The Secret Service (USSS)
What is the Secret Service and what do they do? The Secret Service is a government department a part of the branch of the Department of Homeland Security concerned with espionage and responsible for providing protection to the president and investigating certain types of financial crime. The Secret Service is an elite force with the job of protecting our countries president. They provide protection against anybody who is threatening the lives of the president or the citizens of the United States. They USSS has a rich and long history that dates back to the 1800’s. They were founded July 5, 1865, but as a part of the treasury branch. William P. Wood was sworn in as the first official Chief, now known as the “Director.” There responsibilities
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began to broaden in 1867 with the responsibility of “detecting persons perpetrating frauds against the government” (Department of the Homeland Security). With this responsibility they investigated the Ku Klux Klan, mail robbers, smugglers, and other people trying to counterfeit the government. In 1882 Congress officially acknowledged them as a distinct organization within the Treasury Department. In 1894 they got their first part time job with protecting President Cleveland part-time. After the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, is when they officially started protecting the president full time. They started with just two people who assumed full time protection within the white House. By 1906, congress passed the Sundry Civil expenses Act for 1907, which provided the funds for presidential protection by the Secret Service (Department of the Homeland Security). The USSS began to investigate western land frauds. With all the information they found the USSS returned millions of acres of land to the government. Operative Joseph A. Walker was murdered while working on such a case. By 1908 they began providing protection for the President-elect as well as the president.
In 1913 Congress authorized permanent protection of the President and the President-elect; this was the Treasury department Appropriations Act of 1913 (Department of the Homeland Security). Slowly the Secret Service was becoming more into the secret service we know today. President Wilson in 1915 had the Secret service investigating foreign espionage in the United States. Congress made it a law in 1917 that it is a crime to threaten the president by mail or by any other manner. This was the year that congress also authorized protection for the president’s immediate family; the Treasury department Appropriations Act of 1917. In 1922 the White house Police Force (present-day Uniformed Division) was created at the request of President Warren G. Harding. By 1930 President Hoover had placed the White House Police Force under the supervision of the Secret Service (Department of the Homeland …show more content…
Security).
An assassination attempt was made on President-elect Franklin Roosevelt in Miami, Florida, on February 15, 1933 (Department of the Homeland Security). The Secret Service “operatives” were now referred to as “agents” as of 1936. These agents were starting to put everything on the line to protect the presidents and their families. In 1950 Private Leslie Coffelt, White House Police Force, was shot and killed by two Puerto Rican nationalist while protecting President Truman. Still shocked by the attack, Congress enacted legislation that permanently authorized Secret Service protection of the President, his immediate family, the President-elect, and the Vice President (by his request). In 1953 the first formal Special Agent Training School was held. It was a three week course that covered investigative and protective responsibilities of agents. Congress expanded coverage to the Vice President, in 1962, without requiring his request for protection.
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Soon after this, congress passed legislation for protection of Mrs. John F. Kennedy and her two minor children for two years. Congress passed legislation making it a federal crime to attempt to assassinate the President. Congress also authorized the Secret Service to protect a former President and his wife during his lifetime. Unless declined, protection for the widow and minor children of a former President was extended to four years after the President leaves or dies in office (Department of the Homeland Security). Congress authorized protection for the widow of a former President until her death or remarriage. Minor children of a former were granted protection until they reached the age of sixteen, unless protection was declined. As a result of presidential candidate Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination, Congress authorized protection of major presidential and vice presidential candidates and nominees. All of this was authorized in 1968 (Department of the Homeland Security).
The White House Police force was renamed the Executive Protective Service in 1970. It increased its responsibilities to include the protection of diplomatic missions in Washington D.C. Phyllis Shantz became the first female officer sworn into the Executive Protective Service on September 15, 1970. In 1971 Congress authorized Secret Service protection for visiting heads of a foreign state or government, or other officials as directed by the president (Department of the Homeland Security). The 60 acres of land purchased by the U.S. government for training facilities in 1967 was turned over exclusively to the Secret Service. It became what is today known as the Secret Service’s James J. Rowley Training Center. On December 15, 1971, Laurie Anderson, Sue Ann Baker, Kathryn Clark, and Holly Hufschmidt joined Phyllis Shantz as the first five female Special Agents. An assassination attempt was made on presidential candidate George Wallace in Laurel, Maryland, on May 15, 1972. Congress then authorized protection for the immediate family of the Vice President in 1972.
