Secret Service ‘complacent’ before Trump shooting, independent panel recommends overhaul

WASHINGTON – The Secret Service has become bureaucratic and complacent and an overhaul is needed, according to an independent review released Thursday of the first assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.

Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, was shot in the ear July 13 during a political rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. A spectator was killed before a Secret Service sniper killed the gunman.

The Secret Service acknowledged failing in its mission to protect the former president, and acting director Ronald Rowe vowed changes. A Senate report also blasted the agency's performance.

President Joe Biden’s administration launched the independent review that criticized the Secret Service and recommended a number of changes.

“The Secret Service has become bureaucratic, complacent and static even though risks have multiplied and technology has evolved,” the report said. “Without that reform, the Independent Review Panel believes another Butler can and will happen again.”

The bipartisan panel commissioned by the Department of Homeland Security included Janet Napolitano, a former department secretary; Frances Townsend, a homeland security adviser in George W. Bush’s administration; Mark Filip, a former federal judge; and David Mitchell, a former superintendent of Maryland state police and former state secretary of public safety and homeland security in Delaware.

“We will fully consider the Panel’s recommendations and are taking the actions needed to advance the Secret Service’s protection mission,” Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of Homeland Security, said in a statement. The actions will respond not just to the failures before the shooting but to “systemic and foundational issues that underlie those failures,” he said.

Rowe, the acting director, said in a statement he would carefully examine the report and recommendations, but that the agency has already begun improving security for its protectees.

The Secret Service is developing a comprehensive plan to handle both protection and complex investigations by increasing the agency’s staffing, modernizing its technology and improving its training program, Rowe said.

“We remain fully committed to working with the Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, and Congress to address the failures that contributed to the July 13 attempted assassination of former President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania,” Rowe said in a statement.

The panel conducted 58 interviews and reviewed more than 7,000 documents.

“The Secret Service must be the world’s leading governmental protective organization,” the report said. “The events at Butler on July 13 demonstrate that, currently, it is not.”

Recommendations from the panel included overhead surveillance for outdoor events with presidential candidates, a situation report whenever a protected person arrives at an event, and at least one Secret Service officer stationed with each state and local law enforcement agency at the event’s communications hub.

The recommendations should be implemented by March 2025 and evaluated by October 2025, the panel said.

The Secret Service’s own review of the shooting revealed the agency’s officers weren’t using the same radios as local authorities the day of the shooting, so warnings about a suspicious man with a range finder were delayed. The review also revealed an agent assigned to monitor drones at the event lacked the equipment and expertise to monitor unmanned aircraft such as a drone the gunman flew at the site hours before the shooting.

"The tragic events of that day could have been prevented by Secret Service, and there must be accountability within the agency to ensure this does not happen again," Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the top Republican on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that oversees the Secret Service, said in a statement.

Two months after the Pennsylvania shooting, a gunman hid undetected for nearly 12 hours Sept. 15 at a Trump golf course in Florida before a Secret Service agent chased him away while Trump was playing golf. The suspect was arrested and has been charged with attempted assassination.

The Secret Service said before Trump returned to Butler for another rally this month that the agency made “comprehensive changes and enhancements to our communications capabilities, resourcing and protective operations.” For example, the president is protected by bullet-resistant shields at outdoor events, and agents now work side-by-side with local law enforcement officers at events.

Contributing: Cybele Mayes-Osterman

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Secret Service 'complacent' protecting Trump before shooting: report