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Secret Service (1896), a play by William Gillette. [ Garrick Theatre, 176 perf.] Lewis Dumont (Gillette), a Northern agent posing as the Confederate officer Captain Thorne, comes to Richmond, where he wins the affection of loyal Virginian Edith Varney (Amy Busby). Benton Arrelsford (Campbell Gollan) of the War Office suspects that Thorne is a spy, but Thorne cleverly confounds all of Arrelsford's attempts to expose him. However, Edith has come to realize Thorne's real position, so she offers him a means of escape. He rejects the chance, yet he is sufficiently shamed that he revokes forged orders that he has telegraphed to Confederate lines and which would have prompted an unnecessary retreat. When he is arrested and sent to prison, Edith promises to wait for his release. A gripping, soundly constructed melodrama, in which, as Quinn noted, “Not a word is wasted and not an action,” it was originally tried out with Maurice Barrymore as Dumont. Withdrawn for revisions by producer Charles Frohman, it later gave Gillette one of his greatest successes. The melodrama was frequently revived until the time of World War I, though a splendid Phoenix Theatre mounting in 1976 with John Lithgow and Meryl Streep was well received.
1. a government department concerned with espionage.
2. Secret Service a branch of the Treasury Department dealing with counterfeiting and providing protection for the President.
See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.
On 5 July 1865, the Secret Service was established as a division of the Department of the Treasury to combat the widespread counterfeiting of United States currency. At the time, a loosely organized monetary system contributed greatly to the instability of the nation's currency. State governments issued their own bank notes through private banks. During the early 1860s, more than 1,600 of these banks designed and printed their own bills. Efforts to adopt a national currency were also hampered by counterfeiters. The result was that during the Civil War, as much as one-third of American currency was counterfeit.
With the appointment of William P. Wood as its first chief, the Treasury Department's Secret Service used organized investigative efforts that produced a considerable impact in suppressing counterfeiting. The Secret Service also was asked to investigate other crimes that, in time, would be tasked to other government agencies. These included mail fraud, armed robberies, Ku Klux Klan activities, drug smuggling, naturalization scams, peonage cases, fraud involving land and oil reserves, and counter-espionage during the Spanish-American War and World Wars I and II.
After President William McKinley was assassinated in 1901, presidential protection of Theodore Roosevelt became part of the Secret Service mission. In 1906, Congress passed legislation that officially delegated the Secret Service to provide Presidential protection. This was extended to the President-elect in 1913, and for members of the President's immediate family beginning in 1917. In that same year, Congress enacted legislation making it a crime to threaten the President by mail or by any other manner.
The Secret Service is now authorized to protect the president, vice president, president-elect, vice president-elect; the immediate families of these individuals; former presidents and their spouses (presidents taking office after 1996 receive protection for ten years following the end of their term); children of former presidents until age sixteen; visiting heads of foreign state or governments and their spouses; major presidential and vice presidential candidates; and other individuals as directed by the president.
The United States Secret Service Uniformed Division assists in the organization's protective mission. Its mission includes providing protection at the White House and surrounding buildings; numerous embassies and missions in the Washington, D.C., area; and the vice president's residence. This is accomplished through a series of fixed posts, vehicular and foot patrols, and specialized support units.
On 16 July 1951, Public Law 82-79 was passed making the Secret Service a permanent organization of the federal government. Until that time, the Secret Service existed without the benefit of a basic enabling act being passed by Congress. Prior to the passage of PL 82-79, the Secret Service's operational duties and responsibilities derived from annual appropriation acts.
The organization has expanded its role to investigate the dramatic rise in financial crimes. Other criminal activities that have fallen under the purview of the Secret Service include telecommunication fraud, computer crime, and fraudulent identification usage.
The effects of globalization combined with advances in communications, technology, and transportation have allowed such crimes to expand to new areas, both geographic and technological. Open economies, growing interdependence, and the instantaneous nature of financial transactions can all be exploited by criminals. The explosive growth of these crimes has resulted in the evolution of the Secret Service into an agency that is recognized worldwide for its expertise in the investigation of all types of financial and electronic crime.
