Warren Commission (05 of 26): Hearings Vol. V (of 15)United States. Warren Commission
History
Warren Commission (05 of 26): Hearings Vol. V (of 15)
United States. Warren Commission
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 -- Assassination; Oswald, Lee Harvey
Mr. DULLES. How many names, Mr. Director, in general, could the Secret
Service process? Aren't their facilities limited as to dealing with
vast numbers of names because of their limited personnel?
Mr. HOOVER. I think they are extremely limited. The Secret Service is a
very small organization and that is why we are fortifying them, so to
speak, or supplementing them by assigning agents of our Bureau which
is, of course, quite a burden on us. Our agents are assigned about 24
to 25 cases per agent and cover such involved matters as bankruptcy and
antitrust cases.
Now, the Secret Service has a very small group and I would estimate
that the names we have sent over number some 5,000. I would guess there
are about another 4,000 that will go over in the next month to them.
Frankly, I don't see how they can go out and recheck those names. We
keep the records up to date; if additional information comes in on
these names we furnish it to the Secret Service. They will have to call
upon the local authorities, unless the Secret Service force is enlarged
considerably so that they can handle it entirely on their own. I think
the Secret Service is entirely too small a force today to handle the
duties that they are handling. The great crowds that are at the White
House all the time, around the gates, that go to church where the
President goes, all of those things, of course, have to be checked over
by them. They always check in advance and just recently, a few Sundays
ago, they found some individuals in the basement of St. Mark's church
in Washington, where he was going to attend on Sunday morning. His
arrival was held up until they could ascertain who they were. They were
deaf mutes whose identity had not been cleared with the Secret Service.
Now, the Presidential party was delayed about 5 or 10 minutes in
reaching the church by reason of the radio call to the White House to
hold it up.
We are giving to Secret Service more and more names. The total, in
addition to the names they already had, will reach 10,000. I don't see
how they are going to be able to handle the situation as they would
want to handle it. They have to depend upon local police organizations.
Many local police departments are capable and efficient; some are
not. Many have good judgment and some have not. Wherever you have a
police department of 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 men you are bound to find
a few who will just barge in and do something which better judgment
would dictate should not be done, as in the incident which occurred in
the Midwest where they placed people practically under house arrest.
I think it was very bad judgment and should not have been done but
the Secret Service, of course, turned the names over to the local
authorities, and the local authorities do what they think is right.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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