UNDER-pressure Secret Service recruiters are facing a battle to woo Gen Z and Millennial agents who don’t have the mentality to serve, a former high-ranking agent has warned.
Cheryl Tyler, a retired Secret Service agent and training instructor in the agency’s Protection Section, warned that many younger would-be recruits don’t have the mindset for the work, and don’t want to do the strenuous hours required.
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Speaking to The U.S. Sun, Tyler, who was also the first female African American Secret Service agent, said that this critical lack of suitable candidates was coming as the agency was desperate for more bodies as it faced “challenging and hostile” conditions.
Her comments come in the wake of July’s attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and last Sunday’s arrest of a gunman spotted with a rifle on one of the former president’s golf courses.
Eerie footage showed Mar-a-Lago on lockdown following the incident at the weekend.
On Friday, acting Secret Service chief Ronald Rowe admitted at a press conference that “complacency” had led to the security failures that culminated in the attempt on Trump’s life two months ago.
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He repeated calls he made earlier this week for a “paradigm shift” in the agency, including more agents and resources to deal with the increasing challenges it faces.
But Tyler, who spent 15 years at the Secret Service defending presidents, world leaders, and celebrities, warned that recruiting more agents was easier said than done.
“It’s not like all of a sudden they’ll have 500 new agents and they’re there and ready to go,” she said. “It’s going to take time.”
She went on: “It takes a while to go through that training, and then, once you get through the training, it’s still another period of time before you understand what you really are doing and get a grasp of it.”
Tyler added that there were many preconceptions about the Secret Service.
Some agents on protection details can spend up to 200 nights a year away from home.
“That’s a young person’s job,” Tyler added.
But she expressed fears many Millenials and Gen Zers lack sufficient stamina to do the job.
“I think that’s the bigger challenge, not only for the Secret Service but for law enforcement in general,” she said.
“It is tough. It’s a new generation, and they like their privacy and they like to work nine to five, and these kinds of jobs don’t allow that.”
She added: “There’s a different type of mindset for this job.”
Tyler blamed Covid for changing “work ethics for every genre there is in every industry.”
“The challenge is on top of needing more people, but the challenges of hiring more people and getting them to stay is even tougher,” she added.
Tyler warned that this crisis in finding suitable candidates was coming at the worst possible time for America.
“The Secret Service is at the present time in the crosshairs of society,” she said.
“We’re living in very challenging and unfortunately hostile environments right now and hopefully, that will soon dissipate, but in the meantime, in order for the agency and the agents to do their jobs successfully, there are going to need to be additional changes in how they approach different scenarios.”
NEW TECH, NEW THREATS
Tyler explained how she believed that cultural shift began during Barack Obama’s presidency, when “subtle” changes to the threats faced by the agency changed.
“Social media technology has put everybody on 24-hour availability,” she said. “Technology has been our friend and our foe.”
One big change brought by technology, Tyler said, is the ease with which it has enabled people to make anonymous threats to prominent individuals.
This, she argued, has left the Secret Service and other government agencies around the world facing a major challenge in “trying to keep up with the pace of technology and drawing the line in the sand without people feeling that they’ve been muzzled and can’t speak their freedoms.”
It’s a new generation, and they like their privacy and they like to work nine to five, and these kinds of jobs don’t allow that
Cheryl Tyler
Earlier this week, new white tents and extra guards appeared outside of Trump Tower in Manhattan – just some of the added security measures being brought in to protect the former president.
Bulletproof glass is now in place at all of Trump’s rallies in the wake of Butler.
Similarly, beefed-up security presences were seen around Melania Trump.
But Tyler said many of the biggest changes in security were taking place in ways not visible to the average American.
“There are a lot of things that don’t need to be shared with the public, and people get upset, but that’s okay,” she said.
“The United States is a very unique and different place. We live in our own bubble. We live with a comfort of feeling protected and safe all the time, and not all countries are like that.
“Sometimes we have to seep back and realize that we are unique,” she added.
“We are special. It’s not complacency. It’s the fact that there are people that do jobs for a living for a reason to keep us all safe, and to keep those who are running to be leader of the free world safe.”
