Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff. Lauren bogobaum here, dark sunglasses, unsmiling mug's head
Speaker 1: on a swivel, the surreptitious earpiece of black suit. Everybody
Speaker 1: knows a Secret Service agent when they see one, right,
Speaker 1: But the United States Secret Service is way more than
Speaker 1: no nonsense automatons packing heat and putting their lives on
Speaker 1: the line to protect presidents and other political big wigs.
Speaker 1: When the United States Secret Service came into being at
Speaker 1: the end of the Civil War, protecting people wasn't even
Speaker 1: in its DNA, and even today, only about three thousand,
Speaker 1: six hundred of the seven thousand plus U S Secret
Speaker 1: Service employees are the stern looking bodyguards known as special Agents,
Speaker 1: that protect the President and other select government officials. Some
Speaker 1: one thousand, six hundred fifty Secret Service employees are Uniformed
Speaker 1: Division officers. They wear uniforms similar to police uniforms. It's
Speaker 1: their duty to securely lock down the venues wherever they
Speaker 1: may be where the President and other officials appear. The
Speaker 1: Uniformed Division is responsible for security at the White House
Speaker 1: to the Naval Observatory, the residents of the Vice President,
Speaker 1: the Treasury Department and other places like foreign embassies in Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. Another two thousand, three hundred or so provide technical,
Speaker 1: law enforcement and other behind the scenes support, things like
Speaker 1: figuring out the safest routes for motorcades, the best and
Speaker 1: most secure way to outfit the beast, a recent name
Speaker 1: for the president's main limo, how to avoid chemical attacks,
Speaker 1: and the more mundane governmental work of filing expense reports
Speaker 1: and answering questions from officers or agents who have trouble
Speaker 1: signing into their laptops. Most US Secret Service personnel aren't
Speaker 1: hanging out with the president, and it's hardly the stuff
Speaker 1: of Olympuss Fallen or white House down. When the U
Speaker 1: s Secret Service was formed in eight sixty five, it
Speaker 1: was a bureau of the Treasury Department. Its mission was
Speaker 1: to battle widespread counterfeiting. At the end of the Civil War,
Speaker 1: nearly a third of all currency in circulation in the
Speaker 1: United States was fake. The Secret Service was there to
Speaker 1: help stabilize the financial system by ridding the country of counterfeiters.
Speaker 1: So not exactly in the line of fire either. Still,
Speaker 1: it's important stuff and a key pillar in the Secret
Speaker 1: Services dual mission, which is protection of the government's top
Speaker 1: dogs and investigation of crimes regarding the financial system at
Speaker 1: home and abroad. The people of the agency take both
Speaker 1: missions very seriously. For the article this episode is based
Speaker 1: on how Stuff Works. Spoke with a U. S. Secret
Speaker 1: Service spokesperson via email and they said, over the past decade,
Speaker 1: the Secret Service has made approximately fifty thousand arrests for counterfeiting,
Speaker 1: cyber and financial crimes and seized one point eight billion
Speaker 1: dollars in counterfeit currency. Secret Service has also prevented potential
Speaker 1: loss of approximately fifty three billion dollars. So does the
Speaker 1: Secret Service still report to the Treasury? Nope. On March
Speaker 1: one of two thousand three, the U. S. Secret Service
Speaker 1: was transferred to the newly formed Department of Homeland Security,
Speaker 1: which now seems a better fit. But the Secret Service
Speaker 1: is still all over protecting the financial infrastructure of the nation. However,
Speaker 1: as actors like Clint Eastwood, Gerard Butler, Channing Tatum, and
Speaker 1: many other Hollywood types have shown, you can't get past
Speaker 1: the particularly American coolness that is part of being a
Speaker 1: Secret Service special agent. They are the very real people
Speaker 1: willing to take a bullet to save others lives. Certainly
Speaker 1: it's not that exciting all the time. Former agent Jonathan Whackrow,
Speaker 1: who spent fourteen years with the Service, more than four
Speaker 1: of them on protective detail of then President Barack Obama,
Speaker 1: told Vanity Fair the best way to sum up being
Speaker 1: Secret Service agent is prolonged periods of boredom only broken
Speaker 1: up by moments of sheer terror. The Secret Service agents
Speaker 1: saved Ronald Reagan during an assassination attempt in n They
Speaker 1: helped Jackie back into the convertible. When John F. Kennedy
Speaker 1: was shot in nineteen sixty three, they wrapped up presidential
Speaker 1: candidate Donald Trump and rushed him off the stage when
Speaker 1: someone shouted gun at a rally in They're there every
Speaker 1: inauguration day, providing a human shield as the president almost
Speaker 1: invariably takes a stroll down Pennsylvania Avenue. It's pretty slow
Speaker 1: when it's not terrifying, but the pressure at all times
Speaker 1: is outrageous. Lieutenant Christopher Fagin told a bunch of Secret
Speaker 1: Service rookies and a business Insider video the Secret Service
Speaker 1: has a zero fail mission. What that means, in Lehman's terms,
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen, is this, you don't get a bad
Speaker 1: day in the Secret Service, if you have a bad
Speaker 1: day and you don't do your job, you're going to
Speaker 1: change the world, and he doesn't mean for the better.
Speaker 1: It wasn't until the assassination of President William McKinley in
Speaker 1: n one that the Secret Service was tasked with protecting
Speaker 1: the President, and becoming a special agent isn't easy. It's
Speaker 1: been reported that only one out of a hundred applicants
Speaker 1: makes it too special agent training, and a lot of
Speaker 1: them wash out once they get to the James J.
Speaker 1: Rowley Training Center in Laurel, Maryland. All recruits go through
Speaker 1: a six month training program. After they've been thoroughly vetted,
Speaker 1: they're given a polygraph. They go through firearms training, driver training,
Speaker 1: where they're taught things like a vase of maneuvering, hand
Speaker 1: to hand combat training, your basic federal law enforcement training.
Speaker 1: Once they make it that far, they spend three to
Speaker 1: five years in a field office at home or abroad,
Speaker 1: and only then maybe do they move on to the
Speaker 1: second phase of the career in a protective division assignment.
Speaker 1: The best go on to the Presidential Protective Division, where
Speaker 1: most serve a minimum of six years. After that, they
Speaker 1: move on to the final phase of their careers, which
Speaker 1: can include further protective assignments for their field office work,
Speaker 1: or a bump into specialty assignments, including things like training
Speaker 1: new agents, getting into work on electronic crimes, or being
Speaker 1: assigned to a congressional staff gig. Entry level special agents
Speaker 1: start at about forty nine thousand dollars a year. In
Speaker 1: phase three of their careers, they can make nearly a
Speaker 1: hundred and forty five thousand a year. In one five
Speaker 1: women became the first female special agents, but it wasn't
Speaker 1: until that a woman, Julia A. Pearson, was the first
Speaker 1: appointed to lead the agency, and of the more than
Speaker 1: seven thousand employees today, just shy of a quarter are women.
Speaker 1: The Service insists, though that it's trying. Their spokesperson said
Speaker 1: the Secret Service is continually and actively recruiting to ensure
Speaker 1: a diverse mix of employees. Part of these efforts include
Speaker 1: visiting colleges, hosting information sessions, and participating in career affairs.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article eight Secrets you
Speaker 1: Didn't Know about the Secret Service on how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com, written by John Donovan. Brain Stuff is production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio in partnership with how Stuff Works.
Speaker 1: Dot com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Or more
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