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

Secret Service Personnel and Facilities

Testimony and evidence before the Commission indicates the Secret Service is overstretched due to understaffing and inadequate modern equipment. Secret Service field agents average a caseload of 110.1, far higher than the FBI’s average of 20-25 cases per agent, and Secret Service agent salaries are lower than those of the FBI and leading municipal police forces. While Congress approved a 1964 appropriation for 25 new field office positions, the Secret Service has proposed a 20-month, $3 million plan to add 205 total agents: 17 for the PRS, 145 for field offices to handle increased security investigations and support Presidential and Vice Presidential travel protection, 18 for a rotating training pool to supplement the White House detail for unexpected needs, and 25 to provide full-time protection for the Vice President. The Commission urges the Bureau of the Budget to review this proposal with the Secret Service and support a supplemental appropriation request as soon as the plan can be fully justified.

Manpower and Technical Assistance From Other Agencies

Prior to the assassination, the Secret Service rarely requested assistance from other federal law enforcement agencies for protective duties, but post-assassination it has piloted and expanded short-term use of personnel from other agencies. In the four months after the assassination, the FBI provided 139 agents across 16 separate occasions to assist with Presidential visit protection, and other agencies contributed 9,500 hours of support between February 11 and June 30, 1964. The FBI has agreed to continue this assistance, and the Commission endorses formalizing these arrangements through formal agreements between the Secret Service and relevant federal agencies, with potential eventual codification via executive order, to allow the Secret Service to better plan long-term personnel requirements. The Commission also notes that shared protective responsibility across agencies improves security outcomes, and recommends formalizing existing permanent arrangements with the Office of Science and Technology and other federal agencies that provide scientific and technological support to the Secret Service, potentially via executive order or memoranda of understanding.