Ethics training for those without any

So this has got to be one of the biggest boondoggles in recent memory. Facing all kinds of heat over their Colombian affairs, the U.S. Secret Service has deemed it necessary for its agents to get ethics training. Really? Ethics training?

Shouldn’t ethics be one of the pillars of such an organization? Ethics training isn’t really going to do much for these people. The ones who would benefit most from it are already gone, unless the Secret Service thinks it needs to do something to regain the public’s support.

So now, they will be sending about 100 agents to two days of ethics training from professors at Johns Hopkins University. And what will that do? That will let them know when they are in a situation that requires use of ethics. But it won’t require them to act ethically. They will simply know that what they are doing is unethical.

They would be much better served by getting a course in common sense. They are easier, and they are available nearly every day if you read the right newspapers. For instance, just take a quick look at the General Services Administration, also known as the GSA. There is a prime example of how the lack of common sense led to unethical behavior.

I can’t believe that there weren’t people at the GSA who were hollering and screaming about waste, fraud, and abuse.  Close scrutiny in most government offices can turn up something, but what the GSA was about was so far out of control, some people had to suspect things weren’t exactly Kosher.

But back to the Secret Service.

The training was originally scheduled for 20 agents, but after the Colombian affair they must have seen the need to get more of their people trained. Again, the training won’t help them make better decisions, necessarily; it will just let them know when they are in a situation that requires applying ethics.

The Secret Service is a tightly wrapped group. To get in, you have to have an impeccable record, be absolutely legally clean as a whistle, have no personal fiscal issues, and, apparently, be accepted as a member of the club. They present themselves in an official manner and often can be seen scurrying around high ranking political officials, like the President, his family and cronies, and other high ranking politicos. They are truly non-partisan in their actions.

So how does such a group end up in the kind of hot water they are in concerning the Colombian affair? Are we so dumb as to think that the Colombia deal is new and has never happened before? Or is it more likely that such antics are standard operating procedures for the Secret Service?

I vote for the latter.

It could be argued, and may well be argued at that, that the agents are sent down to ensure advance security. They do their job, secure whatever area it is that the President will require security, and then they are on “their own time.” Meaning that they are no longer responsible for the President’s security, and they can spend some time cooling their heels and enjoying the culture. How they spend their down time should not be a concern to us, right?

In addition to the ethics training, the Secret Service has also announced new conduct rules. Those rules include prohibiting agents from drinking excessively or bringing foreigners to their hotel rooms. I am certain that will straighten out the problems with our Secret Service agents.