How the Secret Service changed after 9/11: Opinion

Even before the 9/11 attacks, the Secret Service was starting to modernize the way it did business

As President George W. Bush finished his jog on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, he never expected that day to redefine not only his administration and our nation, but also the elite group of individuals and agency tasked to keep him safe, the agents of the United States Secret Service. In the aftermath of the attack that took 2,977 individuals lives, including Secret Service Master Special Officer Craig Miller, the United States government needed to address some of the security failures that occurred during the 9/11 attacks. To do so, a whole of government approach was initiated by lawmakers to better coordinate the multitude of law enforcement, national security and intelligence agencies to better coordinate and share information. The answer was Congress' passage of the Patriot Act, which “removed barriers to information sharing between intelligence and law enforcement agencies, and mandated exchanges of information relating to terrorist threats. It also mandated changes to the Secret Service, which was followed by the passage of the Homeland Security Act of 2003. But even before the 9/11 attacks, the Secret Service was starting to modernize the way it did business. The passage of the Presidential Threat Protection Act of 2000 had made the Secret Service the federal security coordinator of designated events of national significance. It also formally authorized and expanded the National Threat Assessment Center to conduct research and training on threat assessment and various types of targeted violence. It also authorized administrative subpoenas for threat cases and authorized civil forfeiture of computers for counterfeiting offenses.