What's So Secret About the Secret Service?

[Fotheringay-Phipps]

While I’m sure there’s some element of secrecy involved in any law enforcement agency, ISTM that it’s less secret than a lot of other agencies, and I’m wondering why this particular branch of government - charged mainly with protecting important government officials etc. and investigating countefeiting - is commonly known as the “Secret Service”.

[RealityChuck]

It was originally formed to fight counterfeiters, so they were probably designated because they would work undercover (i.e, secretly). When it was decided to add the job of guarding the president, the name was kept.

[Little_Nemo]

The Secret Service is older than most other federal law enforcement agencies so it was able to pick a cooler name.

[Omar_Little]

United States Secret Service

With a reported one third of the currency in circulation being counterfeit at the time,[9] the Secret Service was created on July 5, 1865 in Washington, D.C., to suppress counterfeit currency. Chief William P. Wood was sworn in by Secretary of the Treasury Hugh McCulloch. It was commissioned in Washington, D.C. as the “Secret Service Division” of the Department of the Treasury with the mission of suppressing counterfeiting. The legislation creating the agency was on Abraham Lincoln’s desk the night he was assassinated.[10] At the time, the only other federal law enforcement agencies were the United States Park Police, the U.S. Post Office Department’s Office of Instructions and Mail Depredations (now known as the United States Postal Inspection Service), and the U.S. Marshals Service. The Marshals did not have the manpower to investigate all crime under federal jurisdiction, so the Secret Service began to investigate everything from murder to bank robbery to illegal gambling. After the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, Congress informally requested that the Secret Service provide presidential protection. A year later, the Secret Service assumed full-time responsibility for presidential protection. In 1902, William Craig became the first Secret Service agent to die while serving, in a road accident while riding in the presidential carriage.

[Freddy_the_Pig]

Repeating my post from when this question was asked in 2006:

Try to wrap your mind around the federal government as it existed in 1865. There was no federal Department of Justice–just an Attorney General and a handful of marshals–and few actions defined as federal crimes. Law enforcement was for the states.

There was no FBI, no CIA, and no foreign or military intelligence to speak of. The Army ran a few spies during the Civil War, and that was about it–no one would have thought of having an intelligence-gathering bureaucracy in peacetime. There were no federal drug laws, no DEA, and Prohibition was far in the future.

So when counterfeiting became a problem with the advent of paper currency, during the Civil War, a secret federal agency to investigate was very much a new thing. As decades went by, other duties requiring an element of detective work–such as protecting the President–were added to its mission.

The name is certainly an anachronism today–other agencies such as the CIA are larger and much more secretive. But I don’t expect it to change any time soon.

[rbroome]

@Omar_Little

United States Secret Service - Wikipedia

I was going to point out that the US Park Police couldn’t be that old, then I read that the Park Police was created by President George Washington in 1791. I don’t know the details, but that must make it one of the oldest police forces (if that is what it was in the beginning) in the world.

[Little_Nemo]

At the time, the only other federal law enforcement agencies were the United States Park Police, the U.S. Post Office Department’s Office of Instructions and Mail Depredations (now known as the United States Postal Inspection Service), and the U.S. Marshals Service.

There was also the United States Customs Service (founded in 1789), the United States Mint Police (founded in 1792), and the United States Capitol Police (founded in 1828).

[opossum]

@Little_Nemo

There was also the United States Customs Service (founded in 1789), the United States Mint Police (founded in 1792), and the United States Capitol Police (founded in 1828).

The Postal Inspection Service dates itself to 1772, founded by Ben Franklin.

[jezzaOZ]

I think the term *Secret *is more from the lesser used meaning:

Given to keeping one’s thoughts and activities unknown to others; secretive:

That is everyone knows who the Secret Service are but don’t expect them to explain what they are doing or what they know. Maybe the Closemouthed Service would be more accurate?