A Secret Agency

Another paper I wrote for a college class. This time it was for an American National Government class.

The United States Secret Service is a government agency for federal law enforcement with the missions of protection and criminal investigations ("United States Secret Service"). However, many people do not know much else about the United States Secret Service besides its job to protect leaders of our nation. The Secret Service does much more than that, but what else does it do? How was it established? Why was it established? These are many things people do not know about the secret service.

It was July 5, 1865 when the United States Secret Service was first established. The first Chief of the Secret Service was William P. Hood and he was sworn in by Hugh McCulloch. As mentioned in Melanson's book, the original mission for the Secret Service, stated by McCulloch, the U.S. Secretary of State at the time, was "Your main objective is to restore public confidence in the money of this country." This mission statement referred to counterfeit money. So, when the Secret Service was established in 1865, its main priority was to protect the nation's money.

The Secret Service was formed because counterfeiting was going on throughout the Civil War and was a huge threat to the United State' banking system (Melanson 3). It was said that about one-third of the money in circulation during that time was counterfeit (Petro 16). Also, at that time banks designed and made their own currency, so since there were so many different kinds throughout the United States it made it easy for counterfeiters to counterfeit currency (Melanson 4). Since counterfeit currency proposed a huge threat to the banking system of the nation, something needed to be done; so the United States Secret Service was formed.

Over the years the Secret Service has expanded and gone through many changes since it was established in 1865. The first time the Secret Service's duties were expanded was two years after it was established in 1867; the new duty was "detecting persons perpetrating frauds against the government" ("United States Secret Service"). With this new duty added, the Secret Service would perform investigations on groups like the Ku Klux Klan, or smugglers, and mail theft, along with many other things ("United States Secret Service"). The Secret Service started to protect federal laws, and try to stop those who were breaking the federal laws. In 1908, was when the Secret Service moved out of the Treasury Department and moved into the Justice Department (Petro 16).

However, the biggest change in the United States Secret Service occurred after the 1901 assassination of the 25^th president of the United States, William McKinley (Petro 16). Following this tragic event, Congress wanted the President of the United States to be protected by the Secret Service ("United States Secret Service"). Especially since the assassination of President McKinley was the third presidential assassination since the year the Secret Service was founded, it was thought to be a good idea to protect the President of the United States (Petro 16). So, protection of the President of the United States under the Secret Service was not a part of the duties and missions of the Secret Service until thirty-six years after it was established.

Over time, the Secret Services role in protection has changed, since protecting became a part of the mission and duty of the Secret Service in 1901. Protection is now the Secret Services first and foremost duty (Petro 16). It actually was not until 1906, after many failed attempts at trying to pass legislation to provide funds to protect the president, when The Sundry Civil Expenses Act of 1907 was passed by Congress to allow funds to protect the President (Melanson 32). Two years later in 1908, the Secret Service also began to protect the president-elect; in 1951, legislation was passed along by Congress to protect the immediate family of the President and Vice President ("United States Secret Service"). In 1961, Congress requested for all former presidents of the United States to be under Secret Service protection, and one year later, in 1962, Congress also wanted the vice president and vice president-elect to be protected by the Secret Service ("United States Secret Service"). After the assassination of Robert Kennedy, Congress decided it was necessary to protect the candidates and nominees for President and Vice President of the United States; and in 1971, Congress wanted all foreign government officials and other important guests to be under the protection of the Secret Service ("United States Secret Service"). These are some of the many changes that have occurred through the protection area of the Secret Service over the years, since it was established.

Today, the main areas of the Secret Service are protection and investigation. Protection is the primary job of the Secret Service (Petro 16). Protection covers protection of the President and family, the Vice President, president and vice president-elect, along with foreign government officials, also they deal with national special security events and the national threat assessment center. Investigations deal with things like criminal investigations, forensic services, money, and law enforcement. Those are the main areas the Secret Service covers.