Assassination attempts were made on President Gerald Ford in Sacramento, California, on September 5, 1975, and again on September 22, 1975 in San Francisco, California. The Executive Protective Service was officially renamed the Secret Service Uniformed Division on November 15, 1977. On March 30, 1981 in Washington D.C., an assassination attempt was made on President Ronald Reagan. Title 18 USC Section 470 provided that any person manufacturing, trafficking in, or possessing U.S. counterfeit currency abroad may be prosecuted as if the act was committed in the U.S in 1994 (Department of the Homeland Security). On April 19, 1995, the Murrah Federal Building containing the Oklahoma City Field Office was destroyed by a bomb. Six Secret Service personnel were among the 168 killed. On May 19, 1995, Secretary of Treasury Robert Rubin signed Treasury Order Number prohibiting vehicular traffic on sections of Pennsylvania Avenue and certain other streets adjacent to the White House. The Secretary delegated to the Director of the Secret Service, the authority to carry out the closings (Department of the Homeland Security). Congress enacted legislation requiring that Presidents in office prior to January 1, 1997, will continue to receive protection for their lifetime. Presidents elected to office after that time will receive protection for ten years after leaving. The Secret Service was given authority to investigate offenses for the production, sale, transportation and/or possession of fictitious financial instrument purporting to be those of the United State, a foreign government, a state or other political subdivisions of the United States.
The Telemarketing Fraud Prevention Act was passed, which allows for criminal forfeiture of violations of 18 U. S.C Sections 1028, 1029, 1341, 1343, or 1344, or of a conspiracy to commit such an offense, if the offense involved telemarketing (Department of the Homeland Security). The Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act was passed, which amends 18 U.S.C Section 1028 to establish the offense of “Identity Theft.” Penalties are established for anyone who knowingly transfers or uses, without authority, any means of identification of another person, with the intent to commit or to aid someone to commit an unlawful activity theft provisions of section 1028 as of 1998. The United States Secret Service Memorial Headquarters Building was built in 1999 in Washington, D.C. for the first time, the agency had its own building with headquarters personnel housed under one roof. In 2000 the Presidential Threat Protection Act was passed which clarified and extended the Secret Service’s authority to investigate threats to active and former protectees, and to participate in the planning, coordination and implementation of security operations at National Special Security Events. In addition, it gave the Secret Service limited administrative subpoena power for use in protective intelligence investigations when a threat to a protectee is determined to be imminent (Department of the Homeland Security).
During the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Craig J. Miller of the Secret Service was one of the more than 2,800 people who were killed. At the time, the Secret Service’s New York Field Office was housed in Building 7 of the World Trade Center and collapsed as a result of the attacks. In October of 2001, President Bush signed into law the USA PATRIOT Act. In response to this legislative mandate, the Director of the Secret Service designated eight major metropolitan areas, where assets and resources were directed, establishing a network of regional Electronic Crimes Task Forces across the United States (Department of the Homeland Security).
The Department of Homeland Security was established in 2002.
On March 1, 2003, the Secret Service was transferred from the Department of the Treasury to the new Department of Homeland Security. Recognized for the Secret Service’s central role in the protection of both the nation’s leaders and the financial and critical infrastructure of the United States, the Secret Service contributes to the Department of Homeland Security’s common mission of protecting the American people from harm (Department of the Homeland Security). Barbara Riggs became the first woman in the agency’s history to be named Deputy Director in 2004. Protection began for presidential candidate Illinois Senator Barack Obama in May 2007, the earliest initiation of Service Secret protection for any candidate in history. Presidential candidate New York Senator Hillary Clinton already received protection before she entered the race due to her status as former First Lady (Department of the Homeland Security). The Secret Service marked five years under the Department of Homeland Security in 2008. In those five years, the Secret Service made nearly 29,000 criminal arrests for counterfeiting, cyber investigations and other financial crimes, 98 percent of which resulted in conventions, and seized more than $295 million in counterfeit
currency.
