Friday, December 26, 2014

Untrained, unpaid volunteers driving vehicles in presidential motorcade

Even after a string of high-profile security incidents led the Secret Service to rethink how it patrols the White House grounds, the agency still takes what some see as a risky approach to the presidential motorcade — relying on unpaid, untrained volunteers to drive some of the vehicles.
The New York Times reported Friday that volunteers “with no special training” are frequently used to drive vans, which hold journalists and White House staff members, in the middle of the presidential motorcade.
The vans typically are sandwiched between the sleek, bulletproof vehicles — driven by Secret Service agents — at the front of the motorcade, and the police cars and Secret Service ambulance at the back.
While those vehicles are piloted by highly trained agents and officers, security experts continue to worry that the often-young volunteers driving the vans in the middle pose a security risk.  More
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