As the U.S. Secret Service describes itself on its website:
Red-Handed: How Americ...
Buy New $2.99
(as of 04:44 UTC - Details)
We are one of America’s oldest federal law enforcement agencies, originally created in 1865 to stamp out rampant counterfeiting in order to stabilize America’s young financial system. By the end of the Civil War, nearly one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit. As a result, the country’s financial stability was in jeopardy. To address this concern, the Secret Service was established in 1865 as a bureau in the Treasury Department to suppress widespread counterfeiting.
After the assassination of President McKinley in 1901, the Secret Service was tasked with the full-time protection of the President of the United States. Over time, this protective mission has been expanded by statutory changes, Presidential Decision Directives, Homeland Security Presidential Directives, National Security Presidential Directives, and various Executive Orders.
The Secret Service currently protects 36 protectees—a reduction from the 42 it protected during Donald Trump’s presidency. The agency employs about 8,000 people; this year it received $3.1 billion in congressional funding.
Since 1901, two secret service agents have been killed in the line of duty. William Craig was killed on September 3, 1902, when a trolley car rammed into the open horse-drawn carriage carrying President Roosevelt in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Leslie Coffelt was killed while defending President Harry Truman against an attempted assassination by Puerto Rican nationalists on November 1, 1950, at Blair House, where the president was living during renovations at the White House.
Novus Ordo Seclorum: T...
Best Price: $8.49
Buy New $18.95
(as of 04:47 UTC - Details)
Secret Service Agent Timothy McCarthy was wounded during the 1981 assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan.
The main reason why so few Secret Service agents have been killed or wounded in the line of duty is because the true job of the agency is to PREVENT shootouts from happening in the first place. Since the Kennedy assassination in 1963, clear procedures have been developed to secure high risk areas around places in which a protectee is scheduled to appear. These procedures are logical and in many respects a matter of common sense. For example, if there is a rooftop 400 feet from a stage on which a presidential candidate is scheduled to speak, elementary procedure calls for securing the rooftop.
Since the July 13, 2024 assassination attempt on former President Trump, there has been a great deal of chatter about counter-snipers and the question of why they didn’t engage Thomas Matthew Crooks before he fired at Trump on the stage.
