Secret Service struggles to retain staff – NYT – RT World News

The U.S. Secret Service has entered 2024 having lost nearly a fifth of its veteran agents, while the rest are overworked, underpaid, undertrained and lacking the latest technology, the New York Times reports.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned in July after an assassin nearly killed former president and current Republican candidate Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

‘The service was not ready yet’ the Times reported Thursday.

The attempt on Trump’s life “revealed deep problems in the secret service” from lack of technology to “failures in command” and communication. For example, the Butler shooter scouted the site with a drone even though protective details were missing and their radios were not working properly.

However, the biggest problem has been ‘an exodus of the best educated people’ The Times reported this, citing current and former staffing agency employees. At least 1,400 of the Secret Service’s 7,800 employees left in fiscal years 2022 and 2023, the biggest loss in two decades.

Although the agency expanded its workforce to 8,100 this summer — its highest level ever — this was still not the number it said it needed. There were concerns about the suitability of new employees and the problems with how to train them and where.

The main training facility is like this “expired” that it often floods during heavy rainfall, according to the Times. The agency has resorted to using a scale model of the White House built in Atlanta by filmmaker Tyler Perry because Congress won’t provide money to build one itself.

The main reason most veterans cited for leaving was “crushing the amount of overtime” sometimes without pay, due to a federal salary cap. In a survey conducted by a federal police association, 68 of the 153 officers who responded said this was the case “maximum reached” because of their overtime last year, during which they lost as much as $30,000 in wages.

“You ride your horse until it dies, and then you eat it,” Jonathan Wackrow, who left the Secret Service after fourteen years, told the Times about management’s view of their workforce.

Another former agent, Louis Fitzig, claimed as much “nepotism, cronyism, (and) corruption” are part of the agency’s culture.
Meanwhile, a plan to deal with turnover by rehiring recently retired officers failed spectacularly. Officers rushed to retire early so they could receive both a pension and a salary while not serving in the field where the bodies were needed most.

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