Ex-Secret Service director wanted agency to 'be more like Disney World'

Ex-Secret Service director wanted agency to &#039;be more like Disney World&#039;

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

Julia Pierson, the former head of the Secret Service who resigned Wednesday after a series of screw-ups by the agency, approved of relaxed security procedures despite concerns from other agents, and once encouraged her team to "be more like Disney World."

From The Washington Post:

In the spring, Pierson was irate at what she considered the excessive security measures her team had planned for the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, which Obama hosted this summer, demanding that it dismantle extra layers of fencing and reopen closed streets, according to two agency supervisors. Supervisors who had mapped out the security plan said they were taken aback when Pierson, who worked during high school at Walt Disney World as a costumed character and park attendant, said: "We need to be more like Disney World. We need to be more friendly, inviting." [The Washington Post]

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Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.

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