Inside the U.S. Secret Service (2004 TV Movie) User Reviews

Interesting look behind the scenes

[phoenixlau · 7/10 · 7 April 2006]

This is a pretty interesting documentary that takes you behind the scenes of the Secret Service, the agency tasked with protecting the President of the United States. The film takes place during the 2004 Bush vs. Kerry campaign, and many of the scenes involve the extensive preparation the Secret Service needs to do to secure a stadium and the surrounding areas for a presidential speech. There are of course the required scenes that walk you through various assassinations and assassination attempts on past presidents like Kennedy, Ford, Reagan, etc. These events are recounted in vivid detail firsthand by the Secret Service agents who were there at the time.

The more unusual parts of "Inside the US Secret Service", however, are the forays into the lesser known aspects of the organization. Here you get to see the Secret Service training facilities, complete with explosions and gunfire, including an evasive driving course where agents learn how to do 180 degree turns at 70 miles per hour. You also learn about threat assessment, where agents process death threats against the president and investigate them using voice recognition, handwriting analysis, and DNA/fingerprinting. There is a section on anti-counterfeit money operations, which was actually Secret Service's original role when it was first created, and still comprises about half of all Secret Service personnel. You even get to meet the guy that cleans the armored cars of the president's fleet!

The USSS prepares the venue at which President G.W. Bush Speaks.

[okayspillit · 9/10 · 1 January 2010]

This documentary helps explain a large portion of what is required of the USSS men and women in assessing threats to their protectees. It is unfortunate that much of the details of the preparation work was excluded in the documentary -- possibly for security purposes. Prep work can begin MONTHS before a protectee arrives. Also not mentioned is how thinly spread the small elite group of professionals are. As they take on new duties as part of the Dept. of Homeland Security, more agents are feeling stress. I do not remember anything in that documentary that addressed how these professionals deal with on the job stress.

Here is what I DO know about how the USSS professionals deal with a protective detail when a protectee comes to tour the area of devastation, like Katrina -- they do it with utmost professionalism even though their own homes are underwater, destroyed, and they have trouble getting to the scene. They do it and don't complain. These men & women leave their own emergencies to guarantee the safety of their protectees.

Still informative. Still very well worth viewing. Makes you kinda want to sign up if you want to have the most stressful jobs in the world.