Most people associate the Secret Service with protection, which is its main priority. Even the protection wasn't its original duty, it is now the biggest thing the Secret Service focuses on. Secret Service agents who get into the protection go through extensive training before they can become a protector. But before they go through training, just like many other jobs, one must apply to be an agent, and fill out applications. Those who want to be agents, fill out many forms, have background tests done, and even go through polygraph tests (Melanson 174). They go through all sorts of training. Weapon training is a big one; especially shooting. They trained with handguns, submachine guns and shotguns (Petro 15). There are many different courses the agents go through for the gun training; for example, there is one where it is like a city street and targets pop up all over, but some are good and some are bad, and only the bad ones are to be shot (Petro 15). According to Joseph Petro, who is a former Secret Service agent, gun training is very important to be a protector; he says an agent needs to be able to shoot their target if there is a large crowd, they cannot miss.

The training for firearms did not just cover how to use the weapons. There were different courses, like the one in a city street with good and bad targets, there were also different scenarios too. They made some scenarios very realistic. They used fake blood packs, so there wouldn't be a shock of seeing blood in a real situation (Petro 14). One type of scenario was not established until the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy (Petro14). This particular scenario is assassination scenarios. Agents went through these scenarios regularly and were trained to act instinctively in these types of situations (Petro 14). It is important for agents to go through such trainings to be prepared in case similar situations happen in the future, so they can prevent the situations from happening, or at least be more able to protect the President or other protectee, especially since there were a few assassination attempts since then, like the attempts on Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan.

Agents are also trained to know what to look for when public appearances are going on, like when a President or other protectee is out in public and are shaking hands with people in the crowd. The Secret Service agents are trained to look at the emotion in the eyes of the people in the crowd, and look at those who have their hands out to shake the presidents hand (Petro 12). The agents also need to check if anyone has their hands in their pockets or if they can't see some hands, they will say "let me see your hands, please" (Petro 13). There are agents all around the President when they are making public appearances to be able to see what is going on all around him, to protect him to the best of their ability.

Other training also important to becoming a protector for the Secret Service is, medical training. Medical emergencies are said to be the biggest threat to a president, or any other protectee (Petro 15). Secret Service agents are trained to do what they call "ten-minute medicine"; "ten-minute medicine" is being able to keep the protectee alive and stabilized for ten minutes, because no matter where they are, they are no more than ten minutes away from a hospital (Petro 15). Other medical training that agents must go through is CPR and how to use defibrillators (Petro 15). Medical training is very important, so an agent can help keep the protectee alive until they can get to medical help at a hospital.

Along with training, Secret Service agents are to carry certain things on them at all times when they are on duty. Their sidearm is one of the items carried at all times, along with a speed loader for the gun, their radio and earpiece to communicate with other agents, a bullet proof vest and handcuffs (Petro15). The agents need to carry these items with them, so they can protect their protectee to the best of their ability, and to be able to communicate with the other agents is they see something suspicious or if something happens.

The President, Vice President and First Lady are always under protection of the Secret Service. They are known as permanent protectees ("United States Secret Service"). Since they are always under the protection of the Secret Service, they have a detail of agents assigned to them, so the same agents are always with each permanent protectee ("United States Secret Service"). When there are temporary protectees, like a foreign government official, some Secret Service agents who are not on a detail are temporarily assigned to protect temporary protectees ("United States Secret Service"). Also, the protectors have code names for the protectees, so if someone over hears who isn't supposed to will not know who is being talked about. For example, President Reagan was known as "Rawhide" and First Lady Reagan was nicknames "Rainbow"; even, the presidential limousines had nicknames during each presidency, like during Reagan's presidency, they limousine was called "Stagecoach" (Petro 51).

Also, when protectees make trips to other states and other countries, Secret Service detail travels to those destinations ahead of time. They travel ahead of time to check out where the protectee will visit, where the hospitals are, and escape routes in case of emergencies ("United States Secret Service"). Also, they work with the local law enforcements of where they are traveling too, to be able to effectively plan the trip and make the trip safe for the protectee ("United States Secret Service"). The Secret Service even controls the President's meals, whether they are in a foreign country or at a state banquet (Petro 7). The Secret Service is involved in just about everything that involves the President or other protectees, to keep them out of harms way.

