Severe Secret Service sniper shortage leaves US leaders vulnerable, watchdog warns
The Secret Service’s counter sniper team is understaffed, jeopardizing the safety of U.S. leaders like the president, according to a new inspector general report.
The report comes just over one year after the counter sniper team took out the gunman who opened fire on President Donald Trump in July 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania, and as the agency has ushered in a series of reforms in response to the assassination attempt.
The Department of Homeland Security Inspector General determined that the Secret Service’s counter sniper team is staffed 73% below the level necessary to meet mission requirements and does not have an adequate pipeline to hire more.
‘Failure to appropriately staff CS could limit the Secret Service’s ability to properly protect our Nation’s most senior leaders, risking injury or assassination, and subsequent national-level harm to the country’s sense of safety and security,’ the report, was released Friday, states.
Meanwhile, demand for snipers is up. Events the sniper team supported increased by 151% from calendar year 2020 to 2024, even though staffing only increased 5% over that span, according to the report.
As a result, the watchdog recommended that the agency execute a plan to beef up staffing to meet the counter sniper staffing requirements. The Secret Service concurred, per the report.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Secret Service for comment and has not yet received a reply.
Meanwhile, the agency has already spearheaded a series of reforms after the assassination attempt against Trump in 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania.
For example, a bipartisan House task force that investigated the attack found that the attempted assassination was ‘preventable’ and concluded various mistakes were not an isolated incident.
Among the mistakes found, the report concluded that the Secret Service did not secure a ‘high-risk area’ next to the rally, the American Glass Research (AGR) grounds and building complex.
Failure to secure this area ‘eventually allowed Crooks to evade law enforcement, climb on and traverse the roof of the AGR complex, and open fire.’
Former Secret Service acting director Ronald Rowe told lawmakers in December 2024 that immediate changes to the agency after the Pennsylvania assassination attempt included expanding the use of drones for surveillance purposes and incorporating greater counter-drone technology to mitigate kinetic attacks from other drones.
The agency also overhauled its radio communications networks and interoperability of those networks with Secret Service personnel and state and local law enforcement officers, Rowe told the lawmakers.
‘The reforms made over this last year are just the beginning, and the agency will continue to assess its operations, review recommendations and make additional changes as needed,’ the Secret Service said in a news release in July.