How the Secret Service secures golf courses and why it’s not easy: ANALYSIS
A second assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, this time at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, has once again brought the Secret Service and Trump's security into the spotlight.
Golf and presidents are historically linked. It is the one game a president can play for a few hours to unwind, but also serves as an opportunity to invite guests who the president can interact with to "do the nation's business." The game for most presidents serves as both a social and professional venue.
A golf course presents unique challenges for security and for the Secret Service -- it is one of those sites they have to plan for, often on a moment's notice. Golf is not something most presidents put on a schedule, but it is something the Secret Service can expect to happen.
For scheduled events, the Secret Service has the time to plan the security and have resources sent ahead of time to help secure a site. For unplanned or "off the record" movements, the Secret Service is forced to create the security "bubble" with what is attached to the protectee or what is locally available.
At the Trump International Golf Course, a property that is open to its members, the process of closing it can be problematic. The course is owned by Trump and literally sits in the middle of the city of West Palm Beach. Unlike other courses that often back up to open space or water, this course is bordered on all sides by city streets and in some cases, main thoroughfares.
This makes closing the property difficult, and in this instance, a suspected individual on Sunday -- identified by police as Ryan Wesley Routh -- was able to use that open proximity to public areas to park on a public street adjacent to the golf course, according to the Secret Service. The individual then allegedly waited in the area for almost twelve hours, before moving through some heavy bushes on the street that outlined the golf course, setting up his rifle, a GoPro camera and other equipment and waiting, authorities have said.
This type of publicly-located course in and of itself makes securing it a challenge due to the inability to shut down the major roads adjacent to the course and the obvious vehicular and pedestrian traffic that transits by it every day.
Additionally, although the former president's visit there on Sunday was unscheduled and an "off the record" movement, according to the Secret Service and the Palm Beach County Sheriff, the fact that Trump owned and frequented the course was surely known. It was also probably well known that the course did not close down when Trump golfed there.
Due to the openness and often public access to a golf course, the Secret Service may prefer to close down parts of the course, but due to sensitivities, can't. The Secret Service has the authority to create protective zones around the site, which are often balanced with public access issues and local sensitivities.
Often, this means that closing a course is not a realistic option, even on a United States military base, so the Secret Service adapts its methodology to create a rolling closure of a golf course.
Typically, the Secret Service will divide its visible security measures into three elements. This includes a forward element that clears and probes areas ahead, which in West Palm proved its value in finding and thwarting a would-be assassin. Another security element is with the protectee that focuses on "closing in" protection as well as being ready to "cover and evacuate" a protectee as Trump's detail did with him in West Palm. There is also a trailing element that covers the rear of this protective bubble.
All of these seen elements are not only looking for threats but also checking on known line-of-sight and other security issues, as the agent who spotted the alleged suspect did in West Palm on Sunday.
While these visible elements are performing their part of the protective mission, Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe at a news conference alluded to other "tactical" assets which include both Secret Service and well as local police assets. These often-unseen assets are what are probing the other areas of the course for known and sometimes unexpected vulnerabilities.
Working with local counterparts is critical to the success of any protective visit and particularly for "off the record" events, like golfing, where local agencies may be able to surge resources that the Secret Service doesn't have readily available.
That counterpart system and the varied unseen assets are what may have allowed for the rapid identification and capture of the perpetrator at Trump International and the thwarting of another would be potential presidential assassin.