Bibliography
See study by J. Bamford (1983).
The United States Secret Service (USSS) has two missions that, while sharply distinguished from one another, are united by the principle of protection. On the one hand, in its more visible role, the service provides protection of the president, vice president, and other dignitaries and their families. On the other hand, USSS's larger mission protects securities, including federal currency and other documents. Established in 1865 as an office under the Department of the Treasury, USSS was transferred in 2003 to the newly created Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Early history. At the time Secret Service was founded, approximately one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit. Only in 1877 did Congress pass its first law against the production of counterfeit currency, and even then, the law only encompassed counterfeit coins. By then, the mission of USSS had broadened, with an order in 1867 charging it with "detecting persons perpetrating frauds against the government"—a mission that soon put the service on the trail of a range of lawbreakers ranging from bootleggers to members of the Ku Klux Klan.
The personal protection mission of USSS had its beginnings in 1894, when it first provided protection to President Grover Cleveland on an informal and part-time basis. Following the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, Congress officially requested USSS protection for presidents, and in 1902 the Secret Service assumed full-time protective duties for the Chief Executive. At that time, the White House detail numbered just two agents.
The first half of the twentieth century. In 1908 President Theodore Roosevelt transferred eight USSS agents to the Department of Justice, where they formed a small contingent that would ultimately become the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Congress in 1913 authorized USSS to provide permanent protection to U.S. presidents, and in 1917 it assigned them to protect presidents' immediate families as well. Also in that year, it became a federal crime to make threats against the president. At the request of President Warren G. Harding, a White House police force was created in 1922, and in 1930 Congress placed this force under USSS direction.
On November 1, 1950, Puerto Rican nationalists attempting to assassinate President Harry S Truman shot and killed White House police officer Leslie Coffelt. This led Congress to pass legislation formalizing USSS permanent protection for presidents and their immediate families, as well for the president-elect and the vice president. In 1962 Congress again expanded these provisions to include the vice president-elect.
The modern Secret Service. After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, awareness of the threat to presidents' lives increased dramatically. The mission of USSS also expanded with regard to the persons under its protection. Congress in late 1963 authorized protection for Mrs. Kennedy and her children for two years, and legislation in 1965 provided protection for a president's spouse, as well as minor children until the age of 16. In June 1968, while on the presidential campaign trail, Kennedy's brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated. This led to new laws providing Secret Service protection for major presidential and vice presidential candidates and nominees.
The White House Police Force became the Executive Protective Service in 1970, and to its duties was added responsibility for protecting diplomatic missions in Washington, D.C. In the next year, visiting heads of state or government, as well as other official guests, were granted USSS protection. By 1975, the Executive Protective Service was detailed to guard foreign diplomatic missions throughout the United States and its territories. On November 15, 1977, the Executive Protective Service became the Secret Service Uniformed Division, and in October 1986 it absorbed the Treasury Police Force.
Since the Kennedy assassination, only three persons under Secret Service protection have been the target of direct assassination attempts: Alabama governor and third-party presidential candidate George Wallace in 1972, President Gerald Ford in 1975 (twice), and President Ronald Reagan in 1981. All three survived, a circumstance that— particularly in the last instance, when several agents were wounded—owed much to the work of Secret Service.
From the 1980s onward. At the same time, USSS continued work in its other field, protecting securities. In 1984 Congress made credit-and debit-card fraud a federal violation, and authorized Secret Service to investigate those crimes, as well as fraud involving identification documents. USSS in 1990 received concurrent jurisdiction with Department of Justice law enforcement personnel to conduct civil and criminal investigations relating to federally insured financial institutions. In 1994 new legislation provided for the prosecution of persons counterfeiting U.S. currency abroad, assessing them with the same penalties as if they had committed the crime on American soil.
Also in 1994, Congress reduced the lifetime-protection provisions for presidents. All chief executives elected after January 1, 1997, would receive protection only for the first 10 years after leaving office. Under the provisions of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, Secret Service moved to the new DHS.
