Woes at the Secret Service could put president in peril

President Donald Trump is in more personal danger than most of us realize. And so will be his successor, whoever he or she may be.

The reason is that the U.S. Secret Service is overworked and understaffed, with agents logging grueling overtime as they routinely see their days off canceled. To make matters worse, this crucial arm of federal law enforcement is operating with technology so outdated that sensitive data are unsecured. Until recently, some agents were using radios so old that they had parts that were no longer manufactured. Hiring has been so slow. Morale is low.

This was learned in congressional hearings Thursday, albeit not the ones that dominated the headlines.

The nation’s eyes and ears were on former FBI Director James B. Comey Thursday as he testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee. And rightly so, as he all but called Trump a liar and deftly laid out the case that Trump could well wind up charged with obstruction of justice.

Meanwhile, before the House Subcommittee on Homeland Security, the problems of the Secret Service were laid out and described as “deeply embedded” in an “insular” culture that will take years to resolve, according to an accompanying report by the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security.

For years, its failings have been an embarrassment.

Remember when a man scaled the fence around the White House in September 2014, scampered across the lawn, sprinted through the front door and made it all the way to the doorway of the Green Room before being tackled?

In March, Trump was inside the White House when a man was able to cavort on the lawn for more than 15 minutes before being taken into custody. He had two cans of pepper spray.

Thursday’s testimony by Inspector General John Roth acknowledged that changes have been made to speed up hiring and to follow other recommendations for improving the agency.

An ongoing audit will look deeply into the culture of the Secret Service, trying to pinpoint why in the past agents have hesitated to report ethical and other lapses for fear of retaliation or managerial inaction.

Randolph Alles, a retired Marine general, is the new director. He is the first chief hired from outside the Secret Service in more than 70 years.

It will take a lot of money and time to retool the agency, and with the accession of Trump the need is more urgent. His administration has burdened the Secret Service like no other. The need to secure Trump Tower in New York and Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach and to protect the president’s adult children as they travel has only added to the egregious staffing problems.

Yet, Trump’s 2018 proposed budget increases Secret Service funding by a paltry 1 percent, with a plan to hire 450 more agents. It won’t be enough as the agency is beset with attrition and low morale.

In fiscal 2015, uniformed division officers in the White House branch worked an average of 22.9 overtime hours per pay period and were called into duty on nearly 72 percent of their scheduled days off.

Talk about a recipe for burnout.

And when it comes to protecting the president, there is no room for error.