As soon as Governor Tim Walz was named vice presidential candidate, the U.S. Secret Service stepped in to ensure his protection, the head of the local Secret Service office said Wednesday.

The Secret Service has agents from across the country assisting it as bodyguards – it is equipped with “a significant number of agents,” said Matt Cybert, special agent in charge of the Minneapolis field office.

Anyone who sees Walz while he’s out and about in St. Paul or at the Minnesota State Fair “will definitely see the Secret Service,” Cybert said. “We provide 360-degree protection, so you’ll see us all around him, no matter where he goes.”

The Minneapolis field office is responsible for establishing additional security measures for Walz’s residence in St. Paul.

“There’s a lot there,” said Cybert, including armored vehicles. “We have it under control.”

The Secret Service is required to protect key presidential and vice presidential candidates. Vice President Kamala Harris announced Tuesday that she had selected Walz as her running mate.

The governor already had a security contingent: the Minnesota State Patrol. The State Patrol’s protective unit consists of police officers who are responsible for protecting all sitting governors of Minnesota and their staff. They also provide security at the governor’s residence.

According to State Patrol Lt. Michael Lee, the State Patrol is now working with the Secret Service.

Increased control

Following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump in July during a re-election rally in Pennsylvania, the State Patrol increased its security presence. That increased presence will remain in effect, Lee said Tuesday.

In the Secret Service’s work, the number of agents assigned “depends on their assessment of the venue and the level of security they provide for the events,” says former Secret Service agent Anthony Cangelosi, now a professor of criminal justice at John Jay College.

There are also aspects of the Secret Service’s work behind the scenes that are not visible to the public, says retired Secret Service agent Joseph LaSorsa, who was in charge of presidential protection in the White House during Ronald Reagan’s administration and now owns a company that provides personal protection, security training and investigative services.

And with the Secret Service under intense scrutiny following the Pennsylvania shooting that killed a former fire chief who attended the rally, “I’m sure they feel it at their senior leadership level down to the agents who do their jobs every day,” Cangelosi said.