Though its headquarters are in Washington, D.C., just three blocks from the White House, Secret Service operates more than 120 field offices in all 50 U.S. states. It also has more than a dozen offices in foreign countries. It employs 2,100 special agents, another 1,200 uniformed agents, and some 1,700 support personnel.
Uniformed and special agents. Requirements for special agents are somewhat higher than for uniformed officers— for example, a bachelor's degree is a condition of eligibility for the former and not the latter—but standards for both are high, and applicants must pass an extensive series of tests and background checks. Those selected by Secret Service undergo a nine-week training course at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia, followed by specialized training. Special-agent candidates take an additional 11-week course at the Secret Service Training Academy in Beltsville, Maryland. Uniformed officers receive varying types of training.
Agents serving in the Uniformed Division provide protection at the White House and a number of other key sites in Washington. They often work with support teams that include countersniper, emergency response, and canine units. Special agents usually spend their first six to eight years in a field office, then are assigned to provide personal protection for three to five years. After this assignment, they may choose a number of paths, continuing in a protective detail, serving in the field, or working in some other capacity.
Further Reading
Books
Department of the Treasury. Excerpts from the History of the United States Secret Service, 1865–1875. Washington, D.C.: Department of the Treasury, 1978.
McCarthy, Dennis V. N. with Philip W. Smith. Protecting the President: The Inside Story of a Secret Service Agent. New York: William Morrow, 1985.
Melanson, Philip H. The Politics of Protection: The U.S. Secret Service in the Terrorist Age. New York: Praeger, 1984.
Motto, Carmine J. In Crime's Way: A Generation of U.S. Secret Service Adventures. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2000.
Electronic
United States Secret Service. <http://www.ustreas.gov/usss/> (February 5, 2003).
A division of the United States Department of the Treasury, responsible for apprehending counterfeiters; investigating a variety of federal crimes; and protecting presidents and their families, presidential candidates, and foreign dignitaries visiting the United States.
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It has been suggested that Counter Assault Team be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) |
| United States Secret Service | |
 USSS logo |
|
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1865 |
| Jurisdiction | Federal; investigating financial crime and providing Presidential protection |
| Employees | 3,200 agents 1,200 uniformed officers |
| Agency Executive | Director, Mark J. Sullivan |
| Website | |
| www.secretservice.gov | |
The United States Secret Service is a United States federal government law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security.
The Secret Service has primary jurisdiction over the prevention and investigation of counterfeiting of U.S. currency and U.S. treasury bonds and notes, as well as protection of the President, Vice President, President-elect, Vice President-elect, past Presidents and their spouses (except when the spouse re-marries), certain candidates for the offices of President and Vice President within 120 days of a general presidential election, children of former presidents until age 16, visiting foreign heads of state and government along with their spouses (all called "protectees"), other individuals as designated per Executive Order of the President, and National Special Security Events, when designated as such by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. It also tracks suspicious people and investigates a wide variety of financial fraud crimes and identity theft and provides forensics assistance for some local crimes. The Secret Service Uniformed Division (UD) assists in the protection of foreign embassies and the White House within Washington, D.C. Due to the necessary discretion of this organization, many details are currently unknown about the Secret Service. Like most law enforcement agencies, the Secret Service generally has a "no comment" policy on its actions and investigations.
Special Agents of the Secret Service wear attire that is appropriate for the surroundings. In many circumstances the attire is a conservative business suit, but attire can range from a tuxedo to blue jeans. Photographs often show them wearing sunglasses and a communication earpiece. The attire for UD Officers includes standard police uniforms, or utility uniforms and ballistic/identification vests for members of the countersniper team, Emergency Response Team (ERT), and canine officers. President Richard Nixon, after traveling through Europe, had his Secret Service agents wear elaborate uniforms to state functions. However, they were discontinued after being deemed too imperial.[citation needed]
The shoulder patch of the USSS UD consists of the presidential seal on white or black depending on the garment to which it is attached. While there is no official patch indicating "Secret Service", Special Agents have occasionally designed and purchased unofficial patches to trade in their extensive collaborations with uniformed law enforcement officers.
