Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

Check of Buildings Along Motorcade Route

Agent Lawson did not arrange for a prior inspection of buildings along the motorcade route, since it was not the usual practice of the Secret Service to do so. The Chief of the Service explained that, except for inaugurations and certain Washington parades, the Service has not made surveys or checks of buildings along a Presidential motorcade route because such surveys of hundreds of buildings and thousands of windows is not practical with available men and time. In Dallas, the route necessarily involved passing through the principal downtown section between tall buildings, and arrangements for building and roof security were made only at Love Field and the Trade Mart. The Commission found this justification not persuasive, noting that President Kennedy himself had mentioned the danger from a concealed sniper that morning, as had Agent Sorrels. Levels of risk can be determined, as confirmed by building surveys made since the assassination, and an attempt to cover only the most obvious points of possible ambush might well have included the Texas School Book Depository Building. The Commission further found that substitute measures, such as depending on local law enforcement personnel and on agents in the motorcade scanning buildings, were of limited value: television films showed foot patrolmen facing the passing motorcade rather than adjacent crowds and buildings, and the three officers assigned to the intersection of Elm and Houston were focused on traffic and crowd control. Captain Lawrence did not instruct his men to watch buildings. Agents Sorrels, Lawson, and Kellerman, riding in or near the lead car, had limited opportunities to scan nearby buildings, and the Commission concluded that agents in the followup car, who must concentrate on crowd threats, do not provide a significant safeguard against dangers in nearby buildings.