The Secret Service investigated and closed financial crimes cases where actual loss amounted to $3.7 billion and prevented a potential loss of more than $12 billion. Congress passed legislation, the “Former Vice President Protection Act of 2008,” which authorized Secret Service protection for former Vice Presidents, their spouses and their children less than 16 years of age for up to six months after the Vice President’s term in office has ended. The bill applied to Vice Presidents holding office on or after the date of enactment and also authorized the Security of Homeland Security to direct the Secret Service to provide temporary protection for these individuals thereafter if information or conditions warrant such protections (Department of the Homeland Security). The 56th Presidential Inauguration was the largest and most complex event ever overseen by the Secret Service. In all, five separate National Special Security Events came under the umbrella of the Inauguration of President Barack Obama, and the Secret Service oversaw the design and implementation of the security plan for each of them. Working in cooperation with its local, state, federal security, the agency ensured the safety for each event and protectee, as well as the nearly two million people who were estimated to have attended the events. The Secret service announced the creation of its second overseas Electronic Crimes Task Force, a network of public-private partnerships dedicated to fighting high-tech, computer-based crimes. Based in the United Kingdom, this Second international ECTF came on the heels of the agency’s 20009 announcement of its first European ECTF based in Rome, Italy. Also in 2010 The Uniformed Division Modernization Act, signed into law on October 15, 2010, ensures that Uniformed Division personnel are equally compensated for their work and allows greater flexibility in hiring personnel at higher levels based on their law enforcement experience and qualifications (Department of the Homeland Security).
The Former Presidents Protection Act of 2012, reverses a previous law that limited Secret Service protection for former Presidents and their families to 10 years if they served after 1997. Former President George W. Bush and future former Presidents will receive Secret Service protection for the rest of their lives. Children of former Presidents up to the age of 16 are assured protection under the new law. Julia A. Pierson was sworn in as the 23rd Director of the United States Secret service on March 27, 2013 (Department of the Homeland Security). Ms. Pierson is the first female Director of the agency. Joseph P. Clancy was appointed by President Barack Obama as the 24th Director of the United States Secret Service on February 18, 2015. The United States Secret Service has had a long and eventful history.
began to broaden in 1867 with the responsibility of “detecting persons perpetrating frauds against the government” (Department of the Homeland Security). With this responsibility they investigated the Ku Klux Klan, mail robbers, smugglers, and other people trying to counterfeit the government. In 1882 Congress officially acknowledged them as a distinct organization within the Treasury Department. In 1894 they got their first part time job with protecting President Cleveland part-time. After the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, is when they officially started protecting the president full time. They started with just two people who assumed full time protection within the white House. By 1906, congress passed the Sundry Civil expenses Act for 1907, which provided the funds for presidential protection by the Secret Service (Department of the Homeland Security). The USSS began to investigate western land frauds. With all the information they found the USSS returned millions of acres of land to the government. Operative Joseph A. Walker was murdered while working on such a case. By 1908 they began providing protection for the President-elect as well as the president.
In 1913 Congress authorized permanent protection of the President and the President-elect; this was the Treasury department Appropriations Act of 1913 (Department of the Homeland Security). Slowly the Secret Service was becoming more into the secret service we know today. President Wilson in 1915 had the Secret service investigating foreign espionage in the United States. Congress made it a law in 1917 that it is a crime to threaten the president by mail or by any other manner. This was the year that congress also authorized protection for the president’s immediate family; the Treasury department Appropriations Act of 1917. In 1922 the White house Police Force (present-day Uniformed Division) was created at the request of President Warren G. Harding. By 1930 President Hoover had placed the White House Police Force under the supervision of the Secret Service (Department of the Homeland …show more content…
Security).