The Secret Service was commissioned on July 5, 1865 in Washington, D.C. as the "Secret Service Division," to suppress counterfeit currency, which is why it was established under the United States Department of the Treasury. At the time, the only other federal law enforcement agencies were the United States Park Police, U.S. Post Office Department - Office of Instructions and Mail Depredations, now known as the United States Postal Inspection Service, and the United States Marshals Service. The Marshals did not have the manpower to investigate all crime under federal jurisdiction, so the Secret Service was used to investigate everything from murder to bank robbery to illegal gambling. Prior to its formal establishment as a Treasury agency, during the Civil War the Secret Service, under the direction of detective Allan Pinkerton[citation needed], was the espionage and counterespionage agency of the United States. It was the first domestic intelligence and counterintelligence agency. It no longer has, and has not for over a century, had these responsibilities. After the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, Congress informally requested Secret Service presidential protection. A year later, the Secret Service assumed full-time responsibility for protection of the President. In 1902, William Craig was the first Secret Service agent killed while riding in the presidential carriage, in a road accident.
In 1950, President Truman was residing in the Blair House, across the street from the White House, while the executive mansion was undergoing renovations. Two men approached the Blair House with the intent to assassinate President Truman. Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, who were Puerto Rican nationalists, opened fire on Private Leslie Coffelt and other White House Police officers. Though mortally wounded by three shots from a 9 mm Luger to his chest and abdomen, Private Coffelt returned fire, killing Torresola with a single shot to his head. To this day, Coffelt is the only member of the Secret Service to die while defending a U.S. President against an assassination attempt. Collazo was also shot, but survived his injuries and served 29 years in prison before returning to Puerto Rico in 1979. Special Agent Tim McCarthy stepped in front of President Ronald Reagan during the assassination attempt of March 30, 1981 and took a bullet to the abdomen, but made a full recovery.
The Secret Service Presidential Protective Detail safeguards the President of the United States and his immediate family. They are heavily armed and work with state police and the military to safeguard the President when he travels, in Air Force One, Marine One, and by limousine in motorcades.
Although today this is the Secret Service's most visible role, personal protection is an anomaly in the responsibilities of an agency focused on fraud and counterfeiting. The reason for this combination of duties is that when the need for presidential protection became apparent in the early 20th century, there were a limited quantity of federal services with the necessary abilities and resources. The FBI, IRS, CIA, ATF, and DEA did not yet exist. The United States Marshals Service was the only other logical choice, and in fact the U.S. Marshals did provide protection for the President on a number of occasions. In the end, however, the job went to the Secret Service.
The Secret Service has over 6,000 employees: 3,100 Special Agents, 1,200 Uniformed Division employees, and 1,700 technical and administrative employees. Special agents either serve on protective details or investigate financial and homeland security-related crimes.
Secret Service Uniformed Division officers protect:
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 placed under the command of the Chief of the Secret Service in 1930. In 1970, the role of the force, then called the Executive Protective Service (EPS), was expanded. The name United States Secret Service Uniformed Division was adopted 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).
The Service also investigates forgery of government checks, forgery of currency equivalents (such as travelers' or cashiers' 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 24 Electronic Crimes Task Forces (ECTFs) across the United States. 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.
