Secret Service discussing White House checkpoints

NEW YORK – The U.S. Secret Service is having preliminary discussions about setting up security screening checkpoints near public areas around the White House, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press Sunday.

The official said the measures have been discussed by the agency previously. But the talks have taken on added urgency following an incident Friday in which a man carrying a knife jumped over a gate around the White House and made it to a building entrance.

The official insisted on anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss internal deliberations by name.

The Secret Service tightened security outside the White House after the embarrassing breach, in which Omar J. Gonzalez, 42, of Copperas Cove, Texas, climbed the fence, ran across the lawn and entered the building before agents stopped him.

The first family was away from the White House at the time.

Secret Service Director Julia Pierson ordered increased surveillance and more officer patrols. She also began an investigation into what went wrong.

The breach triggered a rare evacuation of much of the White House. Secret Service agents drew their weapons as they hurried White House staffers and journalists out of the West Wing through a side door.

Less than 24 hours after Gonzalez’s arrest, a second man was apprehended after he drove up to a White House gate and refused to leave. On Sunday, a Secret Service spokesman identified him as Kevin Carr, 19, of Shamong, New Jersey.

There were no indications the two incidents were connected.