An assassination attempt was made on President-elect Franklin Roosevelt in Miami, Florida, on February 15, 1933 (Department of the Homeland Security). The Secret Service “operatives” were now referred to as “agents” as of 1936. These agents were starting to put everything on the line to protect the presidents and their families. In 1950 Private Leslie Coffelt, White House Police Force, was shot and killed by two Puerto Rican nationalist while protecting President Truman. Still shocked by the attack, Congress enacted legislation that permanently authorized Secret Service protection of the President, his immediate family, the President-elect, and the Vice President (by his request). In 1953 the first formal Special Agent Training School was held. It was a three week course that covered investigative and protective responsibilities of agents. Congress expanded coverage to the Vice President, in 1962, without requiring his request for protection.
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Soon after this, congress passed legislation for protection of Mrs. John F. Kennedy and her two minor children for two years. Congress passed legislation making it a federal crime to attempt to assassinate the President. Congress also authorized the Secret Service to protect a former President and his wife during his lifetime. Unless declined, protection for the widow and minor children of a former President was extended to four years after the President leaves or dies in office (Department of the Homeland Security). Congress authorized protection for the widow of a former President until her death or remarriage. Minor children of a former were granted protection until they reached the age of sixteen, unless protection was declined. As a result of presidential candidate Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination, Congress authorized protection of major presidential and vice presidential candidates and nominees. All of this was authorized in 1968 (Department of the Homeland Security).
The White House Police force was renamed the Executive Protective Service in 1970. It increased its responsibilities to include the protection of diplomatic missions in Washington D.C. Phyllis Shantz became the first female officer sworn into the Executive Protective Service on September 15, 1970. In 1971 Congress authorized Secret Service protection for visiting heads of a foreign state or government, or other officials as directed by the president (Department of the Homeland Security). The 60 acres of land purchased by the U.S. government for training facilities in 1967 was turned over exclusively to the Secret Service. It became what is today known as the Secret Service’s James J. Rowley Training Center. On December 15, 1971, Laurie Anderson, Sue Ann Baker, Kathryn Clark, and Holly Hufschmidt joined Phyllis Shantz as the first five female Special Agents. An assassination attempt was made on presidential candidate George Wallace in Laurel, Maryland, on May 15, 1972. Congress then authorized protection for the immediate family of the Vice President in 1972.
Assassination attempts were made on President Gerald Ford in Sacramento, California, on September 5, 1975, and again on September 22, 1975 in San Francisco, California. The Executive Protective Service was officially renamed the Secret Service Uniformed Division on November 15, 1977. On March 30, 1981 in Washington D.C., an assassination attempt was made on President Ronald Reagan. Title 18 USC Section 470 provided that any person manufacturing, trafficking in, or possessing U.S. counterfeit currency abroad may be prosecuted as if the act was committed in the U.S in 1994 (Department of the Homeland Security). On April 19, 1995, the Murrah Federal Building containing the Oklahoma City Field Office was destroyed by a bomb. Six Secret Service personnel were among the 168 killed. On May 19, 1995, Secretary of Treasury Robert Rubin signed Treasury Order Number prohibiting vehicular traffic on sections of Pennsylvania Avenue and certain other streets adjacent to the White House. The Secretary delegated to the Director of the Secret Service, the authority to carry out the closings (Department of the Homeland Security). Congress enacted legislation requiring that Presidents in office prior to January 1, 1997, will continue to receive protection for their lifetime. Presidents elected to office after that time will receive protection for ten years after leaving. The Secret Service was given authority to investigate offenses for the production, sale, transportation and/or possession of fictitious financial instrument purporting to be those of the United State, a foreign government, a state or other political subdivisions of the United States.
The Telemarketing Fraud Prevention Act was passed, which allows for criminal forfeiture of violations of 18 U. S.C Sections 1028, 1029, 1341, 1343, or 1344, or of a conspiracy to commit such an offense, if the offense involved telemarketing (Department of the Homeland Security). The Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act was passed, which amends 18 U.S.C Section 1028 to establish the offense of “Identity Theft.” Penalties are established for anyone who knowingly transfers or uses, without authority, any means of identification of another person, with the intent to commit or to aid someone to commit an unlawful activity theft provisions of section 1028 as of 1998. The United States Secret Service Memorial Headquarters Building was built in 1999 in Washington, D.C. for the first time, the agency had its own building with headquarters personnel housed under one roof. In 2000 the Presidential Threat Protection Act was passed which clarified and extended the Secret Service’s authority to investigate threats to active and former protectees, and to participate in the planning, coordination and implementation of security operations at National Special Security Events. In addition, it gave the Secret Service limited administrative subpoena power for use in protective intelligence investigations when a threat to a protectee is determined to be imminent (Department of the Homeland Security).
