Acting Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy(Photo: Susan Walsh, AP)
WASHINGTON — Four senior Secret Service officials will be reassigned as part of a continuing shake-up of the beleaguered agency following the botched September response to a White House intruder, officials said.
Interim Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy confirmed the re-organization Wednesday, a month after a special investigative panel delivered a scathing review of organization in the aftermath of the White House breach.
"I will be implementing leadership changes in the Secret Service management team,'' Clancy said in a written statement. "Change is necessary to gain a fresh perspective on how we conduct business. I am certain any of our senior executives will be productive and valued assets either in other positions at the Secret Service or the department.''
The action was first reported Wednesday afternoon by the
Washington Post.
The changes will apply to the oversight of the agency's protective, technology, investigative and public affairs divisions, said an agency official who is not authorized to comment publicly. The official said the executives will be eligible for reassignment within the Secret Service or in the larger Department of Homeland Security.
Clancy's action comes after the special panel established by the Department of Homeland Security found an organization "starved for leadership.'' It also urged the construction of a taller perimeter White House fence as "crucial'' to the protection of the president and his family.
In the September incident, Omar Gonzalez hopped the existing barrier and sprinted across the north lawn untouched before bursting through the unlocked front door to the iconic mansion.
The incident prompted close scrutiny of the agency's operations and the resignation of then-Secret Service Director Julia Pierson, the first woman to lead the agency.
Clancy, who formerly directed the agency's presidential protective division, was called out of retirement last fall by President Obama to help stabilize the agency. The special investigative panel's report has recommended that the next permanent director of the agency be selected from outside its ranks.
"Only a director from outside the service, removed from organizational traditions and personal relationships, will be able to do the honest top-to-bottom reassessment this will require,'' the panel concluded last month.
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