The White House Security has been criticized by a former DEA agent for playing on their smart phones instead of manning the perimeter of the most important home in the United States, The Daily Caller reported. Recently, a 42-year-old man jumped over the fence of the White House and reached the front door before authorities nabbed him.
"I am a part time resident of Washington and frequently walk to the White House," retired federal agent Michael Grimes wrote in a letter, detailing an eyewitness account of Secret Service agents, posted on longtime Washington journalist Craig Crawford's website Wednesday.
"At any given time, and within my view from any location around the White House, I see at least one, if not more, uniform officers with their heads down playing with an electronic device," recounted Grimes, the owner of Criminal Investigation Techniques, which provides training, risk assessment and consulting services to law enforcement agencies. "I have seen as many as three officers, standing together, and every one of them had their heads down and not paying a bit of attention. I have walked to within just a few feet of these officers and not one will look up. This is not only disgraceful, it is downright dangerous."
The White House could easily be vulnerable since agents are busy texting and otherwise zoned out on their phones, Grimes said, adding that he could easily overpower the Secret Service and execute an attack.
"These people are not being paid to text with their friends or Google for some place to spend a day off," he said.
"As of late, members of the Secret Service have been caught with prostitutes and getting sloshed on the job. So getting distracted by cell phones seems rather tame until, well, a mentally ill vet shows up with a machete and 800 rounds of ammo," according to The Daily Caller.
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who chairs the House Oversight Committee's subpanel on national security, said it was "totally unacceptable" that the fence-jumper made it inside the White House, the Associated Press reported.
Chaffetz said he's been investigating the Secret Service for more than a year and that there have been many security breaches that were never publicly reported.
"Unfortunately, they are failing to do their job," Chaffetz said in an email to the AP. "There are good men and women, but the Secret Service leadership has a lot of questions to answer."
