Secret Service warns of high threat levels before White House Correspondents' Dinner
Secret Service officials warned nationwide threats have reached an unprecedented level since January, nearly 40% higher than during the same period last year.
"The numbers are numbers that this agency and certainly I have never seen in my 24-year career," U.S. Secret Service Director Sean Curran said Wednesday.
Officials who briefed reporters also said the agency has carried out nearly 10 times as many mental health-related interventions involving those making threats to protected individuals or venues, compared to last year. That includes both voluntary and involuntary commitments and efforts by agents and officers to work with relatives and mental-health providers to stabilize people in crisis.
Secret Service officials attributed the uptick to a combination of online threats, lone actors, ideological grievances, foreign threats and cases involving mental-health concerns. Officials say most threats now originate online, rather than through handwritten letters or other traditional forms of communication.
"The environment has become very volatile, and that's just across the board," Curran said. He added, "The threat picture and environment is as large as I've ever seen it."
The agency treats reported threats as potentially credible threats until investigators can determine whether a person has the intent, means and ability to carry out targeted violence, according to the Secret Service officials.