The other main area of the Secret Service is investigations. The investigations include things like forensic investigations and criminal investigations. The investigation started out as trying to stop counterfeiting when the Secret Service was established, but now, the investigation aspect of the Secret Service includes more.

Criminal investigations are one of the investigation areas of the Secret Services that have been broadened past just counterfeiting. Criminal investigations include counterfeiting (United States currency and foreign currency, if it happens in the U.S.), crimes like identity theft, bank fraud, telemarketing fraud, computer fraud, and false claims that involve U.S. Savings Bonds and Treasury Notes ("United States Secret Service"). The forensic services department of the Secret Service, examines evidence, and they also develop investigation leads, they also look over questioned documents and look at fingerprints, false identification forms, and they use a lot of technology ("United States Secret Service"). Most of the Secret Services investigating department focuses on counterfeiting and forgery (Melanson 190). This is a lot of what the Secret Service does besides protecting.

Counterfeiting still exists today. It is not near as bad as it was back during the Civil War, but it is still a problem (Melanson 190). Usually, counterfeiters today, have use of extreme technology to help them counterfeit the money. But, today's currency is supposed to be harder to counterfeit because of the types of paper used, and the designs and water marks on the bills, and also the ridges on the coins and the details of the designs on the coins too. As technology grows, it makes it harder to the Secret Service to keep up and keep counterfeit money from being circulated; also the Secret Services needs public cooperation to get counterfeiters (Melanson 190). The Secret Service even has a brochure (and it is on their website), called "Know Your Money" to help people be able to detect counterfeit money (Melanson 190). When the Secret Service comes a cross a fake bill they analyze it in a laboratory, and look for things like fingerprints and how it was made; they even have chemicals that react with human perspiration to help detect who made the bill and where it was made (Melanson 190). Counterfeit money is still a problem today and it is one of the Secret Services top investigating priorities.

Forgery is second to counterfeiting in investigation for the Secret Service (Melanson 191). Forgery happens a lot and many people lose a lot of money to forgery. Sometimes forgers forge signatures on checks, and others steal bonds from people's mailboxes and forge signatures on them (Melanson 191). The Secret Service also believes it is important to make sure the public is aware of forgery and fraud and how to prevent it, they have a brochure for this as well called "Know Your Endorser" (Melanson 191). The Office of Investigation has people analyze signatures and they determine whether it is real or fake and also, determine id it is counterfeit (Melanson 191). Forgery happens all the time, it is important for people to keep track of their checks and check identification to make sure signatures are valid and to make sure the rightful owner is cashing the check.

Some of the other investigations the Secret Services looks into are identity crimes, like, identity theft, check fraud, bank fraud, etc, access device fraud, computer fraud, and counterfeit and fraudulent identification; also, money laundering, electronic benefits transfer fraud, asset forfeiture and advance fee fraud, are all crimes the Secret Service also investigates ("United States Secret Service"). The Secret Service has information available to the public to help them prevent fraud and other crimes like this from happening to them. They also have information to help one if he thinks he is a victim of fraud.

The Secret Service has come a long way over the years since it was established in 1865. Many changes have been made to make the Secret Service what it is today. The Secret Service does a lot more than just protect the President of the United States. They play a big role in our government system, but keeping important political and governmental figures protected, and investigating into financial crimes, and things like counterfeiting, and identity theft, forgery, and money laundering. The Secret Services does their best to keep us safe financially, and to keep important political and governmental figures safe.

Melanson, Philip H.. The Secret Service: The Hidden History of an Enigmatic Agency. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2002.

Petro, Joseph. Standing Next To History: An Agent's Life Inside The Secret Service. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2005.

"United States Secret Service." 2006. United States Secret Service. 1 May 2007 . http://www.secretservice.gov/.