Prior to the 2008 Presidential election, the Secret Service
generally protected major candidates over the 120 days preceding an election. As a former First Lady and Senator, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton already has Secret Service protection. On May 3,
2007, the Secret Service announced that Senator
Since the 1960s, Presidents John F. Kennedy, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan[2], and George W. Bush have been attacked while appearing in public. President Ford was not injured, despite being attacked twice. President Reagan was seriously injured but survived, and President Kennedy died from the attack. President Bush was also not injured, when the hand grenade thrown towards the podium failed to detonate. News reports at the time are unclear regarding whether President Bush was under Secret Service protection at the time, since the event occurred in Tblisi, Georgia and local security would likely have had primary responsibility.[3]
The Kennedy assassination spotlighted the bravery of two Secret Service agents: First, an agent protecting Mrs. Kennedy, Clint Hill, was riding in the car directly behind the Presidential Limousine when the attack began. While the shooting was taking place, Hill leaped from the running board of the car he was riding on 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 the trunk she had climbed on 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 other agent whose bravery was spotlighted during the assassination was Rufus Youngblood, who was riding in the vice presidential car. When the shots were fired, he vaulted over the back of the front seat, threw his body over Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, who would become president, and sprawled over him to minimize chances he may be injured. Youngblood would later recall some of this in his memoir, Twenty Years in the Secret Service. That evening, LBJ called Secret Service Chief James J. Rowley and cited Youngblood's bravery.[3]
The period following the Kennedy assassination was probably the most difficult in the modern history of the agency. Press reports indicated that morale among the agents was "low" for months following the assassination. .[4]
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.
The Reagan assassination attempt also highlighted the bravery of several Secret Service agents, particularly agent Tim McCarthy, who leapt in front of Reagan after four bullets had been fired by the would-be assassin, John Hinckley, Jr. McCarthy took one .22-caliber round in the chest, which was successfully removed by surgeons at George Washington University Hospital (also where Reagan was taken and recovered). For his bravery, McCarthy received the NCAA Award of Valor in 1982.
As duties expanded, so did the agency, growing from about 300 agents in the early 1960s to over 3,200 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. In 1997, Congress enacted legislation that limits Secret Service protection for former presidents to ten years after leaving office. Under this new law, individuals who were in office before January 1, 1997, will continue to receive Secret Service protection for their lifetime. Individuals elected to office after that time will receive protection for ten years after leaving office. Therefore, former President Bill Clinton will be the last president to receive lifetime protection, and President George W. Bush will be the first to receive protection for only ten years.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) continues to receive full-time protection as a former First Lady, as do Rosalynn Carter, Betty Ford, Nancy Reagan, and Barbara Bush.
Due to the importance of the Secret Service's protective function, the personnel of the agency receive the latest weapons and training. The agents of the Protective Operations Division receive the latest military technology (See: the Presidential Protection Assistance Act of 1976, codified in the notes of Title 18, Section 3056 of the U.S. Code Annotated). Due to specific legislation and directives, the United States military must fully comply with requests for assistance with providing protection for the president and all other people under protection, providing equipment, and even military personnel at no cost to the Secret Service.
Special Agents and officers carry the .357 SIG munition chambered in the SIG Sauer P229 pistol. In addition to their primary weapon, they are also trained on several close-combat weapons such as the Remington Model 870 shotgun, the IMI Uzi, FN P90, and the HK MP5 (including the MP5KA4) submachine guns among others. They are also issued radios and surveillance kits in order to maintain communication with a central command post and other personnel[5]. Also, it has been confirmed that all Secret Service vehicles equipped with armored glass now feature "one-way glass" allowing agents to shoot out of the vehicle without exposing themselves by exiting the vehicle or opening a window.
Basic strategies include:
The Secret Service New York City Field office was located at 7 World Trade Center. Immediately after the attacks, Special Agents and other Secret Service employees stationed at the New York Field office were among the first to respond with first aid trauma kits. Sixty-seven Special Agents in New York City, at and near the New York Field Office, assisted local fire and Police rescue teams by helping to set up triage areas and evacuate people from the towers. One Secret Service employee, Master Special Officer Craig Miller [4] , died during the rescue efforts.
On August 20, 2002, Director Brian L. Stafford recognized the bravery and heroism of 67 Secret Service employees in the New York Field Office, by awarding the Director's Valor Award to employees who assisted in the rescue attempts in the World Trade Center on 9/11.
The Secret Service has agents assigned to approximately 125 offices located in cities throughout the United States and in select foreign cities.
Presidential Security Service
Queen's Police Officer
Royal Canadian Mounted Police National Protective Security
Program
Special Protection Group
Paspampres
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