Panel report on Trump's assassination attempt calls for deep reform in the Secret Service

An independent panel looking into July's assassination attempt on Donald Trump concluded the Secret Service needs deep reforms to avoid incidents like that from repeating.

According to AP News, the report, written by four former law enforcement officials, said the Secret Service failed that day due to a lack of communication and recommended bringing new leadership from the outside.

The news agency said the independent panel also found deep, systematic issues within the agency. This is the third investigation into the agent's actions that day.

Authorities were not the only ones to uncover the deep-rooted issues within the agency. After the assassination attempt, the media uncovered the problems that left the agency unprepared for 2024.

The election year was set to be challenging for the Secret Service. Many events overlapped, and the agents had to continue their regular protection duties.

Elections are very demanding, with threats and high-stakes events like debates, party national conventions, and dozens of rallies nationwide.

Still, that was not the only security-intensive event this year: the United Nations General Assembly and a NATO summit also happened in 2024, prompting agents to protect heads of state.

Aside from those events, agents must continue their regular work protecting the President, Vice President, their families, some former Presidents, and the candidates and their spouses.

Working as a high-detail Secret Service agent is a demanding job, NBC explains. It involves hundreds of nights away from home and long hours of stressful and intense assignments.

That, along with the high level of skills, is part of why the Secret Service has such difficulty hiring new agents, CNN and NBC said. It is not the only reason.

The agency also has a problem keeping its current agents from retiring early or quitting to work in the private sector for better pay.

A New York Times investigation showed the agency suffered from a wave of resignations in preparation for the election year, which agents knew would be difficult.

According to the NY Times, around 1,400 of its 7,800 employees left in the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years. This was "the largest outflow from the agency in at least two decades," the newspaper said.

The NY Times investigation concluded that agents want to leave the USSS because of infrastructure problems and resistance to adopting new technology.

Still, the main issue was poor management. Agents told the newspaper that their hours were not well distributed and that they perceived favoritism in promotions and new hiring.

In addition, agents are overworked, anxious, and tired. The agency often assigns overtime work at the last minute and sometimes without pay. Former workers told CNN the same thing.