Guards Demand Raise in Protest at White House

About 100 uniformed Secret Service officers who guard the White House gates marched in front of them Tuesday, demanding a pay raise and improved benefits.

Some of the officers, who were not on duty or in uniform during the demonstration, carried placards reading, “I’m a target every day, why can’t I get better pay?” and “The President can sleep because the U.D. doesn’t.”

The demonstration was organized by a union representing officers from the Uniformed Division of the Secret Service, the 600-strong security force that staffs posts around the clock at the White House, the vice president’s home and other federal sites.

The division is separate from the Secret Service agents who act as the President’s bodyguards.

The march was peaceful and the participants paced back and forth in front of the White House gates on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Peter England, a 17-year veteran of the force and president of a local of the Uniformed Division Officers Assn., said the members staged the demonstration because they had not received “a real” pay raise for 10 years.

William Corbett, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said the Uniformed Division--like all other federal employees--had received raises to keep up with the cost of inflation. Starting pay is $20,552 and rises to $29,600 after 20 years, England said.