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Tyler said that the job of a Secret Service agent is “to ensure the safety of that person who is the leader of the free world, and sometimes we don’t need to all know what’s going on in order to do that.”
And while technology could provide support to the work of the agency, Tyler reiterated that “the one thing they do need is more people; technology is not the solution solely by itself to operate this agency.”
She referred to reports that the Secret Service is considering bringing former agents out of retirement to help with the added pressure.
“You need somebody who has the stamina and the energy, and can work those long hours and shift changes and demands that come with it, and being on call all the time,” she said. “A campaign year is a tough year.”
SECRET SERVICE UNDER FIRE
THE Secret Service has faced a number of challenges this year that have resulted in its director stepping down and calls for a “paradigm shift
- July 13: Donald Trump is shot at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The Secret Service is slammed for failing to take out gunman Thomas Crooks.
- July 15: Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle does her first network interview since the shooting, telling ABC News it was “unacceptable,” but refuses to resign, blaming local police for refusing to secure the building from where the gunman launched his attack.
- July 20: A week on, Pennsylvania Congressman Brendan Boyle calls on Cheatle to resign, making himself the first congressional Democrat to do so. That same day, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell both called on Cheatle to step aside.
- July 22: Cheatle testifies before Congress and acknowledges “significant operational failure” in Butler, but refuses to resign.
- July 23: Director Cheatle resigns. Her deputy, Ronald Rowe, takes over as acting director.
- July 30: Rowe tells Congress the attempted assassination on Trump was a “failure on multiple levels.”
- August: It is later revealed the White House asked for extra funding for the Secret Service in the run-up to November’s election, warning of “insufficient resources.”
- September 15: A gunman is arrested after being spotted with a rifle on Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course. Secret Service agents say it was a credible plot on the former president’s life.
- September 16: Ronald Rowe makes astonishing admission that the Secret Service needs a total overhaul in the wake of both attempts on former President Trump’s life, and calls for a “paradigm shift.”
- September 20: Rowe takes “full responsibility” for events at Butler, and repeats calls for “paradigm shift” in the Secret Service.
DESPERATE FOR AGENTS
Even before last weekend’s events in West Palm Beach, lawmakers and pundits have expressed fears that the Secret Service is struggling to deal with its increased challenges.
The arm of the agency that provides direct protection to presidents, vice presidents, and their families has shrunk by 10% in the past year.
The number of agents who guard senior officials, known as protective operations agents, is down from 4,027 in 2014 to 3,671 this year, according to the latest congressional budget figures.
In July, an NBC report claimed the Secret Service faced chronic understaffing for high-profile roles, as well as competition from private sector security, where many agents often go to find higher-paying and less grueling jobs.
This is despite warnings from Congress that more agents are needed to avoid compromising the agency’s mission.
Ronald Rowe, who took over from former director Kimberly Cheatle in the wake of the Butler shooting and subsequent inquiry, warned on Friday of existential issues facing the agency.
In the wake of the shooting carried out by Thomas Crooks, a new video showed how the would-be assassin was able to calmly approach the rally and get in position with his rifle.
“It is important that we hold ourselves accountable for the failures of July 13, and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another failure like this again,” he said.
But he described Sunday’s events, which resulted in the arrest of potential would-be assassin Ryan Wesley Routh, as a success, saying that the agent who spotted him “identified a threat” before taking “swift action to be able to mitigate that.”
The House of Representatives on Friday passed a bill ensuring the Secret Service will provide the same levels of protection to presidential and vice presidential candidates as it does to the sitting president and VP.
This follows allegations Donald Trump was denied extra security he requested ahead of the attempt on his life at Butler.
Last month, a former Secret Service agent warned there would be another attempt on Trump’s life before the election, speaking weeks before events in West Palm Beach.
Now the Enhanced Presidential Security Act will head to the Senate.
“While July 13 is a failure, we’re not proud of it, but we certainly have been rising to this moment,” Rowe said, adding that his agents “are working tirelessly to make sure that the people we protect are safe.”