During the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Craig J. Miller of the Secret Service was one of the more than 2,800 people who were killed. At the time, the Secret Service’s New York Field Office was housed in Building 7 of the World Trade Center and collapsed as a result of the attacks. In October of 2001, President Bush signed into law the USA PATRIOT Act. In response to this legislative mandate, the Director of the Secret Service designated eight major metropolitan areas, where assets and resources were directed, establishing a network of regional Electronic Crimes Task Forces across the United States (Department of the Homeland Security).
The Department of Homeland Security was established in 2002.
On March 1, 2003, the Secret Service was transferred from the Department of the Treasury to the new Department of Homeland Security. Recognized for the Secret Service’s central role in the protection of both the nation’s leaders and the financial and critical infrastructure of the United States, the Secret Service contributes to the Department of Homeland Security’s common mission of protecting the American people from harm (Department of the Homeland Security). Barbara Riggs became the first woman in the agency’s history to be named Deputy Director in 2004. Protection began for presidential candidate Illinois Senator Barack Obama in May 2007, the earliest initiation of Service Secret protection for any candidate in history. Presidential candidate New York Senator Hillary Clinton already received protection before she entered the race due to her status as former First Lady (Department of the Homeland Security). The Secret Service marked five years under the Department of Homeland Security in 2008. In those five years, the Secret Service made nearly 29,000 criminal arrests for counterfeiting, cyber investigations and other financial crimes, 98 percent of which resulted in conventions, and seized more than $295 million in counterfeit
currency.
The Secret Service investigated and closed financial crimes cases where actual loss amounted to $3.7 billion and prevented a potential loss of more than $12 billion. Congress passed legislation, the “Former Vice President Protection Act of 2008,” which authorized Secret Service protection for former Vice Presidents, their spouses and their children less than 16 years of age for up to six months after the Vice President’s term in office has ended. The bill applied to Vice Presidents holding office on or after the date of enactment and also authorized the Security of Homeland Security to direct the Secret Service to provide temporary protection for these individuals thereafter if information or conditions warrant such protections (Department of the Homeland Security). The 56th Presidential Inauguration was the largest and most complex event ever overseen by the Secret Service. In all, five separate National Special Security Events came under the umbrella of the Inauguration of President Barack Obama, and the Secret Service oversaw the design and implementation of the security plan for each of them. Working in cooperation with its local, state, federal security, the agency ensured the safety for each event and protectee, as well as the nearly two million people who were estimated to have attended the events. The Secret service announced the creation of its second overseas Electronic Crimes Task Force, a network of public-private partnerships dedicated to fighting high-tech, computer-based crimes. Based in the United Kingdom, this Second international ECTF came on the heels of the agency’s 20009 announcement of its first European ECTF based in Rome, Italy. Also in 2010 The Uniformed Division Modernization Act, signed into law on October 15, 2010, ensures that Uniformed Division personnel are equally compensated for their work and allows greater flexibility in hiring personnel at higher levels based on their law enforcement experience and qualifications (Department of the Homeland Security).
The Former Presidents Protection Act of 2012, reverses a previous law that limited Secret Service protection for former Presidents and their families to 10 years if they served after 1997. Former President George W. Bush and future former Presidents will receive Secret Service protection for the rest of their lives. Children of former Presidents up to the age of 16 are assured protection under the new law. Julia A. Pierson was sworn in as the 23rd Director of the United States Secret service on March 27, 2013 (Department of the Homeland Security). Ms. Pierson is the first female Director of the agency. Joseph P. Clancy was appointed by President Barack Obama as the 24th Director of the United States Secret Service on February 18, 2015. The United States Secret Service has had a long and eventful history.