GAO report finds Secret Service failed to address drone threats

A report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has identified significant gaps and delays in how the U.S. Secret Service updates its protection policies in response to emerging threats. The findings indicate that between 2015 and 2025, the agency handled 83 security incidents but only updated its protection policies for 25 of them.

A primary concern highlighted by the GAO is the agency’s failure to address and document drone-related incidents. The report notes that previous drone encounters—including one involving President Barack Obama’s motorcade in 2015 and another near a Bernie Sanders rally—were not met with policy adjustments. The GAO suggests that failing to document why policies were not changed may have obscured the growing threat of civilian drones, which was relevant during the 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a drone was flown over the crowd for 11 minutes.

Additionally, the GAO found that the Secret Service failed to update eight out of 22 protection policies within the required four-year timeframe. This follows several high-profile security breaches, including the Butler incident and an armed individual bypassing barriers at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.