Securing America: Protecting the President

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy brought fundamental changes in the way Presidents are protected.

FOX News Radio White House Correspondent Mike Majchrowitz, who frequently rides in the Presidential motorcade, has a look at those changes in our series on national security:

Securing America.

That tragedy in Dallas ended a kind of age of innocence. Protecting the President took added importance — and the Secret Service saw its mission and its size grow.

(Smith) “To almost 7,000 employees today versus about 350 in 1963.”

Deputy Director A.T. Smith says one change was the creation of an intelligence division to get ahead of threats.

(Smith) “Any threat that comes to the Secret Service we investigate thoroughly. We like call it running it to ground.”

Smith says the agency collaborates better with law enforcement now. And no more open top cars — the President rides in a limo built like a tank — its capabilities: classified.

(Smith) “I can assure you that it’s far, far beyond what was available and what we used in 1963.”

At the White House, Mike Majchrowitz, FOX News Radio.