PD Editorial: Problems that a taller fence can’t fix

In recognition of some major security lapses, the Secret Service has been busy meeting, testing and preparing for some significant changes to bolster protection of the president and first family.

The object of their focus: the fence surrounding the White House.

The Secret Service has made this a top priority since an intruder scaled the fence along Pennsylvania Avenue in September and quickly gained access to the presidential residence.

The Secret Service is leading the effort for the upgrade although the fence is controlled by the National Park Service, and any improvements must get the green light from an array of federal agencies. Any upgrades aren’t expected to be in place until 2016.

Overall, that’s a good thing as the last thing the nation needs are hurried changes that make the White House, as well as the nation’s capital in general, appear any more of the fortress it already is. Fortunately, it sounds as if a proposal for construction of a moat - no joke - around the White House has been rejected.

Thomas Luebke, secretary of the United States Commission of Fine Arts, said it best in a blog post in which he noted the solution “is the one that intrudes the least, and offers in return for its fortifying function the reminder that the public is welcome - and safe - at the national seats of power.”

Meanwhile, the Secret Service also is asking Congress for $8 million to build a full-scale replica of the White House at its training center so as to improve the way agents and officers prepare for attacks.

All of this is well and good. But let’s not forget the primary problem of what occurred in September.

The issue was not just that someone climbed the fence without anyone noticing but rather that no one prevented the individual from making it to the residence itself where he found the door to the White House unlocked. Even when guards reported the intrusion, some of their co-workers apparently weren’t on the right radio channel - or were on their cell phones.

These are problems no fence can fix.

This is just one of a series of embarrassing episodes for the Secret Service, ranging from agents and officers being caught with prostitutes in Colombia to, more recently, two senior agents being caught drunk as they drove a government vehicle through an area at the White House complex where their colleagues were investigating a possible bomb.

The Secret Service has made a number of changes in addition to exploring a fence upgrade. They’ve bolstered patrols, improved communications protocols and installed a new lock on the White House front door.

But all of these changes matter little if the Secret Service fails to change the culture that exists within an agency that is trusted with one of the most critical jobs in Washingon - protecting the president, the First Family and the White House.

Higher fences and locked doors will provide some level of comfort to the public, but those are small compared to the larger task of rebuilding public trust that the Secret Service is taking its job seriously.

That’s a project that may take years.