Secret Service: Protection Policies Should be Consistently Updated to Better Ensure Protectee Safety

A GAO review of the Secret Service found that from fiscal year 2015 through 2025, the agency logged 83 security incidents but updated its protection policies in response to only 25 of them, and personnel aren't required to document why the rest didn't warrant changes. Drone incidents occurred repeatedly from 2015 to 2021, yet the agency didn't update policy on civilian drone use until after a drone was used in the July 2024 assassination attempt on then-former President Trump.

GAO also found eight of the Secret Service's 22 protection policies haven't been reviewed within the required four-year window, and the agency's joint security agreement with the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service hasn't been updated since 1991. GAO issued four recommendations, including requiring documented rationale for not updating policy and updating the decades-old memorandum with State; both departments concurred.

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