WASHINGTON - Paula Reid, the new Secret Service boss for the South American region, was in Cartagena, Colombia, preparing for the president's visit when she received an urgent report: A prostitute, upset because she said she had not been paid by a Secret Service agent, had created a disturbance in a nearby hotel, knocking on doors and yelling in the hallways at daybreak.
With roughly 24 hours left until President Obama was due to arrive in town, she instructed her staff to swoop into the Hotel Caribe and inspect hotel registration records for all Secret Service employees.
The Miami-based Reid, who had been staying at a nearby hotel, swiftly rounded up 11 agents and officers and ordered them out of the country. She alerted her superiors that she found early evidence of "egregious" misconduct involving prostitutes, and set in motion the public uncovering of the most wide-reaching scandal at the agency in decades, according to government officials involved in the case.
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It fell to Reid, 46, to ride herd on a rowdy group of male colleagues, including two who were assigned to supervise the group, the morning after a drunken bender, according to the officials. While the sordid and salacious details of the men taking prostitutes to their rooms is now well-documented, less is known about the role played by one of the agency's highest-ranking black women in making the decision to replace them on an assignment in which there is no room for error.
For Reid, the moment was not without risk, opening her to a potential internal backlash for ruining the men's careers and, once the news became public, embarrassing an agency that prides itself on maintaining a stoic public face. Officials familiar with the probe said Reid had the director's endorsement in the swift steps she took to handle the matter, but some agents said another senior manager might have been less aggressive.
Those who know Reid said the move revealed a steely resolve that has marked her 21-year rise through the ranks of an agency whose macho reputation has again come under scrutiny. Her story offers a counterbalance to critics who contend the Secret Service has been slow to clean up its act from the "Mad Men"-era days when some agents joked their off-duty mantra was "wheels up, rings off."
Not that Reid, an intensely private person, would admit it. In an interview, she offered few new details of her role, sticking to what colleagues described as her businesslike approach.
"I am confident that as an agency we'll determine exactly what happened and take appropriate action," she said in an interview with her and an agency spokesman.
Now, Reid is still in the thick of it, assisting in the ongoing investigation. Those who have worked with her since she joined the Secret Service in 1990 described her as well-suited for the challenge.
Regular promotions
Reid has never married, but describes herself as close to her siblings, including her twin sister, and her family, most of whom live in the Maryland suburbs.
Tall and lean, she is regularly seen at the gym at 5:30 in the morning and at her desk by 7 a.m. She is always serious when on the job, a former agent said.
Reid graduated from the University of Maryland and joined the Secret Service at age 25 after visiting an NAACP job fair that sought to encourage minority applicants for law enforcement.
Reid has earned a steady stream of promotions. After spending time as a special agent on the Presidential Protective Detail, Reid joined management as a supervisor in the Miami field office in 2004, overseeing administrative duties. In 2007, she was called back to Washington, where she had two prominent jobs in the next four years.
She was special agent in charge of the Protective Intelligence and Assessment Division, which ensures that threats to the president and other officials are identified and carefully monitored, and she was deputy special agent in charge of the Presidential Protective Division, overseeing the White House complex and access to it.
That included responsibility for the East Wing and regular contact with first lady Michelle Obama and her family.
Reid's most recent promotion, earlier this year was to the highly coveted position of top boss of the Miami office, a division of more than 150 employees.
Even under ideal circumstances, such a job is a headache of tight scheduling within a vast operation that includes several hundred personnel in a foreign country.
"She's the ultimate boss for that whole region," one agent said. "You did it in her house, so you better know she's going to come down hard."
