U.S. Secret Service | History, Duties, & Facts (2024)

U.S. Secret Service, federal law-enforcement agency within the United States Department of Homeland Security tasked with the criminal investigation of counterfeiting and other financial crimes. After the assassination of Pres. William McKinley in 1901, the agency also assumed the role of chief protective service for national leaders, their families, and visiting dignitaries.

In the final days of the American Civil War, it was estimated that as much as half of circulating U.S. currency was counterfeit. In 1865 the Secret Service was established as a specialized branch of the Department of the Treasury to combat this threat to the economy. As a result, the widespread use of fraudulent banknotes was seriously curtailed, and the organization’s mandate was expanded to include the policing of other federal crimes, including bootlegging, mail theft, and smuggling. Jurisdiction over many of these matters passed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation when that agency was created in 1908, but crimes against the financial or banking sector, including cybercrime, remain within the purview of the Secret Service.

The second, and perhaps more visible, role of the Secret Service involves the protection of prominent political figures and government officials. This includes the president, the vice president, the first family, and visiting foreign heads of state, as well as major presidential and vice presidential candidates within 120 days of a general election. While all such candidates may request protection, the Secret Service applies a series of criteria—which include a base level of success in party primary elections and fund-raising efforts, the national prominence of the individual, and the performance of the candidate’s party in previous presidential elections—to determine who will receive it.

On rare occasions, large public gatherings (such as the Super Bowl) or major political events (such as party conventions or major speeches) may be designated National Special Security Events. In these cases the Secret Service works with local and federal law-enforcement organizations to secure the event and the surrounding airspace. In March 2003 the Treasury Department ceded control of the Secret Service to the Department of Homeland Security. A scandal rocked the agency in 2012 when it was revealed that agents performing advance work for a presidential trip to Cartagena, Colombia, had taken prostitutes back to their hotel rooms. An investigation was launched to analyze what was seen as a male-dominated culture within the agency, and in 2013 Pres. Barack Obama appointed Julia Pierson as the first female Secret Service director. A series of security lapses in 2014, including one in which an armed intruder scaled the White House fence and gained access to the interior of the executive mansion, led to Pierson’s resignation.