened in Dallas, however.) Nevertheless, the agency overhauled its procedures in the wake of the Kennedy
killing. Training, which heretofore had been confined largely to "on-the-job" efforts,
was systematized and regularized. As duties expanded, so did the agency, growing
from about 300 agents in the early 1960s to over 2,000 today.
In 1965, Congress authorized the Secret Service (Public Law 89-186) to protect a former president and his/her spouse during their lifetime, unless they decline protection. Congress recently enacted legislation that limits Secret Service protection for former presidents to ten years after leaving office. Under this new law, individuals who are in office before January 1, 1997, will continue to receive Secret |
| Left: Reagan waving moments before the assassination attempt. Right: James S. Brady & D.C. police officer Thomas Delehante lie wounded on the ground. |