A Department of Homeland Security inspector general’s report found that the specialized counter sniper team within the U.S. Secret Service is operating at 73% below “mission requirements.”
The 26-page redacted report dated Friday said the shortage “could limit the Secret Service’s ability to properly protect our Nation’s most senior leaders, risking injury or assassination.”
Further, the report found that some counter snipers did not meet mandatory requalification requirements, but those who missed weapons sessions still staffed 11% of 426 events attended by protectees in 2024.
The inspector general began its review after the assassination attempt of then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024.
The inspector general made two recommendations, both of which the USSS “concurred.”
“The Secret Service CS faces critical staffing shortages, which deepened after the enactment of the Enhanced Presidential Security Act of 2024. CS will need to quickly hire and train substantially more counter snipers to meet growing operational demands and be prepared for the 2028 Presidential election cycle and beyond,” the report read.
“CS will also need to ensure that counter snipers maintain their weapons skills. Failure to ensure appropriate staffing and training could result in injuries to or the assassination of our Nation’s most senior leaders and affect the entire country’s sense of safety,” it added.
It was a counter sniper who killed would-be assassin Thomas Crooks in Butler seconds after he fired eight shots at Trump, wounding the president and killing an attendee. Following Butler, “the recruitment initiative was strengthened to include recruitment incentives beginning in November 2024, and retention bonuses beginning in December 2024,” the report said.
At issue is that it takes approximately three years for an agent to become a counter sniper. After the initial 29 weeks of training, an agent must serve at least 18 months — reduced from a mandatory 24 months — in the uniformed division. Then it’s 10 weeks of counter sniper basic training, according to the report.
As a result of the shortage, counter snipers worked nearly 60,000 hours of overtime in 2024 and have logged 247,887 hours of overtime from 2020-24, the equivalent of an additional 24 full-time employees per year, according to the report.
The report distinguishes counter snipers — who locate and neutralize enemy snipers — from snipers, who engage targets from concealed positions.
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