Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis Celebrates 50th Anniversary

“The O’Fallon Police Department was one of the first Illinois law enforcement agencies to join the Major Case Squad,” stated Mayor Graham. “I am proud that O’Fallon has such highly trained and experienced officers that are dedicated to keeping O’Fallon and the surrounding communities safe.”

Since the inception of the Major Case Squad, members of the O’Fallon Police Department have actively served in all positions within the Major Case Squad ranks. O’Fallon’s current Public Safety Director, Chief Eric Van Hook, serves on the Board of Directors, six O’Fallon officers serve as investigators, and three of O’Fallon’s Public Safety Command Staff serve in supervisory roles.

The Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis was formed in 1965 and has been one of the longest standing collaborations of professional law enforcement agencies in the nation. The Major Case Squad encompasses six counties in Missouri and four counties in Illinois and serves nearly 2.5 million citizens.

The premise behind the inception of the Major Case Squad is to bring together specially trained, extremely motivated and highly experienced investigators from around the Metro East area to aggressively investigate major crimes. During the tenure of the Major Case Squad, it has been successful in solving major crimes and averages nearly an 80% clearance rate. During a Major Case Squad call-out, between 15 to 25 investigators, from all different departments, will respond to a command post within three hours of the discovery of the crime, bringing a wealth of law enforcement knowledge and experience. The Major Case Squad is also highly specialized in new and advanced computer and cellular telephone systems.

The Major Case Squad has no direct government funding and is operated on donations from businesses and citizens. The Board of Directors of the Major Case Squad is made up of Chiefs, Sheriffs and private business people of the counties represented. The Squad employs one part time Executive Director. The Major Case Squad remains one of the most professional, knowledgeable and motivated law enforcement entities in the country.

Pictured: Twenty-five (25) members of the O’Fallon Police Department, both current and retired, celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Major Case Squad on Thursday, September 17th at the Missouri Athletic Club.