Certain officers from the Sunset Hills Police Department may be designated as Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) task force officers, following a passed resolution at the Board of Aldermen’s Feb. 11 meeting.

“It will provide these officers with valuable experience that you can’t always get at the Sunset Hills Police Department,” Jeffrey Senior, a detective with the Sunset Hills Police Department, said.

When a relevant case originates in Sunset Hills, HSI will be able to adopt the case and partner with the designated officers to work through it jointly. Any overtime these officers spend on the case will be paid by HSI, which Senior says will save money for the Sunset Hills Police Department.

Relevant cases may include fentanyl cases or transnational organized crime cases: individuals committing specific crimes as they travel from state to state.

When HSI requires “additional manpower” on a case unrelated to Sunset Hills, the designated officers will be called to assist while off-duty. In these scenarios, they will not be functioning as Sunset Hills police officers, but rather as HSI task force officers.

At the recent Board of Aldermen meeting, it was clarified by Chief Stephen Dodge that this initiative is unrelated to the “hot button issue” of immigration spurred on by the current presidential administration. Senior reaffirmed that while there may be some immigration police work as needed by HSI, these officers are not being designated with that specific intent.

According to Dodge, similar designations exist in the St. Louis municipalities of Chesterfield and Maryland Heights. 

Currently, the designation in Sunset Hills will be offered to the two officers in the detective bureau. Decisions beyond that have not been finalized. 

“It will be a group of progressive, hard-working police officers who do good, proactive police work,” Senior said. 

Through the partnership, HSI will offer resources to its designated officers to aid their police work, which could include databases, surveillance and more. Sunset Hills officers will be able to use these resources for their own cases, according to Senior, as long as they go through the designated officers. 

“That’s a tremendous benefit to us,” Dodge said. “In addition to that, it will get our officers valuable experience. I think it will help us retain officers in the long run.”

The idea for the partnership was presented by HSI in December 2024 after partnering with officers from the Sunset Hills Police Department on a case, and has been in the works since. Now that the resolution to approve this designation has passed, HSI will conduct its own background checks and processes – similar to a “hiring process,” according to Senior –  before anything is finalized.

“It really is a great collaboration between federal and local law enforcement,” Senior said. “It takes nothing away from the city of Sunset Hills. It only provides them with an additional layer of security.”