After yet another scandal, what can be done to fix the Secret Service?
A former US Secret Service agent was sentenced to six years in prison Monday for stealing electronic currency while investigating an online black market.
After gaining access to Silk Road as part of an investigative task force, Shaun Bridges stole over $800,000 in Bitcoin and attempted to pin the theft on a cooperating witness, ultimately threatening the witness鈥� life. Mr. Bridges admitted to money laundering and obstruction charges during trial in August.
"This, to me, is an extremely serious crime consisting of the by a federal law enforcement agent," the judge, who passed the sentence Monday, told the Associated Press.
This is just one smudge in a series of scandals overshadowing the Secret Service (USSS) in recent years. In 2012, a prostitution scandal in Colombia widely covered by the media diminished the Service鈥檚 reputation. And a released last week by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform exposed more than 143 security breaches at agency-supervised facilities.
Notable breaches detailed in the report included:
a November 11, 2011, incident where an individual fired several shots at the White House from a semiautomatic rifle;
a September 16, 2014, incident at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, where an armed contract security guard with a violent arrest history rode in an elevator with President Obama and later breached the President鈥檚 security formation;
and a March 4, 2015, incident where two intoxicated senior USSS officials鈥� including a top official on the President鈥檚 protective detail鈥攊nterfered with a crime scene involving a bomb threat just outside the White House grounds.鈥�
Those investigating the agency point to several factors that have led to reduced effectiveness. 鈥� and a dysfunctional workplace have created a culture within the Secret Service that led to major security lapses, employee misconduct and low employee satisfaction and commitment scores,鈥� the Partnership for Public Service said. Furthermore, resource reductions and 鈥渦nprecedented staffing shortages鈥� have added to agency pressures.
Deemed an 鈥�agency in crisis,鈥� the Service has had three different directors in the past two years, and staff has dropped by more than聽, marking the lowest numbers in a decade despite recommendations to increase hiring.
The House Committee鈥檚 report also highlighted 鈥渟ignificant cuts imposed by the Budget Control Act of 2011, at USSS that has been unable to correct these shortfalls, and declining employee morale leading to attrition.鈥�
A separate on USSS was completed in December 2014 by the US Secret Service Protective Mission Panel, a panel formed in response to the Sept. 19, 2014 incident, 鈥渨hen a lone individual leapt over the White House fence, onto the North Lawn, and ultimately into the White House itself.鈥�
This report, too, found several issues needing immediate attention including a training regimen 鈥渄iminished far below acceptable levels,鈥� a lack of resources, limitations on personnel and 鈥渁n organization that rewards innovation and excellence and demands accountability.鈥�
However, this report offered suggestions for change, while still acknowledging the work of the agency. 鈥淔acing constant threats and charged with guarding the world's most powerful and visible head of state and the most accessible executive mansion of any large nation, the Secret Service has an extraordinary track record of success,鈥� wrote the panel members in the report鈥檚 executive summary. 鈥淭his is not to say that the Secret Service does not make mistakes. But we owe the agents, officers, and line personnel of the Secret Service a debt of gratitude.鈥�
With multiple reports, USSS has many recommendations to restore their tarnished reputation. This is an important time for the Secret Service, as they not only for the president, but a handful of 2016 presidential candidates as well.聽
Fixing USSS could mean bringing in a new leader from the outside, suggests聽the USSS Protective Mission Panel. Increasing the agency's budget, hiring additional employees, and increasing staff training would allow the agency to better protect the nation.聽
鈥淲e know special agents of the United States Secret Service as the silent figures around the President, but we tend to notice them only in the extraordinarily rare moments when they fail,鈥� wrote the USSS Protective Mission Panel.
鈥淎s a nation, we should not fail to make prudent investments in personnel, technology, and leadership when the stakes are so high.鈥澛�
