Whoever takes over the embattled Secret Service will face an insurmountable task.
They must handle plunging morale, a tarnished reputation, budget holes and plenty of blunders that led to the resignation of Director Julia Pierson, the Wall Street Journal reports.
How disgruntled are employees? A 2013 survey found that Secret Service agents had the lowest employee job satisfaction in a decade.
And now there are elected officials who want to change how the Secret Service operates.
“Long term, we must consider restructuring the Secret Service’s mission,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the Utah Republican who has emerged as one of the agency’s most vocal critics in recent days.
From 2010 to 2014, the number of people who protect the president and others fell from 3,800 to 3,533.
Now Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson is considering appointing an outsider to operate the Secret Service.
The problems are numerous, said Jon Adler, the president of Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, a group whose members include Secret Service agents.
“You don’t have the current training, you have an overworked, tired overextended workforce and it’s going to factor into response time,” he said. “If the agency is properly funded, properly staffed and properly trained, those things in conjunction with the right protocols, then the system works,” he added.
