A meeting with campaign staffers normally precedes it, and it usually finishes without any problems with the presidential candidate walking off stage and being driven to the next location on the campaign trail.
However, the preparatory preparations carried out by the US Secret Service for what appears to be a standard political gathering are actually a complex, multifaceted procedure. Five former agents and one present agent who have been intimately involved in such planning say that it usually entails a number of senior and specialized agents preparing, evaluating, and approving a comprehensive protection assignment behind closed doors days in advance.
According to the former agents, who spoke anonymously about security procedures, an extensive protection plan put in place by the agency usually goes off without a hitch for an outdoor campaign event.
However, the ex-agents claimed that even with such meticulous planning, incidents like the horrific campaign rally that occurred in Butler Township, Pennsylvania last Saturday, where numerous rounds were fired into the crowd and at former President Donald Trump, killing one man and gravely wounded two more, highlight what can go wrong.
“There is no such thing as 100% security,” declared Paul Eckloff, a 22-year veteran of the Secret Service who worked on teams that guarded Presidents Trump, Obama, and George W. Bush. “Vulnerabilities will exist. You make every effort to lessen those as much as you can. You keep an eye on what you can and make backup plans.
According to the former agents, this is the standard security plan that the Secret Service devises for presidential candidate campaign events. It also includes the clear flaws in the plan that occurred at the Trump rally.
Deploys of Advance Team
Three to five days prior to an event, the Secret Service often sends an advance team to inspect the location and confer with the candidate’s staff, according to the former agents. Anthony Cangelosi, a former agent who is now a criminal justice college lecturer, said that the advance team usually consists of a mix of agents with assigned tasks, such as a designated lead and site agent, as well as special operations and technical agents. Cangelosi was assigned to security details on several stops during Democratic John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign.
The advance team’s duties include, among other things, evaluating the location for any “vulnerabilities” and determining the “assets” (i.e., agents and tools) required to offer security, he said. According to Cangelosi, the team also decides where to set up a command center and where to place operatives within the venue.
According to him, the advance team distributes agents and auxiliary law enforcement officers in accordance with the designated security perimeters, or zones, of the venue. The candidate or “protectee” is closest to the inner perimeter; they are followed by the middle perimeter, which is inside the venue but further away; and finally, the outer perimeter.
Although it was beyond the inner security barrier, the building the gunman scaled on Saturday was still well inside the assailant’s rifle’s range and only 148 yards from where Trump was speaking.
There was a suspected gunman on a roof close to where Trump spoke
Butler Township’s manager stated that the building, which is owned by a glass research company, was mentioned as a “point of interest” in two advance security meetings. The Secret Service had designated the facility as a vulnerability that needed special attention, according to two people involved with the preparations who spoke with NBC News.
The more experienced agents in a candidate’s personal detail—referred to as “shift” agents—are usually posted inside the inner perimeter by the Secret Service. Assigned as “post-standers,” who are in charge of guarding certain and targeted regions, these agents are frequently drawn from nearby Secret Service field offices to staff the middle perimeter, according to Cangelosi.
According to the agents, the federal agency usually assigns local law enforcement officers, referred to as “counterparts,” to locations on the outer perimeter in order to help with event security.
Michael Matranga, a 12-year agent who worked on many protection details for Obama, stated that the Secret Service “must depend on regional colleagues to complete some of those postings outside the boundary” because to its “limited resources and manpower.”
Although the gunman’s building was identified by the Secret Service as falling under local law enforcement’s jurisdiction, it is still unclear how the shooter was permitted to scale the structure and fire at Trump.
The former official stated, “It’s true that there are limited resources, but you work within that.” “Relocate the rally, cover or obstruct the roof, etc. This is only material from a textbook.
COUNTERSNIPER GUIDELINES
Senior agents are notified of the plan after threat assessments, venue vulnerabilities, and agent assignments are written. Before approving the plan, any agent is free to provide feedback and request revisions, according to the agents. Technical agents and special operations personnel, like the senior countersniper, prepare their own plans for the event independently.
“They’ll conduct a countersniper advance, wherein a survey is carried out using delineated lines of fire, angles, quadrants, maps, and plotting,” Eckloff stated.
According to Eckloff, the Secret Service custom builds guns for each countersniper. JARs, an acronym for “just another rifle,” are rifles that are “zeroed,” or adjusted to guarantee sight accuracy, up to one day in advance. According to the speaker, the weaponry can “neutralize a threat from as far as 1,000 yards away,” or roughly the distance between the base of the Washington Monument and the roof of the White House.
