Hopkins University To Teach Ethics Course For Secret Service Agents
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The U.S. Secret Service is under new scrutiny as the top watchdog at Homeland Security announces his own investigation of the growing prostitution scandal. Inspector General Charles K. Edwards wants to probe the agency's response. With some suggesting the scandal in Colombia wasn't an isolated incident, ethics experts from right here in Baltimore are stepping in. Johns Hopkins University will train dozens of agents in the coming days.
Kai Jackson has more on the university's key role.
It's no secret that Johns Hopkins is teaching this two-day ethics course but it will be on Secret Service property at an undisclosed location.
The sex scandal rocking the U.S. Secret Service now has a Maryland connection. Because of what happened, Johns Hopkins University will teach agents a two-day course in ethics.
"I believe Director Sullivan wants to keep this conversation out there in the public," said Dr. Chris Dreisbach, Director of Applied Ethics and Humanities.
A number of agents are accused of hiring prostitutes in Cartagena, Colombia, prior to a visit to South America this month by President Barack Obama.
"It's a stunning thing. It's actually disgusting," said former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Dreisbach says Hopkins has been the university partner with the Secret Service for years but says Director Mark Sullivan believed this issue needed special attention. Dreisbach says about 100 people, mostly supervisors, will attend a two-day ethics course this week.
"A useful approach to ethics is to develop the habits of knowing how to distinguish between too little and too much and shooting for the middle," Dreisbach said.
In ethics training with the Secret Service, Dreisbach says he'd like agents to think about what they do not just as a job but as a profession.
"When it's a professional, they're always in the spotlight and it's important to remember that," Dreisbach said.
In response to the scandal, the Secret Service has already decided to ban agents from drinking within 10 hours of duty.
