What New Secret Service Recruits Go Through At Boot Camp

We got an inside look at the United States Secret Service’s intense, six-month basic training program. Senior video correspondent Graham Flanagan spent three days inside the James J. Rowley Training Center in Laurel, Maryland, where he observed recruits at various stages of training.

According to the Secret Service, about one in every 100 applicants makes it through the agency’s intense vetting process to become a recruit. The base salary for new agents and officers is $47,000 per year.

After spending three months at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in either Artesia, New Mexico or Glynco, Georgia, recruits return to Laurel for three more months of Secret Service-specific training.

Although we were allowed to film inside the academy, much of the training remained secret. According to the training center’s deputy chief, Michael Buck, this was intended to avoid “giving people specifics into our protective methodologies … we don’t advertise our playbook.”