How to Become a Secret Service Agent
For many people, the Secret Service sounds like the perfect secret agent job. You get to fight crime and protect people like the President of the United States and other important political figures. It’s interesting work and a career that pays well.
So, it’s time to explore everything you need to know about how to become a secret service agent.
What Is the Secret Service?
The United States Secret Service mission is, “We protect our nation’s highest elected leaders, visiting foreign heads of state, and national special security events; and safeguard the U.S. financial infrastructure and payment systems.”
The Secret Service is one of the top elite law enforcement agencies worldwide. This agency has a variety of positions such as professional, administrative and technical experts, as well as protective and investigative agents.
What Does the Secret Service Do?
Special agents in the Secret Service may investigate financial crimes or even protect the president or vice president of the United States. They may be in the customary black suits or undercover.
As one of the oldest federal law enforcement agencies in America, it’s been investigating financial crimes since July 5, 1865. Eventually, the Secret Service took over the duty of protective services, too. Now, the Secret Service investigates all fraud crimes such as telecommunications, identity theft, computer and securities.
Secret Service agents protect people who fall in these categories:
- Presidents
- Vice presidents
- Visiting foreign dignitaries and their spouses traveling with them
- The president’s immediate family
- Former presidents
- Children of former presidents until they reach the age of 16
- Major vice presidential and presidential candidates and their spouses starting within 120 days of the election
- Other individuals as the president designates
- National Special Security Events
Secret Service agents may travel a lot and have an irregular schedule, conduct surveillance and in-depth investigations, report writing, event and routine security planning and more. Agents work at locations all across the country.
The two main divisions in the Secret Service are uniform and investigative. All Secret Service agents must work in investigations for two years or more before they can apply for a position in the protective detail division.
The agency is currently under Homeland Security, but actually used to be under the U.S. Treasury Department.
History of the Secret Service
On July 5, 1865, the Secret Service was established to combat the overwhelming problem with forged currency. Before the U.S. established the federal banking systems, states issued a massive amount of currencies. By 1865, nearly one-third to one-half of all U.S currency was counterfeit.
By 1894, the Secret Service was providing protection part-time for President Grover Cleveland. The Secret Service then established another detail to protect President William McKinley in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. After McKinley was shot in Buffalo, NY in 1901 at a reception, and then died eight days later, Congress requested full-time protection for presidents.
A full-time White House detail was established in 1902 during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency. Over the next few decades, the Secret Service continues investigating financial crimes and protecting presidents.
In 1948, the Secret Service also started investigating crimes against the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), joint-stock land banks, national farm loan associations and federal land banks.
On November 1, 1950, Secret Service member Leslie Coffelt was shot while guarding President Harry Truman. He is the first and only Secret Service officer to be killed in the line of duty protecting the president.
November 22, 1963 was the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The Warren Commission mentioned that several agents on the President’s protection detail were out drinking the night before the tragedy. No one was punished for any indiscretions.
In 1968, the Secret Service offered full protection to major vice presidential and presidential candidates.
On March 30, 1981, John Hinkley shot President Ronald Reagan and Secret Service officer Timothy McCarthy, as well as a D. C. police officer and Press Secretary James Brady.
On April 19, 1995, six Secret Service agents were killed in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, OK.
On September 11, 2001, the terrorist attacks destroyed the N.Y. Secret Service field office and one agent, Special Officer Craig Miller.
March 2003 was the month the Secret Service agency moved from the Treasury Department to Homeland Security.
In March of 2016, Julia Pierson became the Secret Service’s first female director.
On November 15, 2016, the Secret Service seized the largest amount of counterfeit currency in the history of the agency—50,000 euros and $30 million U.S. dollars found in Lima, Peru.
These are just a few highlights about the Secret Service and its progression since 1865. It’s a good idea to learn about the history of the Secret Service if you’re serious about joining the agency. You never know when you might be quizzed on it.
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Minimum Requirements to Be a Secret Service Agent
Since the Secret Service is an elite law enforcement agency, there are several requirements to meet.
Education Requirements
Potential agents must have a bachelor’s degree with a GPA between 3.0 and 4.0 or have been inducted into a college honor society.
You may be eligible to be hired at a higher pay grade with a master’s degree. The same applies to those with extensive experience and training as a criminal investigator or relevant position with a law enforcement agency.
While you don’t need a master’s degree, it may make you stand out in a large pool of applicants. A master’s degree in criminal justice or a related field could definitely help your career.
Other Requirements
To become a Secret Service agent, you must be at least 21 years old, be a U.S. citizen and have a valid driver’s license. You must also be able to qualify for a top-secret military clearance, pass an extensive background check and polygraph. Candidates must also pass a physical fitness test and have 20/20 vision corrected or 20/60 uncorrected.
Applicants also can’t have visible tattoos, markings, etc. on their neck, hands, fingers, face or head. If you do have tattoos here, they will ask you to remove them before you apply for a secret agent position.
