Report Skewers Secret Service Failures, Recommends Higher White House Fence

A government review is calling for the Secret Service to have better training for agents, a staff shake up and new leadership from outside the agency and a bigger fence.

The review was ordered after a scaled the White House fence in September and headed made it to the White House.

A U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division officer stands between the temporary barricade and the fence line of the White House in Washington, DC, October 23, 2014. (JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

The report said the Secret Service had stretched resources.

“The panel found an organization starved for leadership that rewards innovation and excellence and demands accountability,” the report said. It added, “The panel found an organization starved for leadership that rewards innovation and excellence and demands accountability.”

The review panel further called for raising the fence outside the White House, currently at 7½-feet another 4 or 5 feet.

“It is now up to the leadership of the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security to ensure that all the recommendations are carefully considered,” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said in a statement. “In fact, some of the panel’s recommendations are similar to others made in past agency reviews, many of which were never implemented. This time must be different.”

“The Secret Service itself must commit to change,” Johnson continued. “But the Secret Service cannot, by itself, make many of the fundamental changes recommended by the panel. They also require engaged, sustained oversight by me and other leaders of this Department, to enforce change and ensure that the Secret Service has and utilizes what it needs to get the job done.

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