Report recommends Secret Service ramp up protection of White House
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Version 0 of 1. The White House fence should be raised by up to five feet and new outside management brought in to shake up a failing security culture and prevent another intruder threatening the president, according to a damning report into the operations of the US Secret Service. The long-awaited conclusions of the independent review panel claim that the team of uniformed and non-uniformed officers in charge of guarding the president are undertrained and “starved of leadership”, warning they also risk killing harmless intruders if urgent measures are not taken to better secure the building’s perimeter. “The ease with which pranksters and the mentally ill can climb the current fence puts Secret Service personnel in a precarious position,” says the report. “When someone jumps the fence, they must decide, in a split second, whether to use lethal force on a person who may not actually pose a viable threat.” The review follows a highly embarrassing fence-jumping incident in September when Omar Gonzalez, an intruder carrying a knife, made it deep into the White House residence after a series of security lapses. A separate investigation into that specific case by Department of Homeland Security deputy secretary Alejandro Mayorkas revealed that a dog handler who could have stopped Gonzalez was on his cellphone taking a personal call without his radio earpiece in at the crucial moment. But the case followed a series of similar lapses and prompted the broader review sent to the department on Thursday. It calls for sweeping internal reforms but also focuses on seemingly commonsense changes to the fence. “For sure, the fence must be taller; even an increase of four or five feet would be materially helpful,” it advises. “Horizontal bars, where climbers can easily place feet or hands, should be eliminated or placed where they provide little assistance. The top of the fence can also be manipulated in certain ways such as including curvature outward at the top of the fence to make scaling it much more difficult for most.” Some critics, including Washington DC congressional delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, have warned against excessive fortification, but the report argues: “We recognise all the competing considerations that may go into questions regarding the fence, but believe that protection of the President and the White House must be the higher priority.” “Every additional second of response time provided by a fence that is more difficult to climb makes a material difference in ensuring the President’s safety and protecting the symbol that is the White House.” The panel also urges that a new head of Secret Service, to replace ousted head Julia Pierson, be brought in from outside the agency, ensuring it is better staffed and trained in future. “Only a director from outside the Service, removed from organisational traditions and personal relationships, will be able to do the honest top-to-bottom reassessment [necessary],” it says. |