If you’re male, then you must have registered for the Selective Service System or have a valid proof of exemption from it.
People who want to be Secret Service agents must be healthy, fit and younger than 37 years old when they apply. Sometimes, they make exceptions for veterans, but they must be younger than 40 when they apply.
And to be an agent, you also need to pass the Special Agent Entrance Exam.
You must also show that you have prior experience interviewing and arresting suspects as well as conducting investigations.
But often, prior police experience meets these requirements. As you can see, a Secret Service job is not a federal entry-level position.
If you have prior law enforcement experience, this may be the perfect job for you.
The Testing Process for Secret Service Agents
After meeting all the requirements, you are now ready for the testing part of the hiring process. You’ll take several tests, including the Treasury Enforcement Agent Exam and a report writing assessment that measures how well you write.
Report writing is a critical part of law enforcement because you have to be able to process information and record it so it’s concise and easy to read. Your report will be seen not just by people in your agency, but in the entire court system. So, you’ll want to represent your agency well and accurately document your investigations.
There will also be several oral interviews. These will assess if you have what it takes to be an agent with the Secret Service and evaluate your verbal communication skills.
Testing is rigorous, and as you can tell, the whole hiring process can take a long time with background checks and verifying that you meet the requirements.
Physical Fitness Testing
This is a basic physical fitness test where you run 1.5 miles and do push-ups, chin-ups, sit-ups and other basic physical fitness activities. If you seriously want to be a Secret Service agent, you should start your physical fitness training ahead of time, such as running, weight-lifting and other cardio exercises.
Secret Service Agent Training
Once you pass all the requirements and become a Secret Service agent, the next phase is training. The first training you’ll take is the Basic Criminal Investigator Training Program at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia, for 10 weeks.
The criminal investigator training provides education in traditional law enforcement skills with human behavior, cultural sensitivity, modern technology and criminal and civil law. The academy also teaches interdisciplinary approaches to law enforcement.
The academy consists of written exams, practical exercises, lectures and lab training so that you have the skills you need to be an efficient criminal investigator. The FLETC ensures that agents are well-rounded with the integral skills they need to be successful.
Next, you’ll spend 18 weeks in the Special Agent Program located in Washington, D.C. This training familiarizes you with the Secret Service’s procedures and policy and also teaches you how to investigate a variety of financial crimes and learn modern crime prevention methods.
Training also covers firearms, water survival, defensive tactics, physical fitness, emergency medicine and protective techniques and advances. Agents must recertify on things like firearms and CPR and first aid every couple of years, as well as how to deal with crisis situations using scenarios and simulations.
You may also get the opportunity to further your education with federal training for leadership and specialized investigative roles.
It’s intense training but important for becoming a Secret Service agent.
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Final Thoughts on How to Become a Secret Service Agent
The best thing about Secret Service agents is that, like many other law enforcement positions, no two days are the same—even if you have the same assignment. But you’ll work long hours and sometimes in all kinds of weather and environments.
But if you’re a spontaneous person who likes to travel and work in a rewarding career, then a job with the Secret Service may be for you. After all, you never know what’s going to happen during your day on the job.
And remember: There are other positions within the agency like the administrative staff that are great careers, too, but not working out in the field.
If you really want to become a Secret Service agent, start preparing for the hiring process and testing now so it won’t be so hard when the time comes. And if you have what it takes to be a Secret Service member, you’ll get paid well while enjoying a career you love. Be sure to visit LAPG for all of your essential equipment needs, including your gun holster, tactical body armor, expandable baton and more.
FAQs
How Much Do Secret Service Agents Make?
According to ZipRecruiter, Secret Service agents make approximately $74,169 a year. This means you would make about $6,181 a month and $1,426 a week. Secret Service members fall under the governmental General (GL) pay scale – GL-07 or GL-09. So, the base salary starts around $40,000 to $50,000.
One nice thing is that an agent’s salary is adjusted by experience, education and the location they’re assigned to—and that is money on top of that base pay. The pay increase is up to 25 percent and is called the Law Enforcement Availability Pay (LEAP).
Agents also receive this pay because of their irregular hours, they’re on call often and they work an average of 50 hours per week. It can significantly increase an agent’s income.
The only downside is that if you receive LEAP, you are ineligible for any other form of overtime pay. So, whether you work 40 or 70 hours in a week, you get the same pay.
How Many Secret Service Agents Are There?
There are approximately 1,300 Uniformed Division officers, 3,200 special agents and over 2,000 other professional, technical and administrative personnel.
What Types of Crimes Do Secret Service Agents Investigate?
This agency investigates threats to Secret Service protectees and financial crimes, including but not limited to:
- Credit card fraud
- Forgery or theft of U.S. Treasury bonds, checks and other securities
- Telecommunication fraud
- Identity fraud
- Computer fraud
- Other crimes that affect banks and other federally insured financial institutions
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