According to Matranga, when a countersniper agent is deployed to a campaign event, they are usually paired with another agent from the local field office who is in charge of a “countersniper response team” that is tasked with investigating any concerns that arise in real time during the event. He said that a countersniper has the right to shoot to kill if they determine that there is an urgent threat to life or serious injury during the incident.
“There is no “green-light system” in place where people must approach an official figure,” according to Secret Service policy, Matranga stated. “They can neutralize someone without anyone’s consent.”
Cangelosi, however, pointed out that a countersniper probably won’t fire unless they spot a weapon, which might not always be obvious.
He declared, “You’re not going to take a shot if there’s no immediate threat.”
Following the shooting, Cheatle issued a statement complimenting the countersniper team’s reaction.
She stated, “During the incident, Secret Service personnel on the ground acted immediately. Our agents put protective measures in place to safeguard the safety of former President Donald Trump, and our counter-sniper team neutralized the shooter.”
END OF WALK-THROUGHS
Senior agents walk through the venue three to four times in the hours or days prior to the event to evaluate the security plan. Lead agent, site agent, field office supervisor, and candidate’s detail supervisor are all given a chance to review the protective strategy and suggest changes, according to Matranga. According to the former agents, supervisors question post-standers and local counterparts during many team briefings and one-on-one conversations to make sure everyone is aware about their goals and responsibilities.
According to the agents, post-standers are agents who are assigned to their positions at least a few hours before to the start of an event and before a bomb squad inspects the location.
“After someone is posted, they are required to uphold the sweep’s integrity,” stated Matranga, the proprietor of M6 Global Defense, a security company with headquarters located in Texas. Because that sweep has already been completed, you have now compromised the entire website if you leave that post.
“It’s game time” as soon as metal detector-equipped screening posts are made accessible to the public, usually a few hours before an event starts, according to Eckloff.
Every event site is usually assigned a communications center by the planners, where managers receive real-time updates via radio that can be instantly disseminated over several law enforcement radio frequencies as needed.
Three people involved with a Senate briefing on Wednesday told NBC News that the gunman was spotted on Saturday as a questionable figure more than an hour before he opened fire, and the Secret Service was contacted roughly ten minutes before Trump entered the stage. It is yet unknown what information law enforcement agencies exchange in real time.
Each event has a private security plan that is only disclosed when necessary, according to Cangelosi. The Secret Service creates a security plan for every event, even if the same location is utilized more than once during the campaign, according to the agents.
BLAME GAME
Security plan breakdowns usually happen when an individual “fails to carry out their obligations, or what is known as a weak link,” according to Cangelosi. “It could be a minor break in the chain, or it could be catastrophic.”
Politicians and law enforcement experts have harshly criticized the Secret Service in response to Trump’s assassination attempt. It also sparked a chain reaction of accusations among law enforcement organizations about who should have secured the building the gunman used.
At first, the Secret Service blamed local authorities without mentioning any particular organizations. Subsequently, Butler Township officials have recanted, attributing their quick response to the gunman by their traffic control officers, and the Secret Service has commended the cops who “ran towards danger.”
The Secret Service “is always in charge” at these kinds of events, “no matter what anyone says,” according to a former agent who wished to remain anonymous.
The agent stated, “They create the plan.” “While locals must abide by it, the Secret Service is responsible for ensuring that it does so in all respects.”
Although security at such events is more of a “partnership,” according to a second Secret Service member who is still on the force, the agency is ultimately in charge of the strategy.
Cheatle was subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee to testify at a hearing next week as part of their inquiry into the attempted assassination. This week, the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security also declared that it is examining “the process implemented” by the Secret Service to safeguard the event.
Moving forward
The Secret Service uses advance planning procedures for campaign events, which Eckloff said constitute a “flexible and adaptive mission model” that quickly incorporates lessons gained from events that go wrong, even though no plan is perfect.
Cheatle promised to alter Secret Service procedures if necessary in an interview with CNN on Tuesday, following an internal assessment.
According to Eckloff, the shortcomings at the Trump event will result in “a historical sea change” in the way security is handled moving forward.
“I do think you’ll see a huge effect,” Eckloff remarked, speculating that additional manpower and wider security perimeters would probably be the first steps toward rapid adjustments to the Secret Service’s protection at campaign events.
“They’re definitely not going to hold off on making changes until the conclusion of a congressional investigation,” he declared.