The largest U.S. police group, the Fraternal Order of Police, criticized the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) after it failed to “secure an obvious weakness in the security” of Donald Trump’s July 13 rally in Pennsylvania.
Patrick Yoes, the group’s national president, condemned a comment by a USSS spokesperson who suggested that it was the responsibility of local law enforcement to be positioned at the area where the shooter was located.
“We must remember that the law enforcement mission is a shared mission and law enforcement at every level routinely cooperates and collaborates with one another. More than 90% of U.S. law enforcement are State and local officers. They would not be as effective at their jobs without the support of the Federal colleagues, and our Federal partners would be unable to perform their functions without the assistance of State and local agencies,” Yoes said. “Suggestions made in the media that suggest local agencies should play no role in assisting the USSS at events like the one in Butler simply do not know what they are talking about.”
He explained that while the Secret Service will “need to rely on State and local law enforcement to ensure the protection mission is successful,” some of the “anonymous comments from unknown officials” have caused state and local law enforcement agencies to “wonder if they can rely on the Secret Service.”
“I am concerned that anonymous statements or media speculation could have a chilling effect on the ability of Federal, State, and local law enforcement to work together through what will certainly be a grueling campaign,” Yoes said.
“Whatever happened in Butler, this was not a failure of the local, State, or Federal officers on the ground who responded to the shots fired at former President Trump, they acted heroically and put their lives on the line to protect everyone else at the event. We must recognize that,” he added.
“This is a failure at the management or command level who failed to secure an obvious weakness in the security of this event. The shooter should never have had access to the roof from which he made his attack. Whether the plan or the execution failed will come to light, but in the meantime law enforcement still has a job to do.”
Yoes statement comes as Secret Service spokesman Anthony Gugliemi claimed that local police were responsible for securing areas outside of the event perimeter.
Local police, however, have pushed back against these claims, instead saying that “Secret Service always has the lead on securing something like this.”
