Independent review panel slams Secret Service as 'too insular'

The U.S. Secret Service needs an outsider to overhaul the insular agency, beef up staffing and improve training — after building a higher fence around the White House to prevent another armed incursion, according to an independent review of the embattled agency.

An executive summary of the highly classified review revealed deep problems at the top of the Secret Service, which is charged with guarding the U.S. president and other senior government officials.

"The next director will have to make difficult choices, identifying clear priorities for the organization and holding management accountable for any failure to achieve those priorities," the group wrote after interviewing 50 Secret Service employees.

"The panel heard one common critique from those inside and outside the Service: The Service is too insular,” the published summary said.

"Only a director from outside the Secret Service, removed from organizational traditions and personal relationships, will be able to do the honest top-to-bottom reassessment this will require.''

The panel said special agents and uniformed division personnel work an "unsustainable number of hours."

"The Secret Service is stretched to and, in many cases, beyond its limits," the panel said. It recommended adding at least 85 special agents and 200 uniformed officers so the agency can shorten long shifts, reduce overtime and free up agents for regular training.

The agency's training regimen is far below acceptable levels, it said, with the average special agent receiving only 42 hours of training.

The panel acknowledged that many of its recommendations had been made before but never implemented.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said in a statement that the recommendations are "astute, thorough and fair."

Johnson appointed a four-member independent panel in October after a September 19 intrusion by a veteran who had served in the Iraq war. He scaled the White House fence, sprinted across the lawn and managed to venture deep inside the mansion before an off-duty agent stopped him. President Barack Obama was inside during the incident and the White House was locked down for 90 minutes.

That, and other security lapses, raised concerns that Obama was not as well protected as he should be in an age of global tumult, and Julia Pierson resigned under fierce criticism on Oct. 1.

The incident prompted the panel's first recommendation to build a better fence "as soon as possible.” It recommended one that is at least 4 or 5 feet higher and curves outward at the top to give agents more time to assess the risk of a jumper.

But the panel noted that the agency’s problems “go deeper than a new fence can fix.”

In November, an internal review concluded that training, poor staffing and a series of missteps contributed to the breach.

The incoming chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Ca.), on Thursday promised an independent congressional review of the agency.

Al Jazeera with wire services