The White House could become less accessible, as the US Secret Service considers ways of making the precinct safer by setting up checkpoints or barriers around it, after a man with a knife managed to make it inside the building.
Tourists willing to visit the area around the White House might
soon have to get their bags and ID’s checked blocks away from the
presidential mansion. Introducing the measure is being discussed
by the US Secret Service, according to an anonymous law
enforcement official, who spoke to the Associated Press on
Sunday.
The official said the plan for the checkpoints was not new, but
has gained momentum following a failure by the security agents to
prevent an intruder carrying a knife from entering the White
House’s front door.
Apart from the proposal on setting up checkpoints near the White
House, other options being considered include trying to keep
people off the sidewalks around the compound and creating
additional barriers, the Washington Post reports.
Omar J. Gonzalez, 42, of Copperas Cove, Texas, jumped the north
fence of the US president’s workplace and home, ran to its
entrance and was only detained once inside the building.
“Gonzalez failed to comply with responding Secret Service
Uniformed Division Officers’ verbal commands, and was physically
apprehended after entering the White House North Portico
doors,” the US Secret Service later described the incident
in a press release, adding that “the location of Gonzalez’s
arrest is not acceptable.”
The breach happened 10 minutes after president Obama and his
family had left for the Presidential Retreat at Camp David,
Maryland.
The agency’s director, Julia Pierson, promptly ordered an
internal review into the embarrassing episode, which led to a
rare evacuation of much of the White House.
The investigation will first of all try to find out why guard
dogs weren’t sent to stop the intruder and why the front door of
the mansion was not immediately locked, sources close to the
review told the New York Times.
So far the number of officers patrolling the territory around the
White House has been increased and surveillance of the area has
been enhanced on Pierson’s orders.
The White House intruder on Saturday faced charges of an unlawful
entry while in possession of a deadly or dangerous weapon. A
folding knife with 3.5-inch (8.90cm) serrated blade was found in
one of Gonzalez’s pockets.
The man now faces up to 10 years behind bars.
His family meanwhile claims he is an Iraq War veteran suffering
from post-traumatic stress disorder.
According to a criminal complaint, Gonzalez told a Security
Service agent, who was arresting him, that "he was concerned that
the atmosphere was collapsing and needed to get the information
to the president of the United States so that he could get the
word out to the people," according to the affidavit, cited by
AFP.
Attempts at trying to gain access to the White House are not a
rare thing. Less than 24 hours after Gonzalez was detained on
Friday, the Secret Service arrested a man who drove up to the
White House gate and refused to leave.
What makes Gonzalez’s attempt stand out though is that he
actually managed to make it inside one of the most protected
buildings in the world.
The breach comes as the security services are recovering from a
series of scandals.
In March, three agents from the US Secret Service responsible for
protecting President Obama in Amsterdam were sent home after a night of drinking. One of the
agents actually passed out in a hotel hallway and was later found
by the hotel staff.
In 2012, 11 Secret Service agents who were in Cartagena,
Colombia, preparing for Obama's arrival there, were relieved from their duties in light of claims
they were drinking and visiting prostitutes instead of fulfilling
their duties.