DSS Joins 27th Annual Kringle Detail, Strengthening Community Partnerships Through Holiday Cheer

The Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) is the law‑enforcement and security arm of the U.S. Department of State. Its main job is to provide a safe and secure environment for U.S. diplomacy. Typical duties include:

• Protecting the U.S. Secretary of State and other senior officials, U.S. diplomats overseas, and certain visiting foreign dignitaries in the United States.
• Securing U.S. embassies, consulates, and other diplomatic facilities around the world.
• Investigating crimes involving U.S. passports and visas, as well as related transnational crime, counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and cyber threats.
• Advising U.S. ambassadors on security and managing security for major international events. These functions are carried out through DSS special agents and security professionals stationed in U.S. cities and in more than 270 overseas locations.

The Kringle Detail is an annual holiday event and training exercise where Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) special agents and local police run a full motorcade and protection “detail” for Santa, Mrs. Claus, and their elves. They escort Santa in official vehicles to senior living communities and then to a celebration with Easterseals families in Northern Virginia. It originated nearly three decades ago when former DSS special agents who were members of Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Lodge #35 started it as a way to combine dignitary‑protection training with community service during the holidays. It has since become a yearly tradition and formal DSS dignitary‑protection training exercise.

The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) is the world’s largest organization of sworn law‑enforcement officers, organized into local “lodges” that support officers and their communities. NOVA Lodge #35 is the Northern Virginia lodge based in the Falls Church area, which serves as a gathering place and community hub for local and federal law‑enforcement members. According to the State Department, former DSS special agents in FOP Lodge #35 started the Kringle Detail there. The lodge provided the founding members, the organizational home, and the venue where Santa and Easterseals families gather at the end of the motorcade.

Easterseals is a long‑standing U.S. nonprofit organization (founded in 1919) that provides services for children and adults with disabilities, as well as older adults, veterans, and their families. Its goal is to promote inclusion, independence, and full participation in community life. For families, Easterseals affiliates typically offer services such as:

• Early‑childhood and child‑development programs, therapies, and autism services.
• Medical rehabilitation, assistive technology, and health‑related services.
• Family support, caregiver training, respite care, and help connecting to community resources. The Kringle Detail event specifically partners with Easterseals families, many of whom have children with disabilities or special needs.

In this event, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) was represented by a retired RCMP officer who joined the Kringle Detail motorcade as a volunteer. The article explains that local, federal, and even international law‑enforcement partners, including the RCMP, participate to support community service and strengthen relationships across agencies. There is no indication of a formal RCMP operational role beyond this symbolic and partnership‑focused participation.

For DSS agents, the Kringle Detail is designed as a practical dignitary‑protection and motorcade‑operations training exercise carried out in a low‑risk, community setting. Specific benefits described by DSS officials and agents include:

• Practicing planning and running a full motorcade: route selection, timing, staging vehicles, and coordinating arrivals and departures.
• Honing dignitary‑protection skills—keeping a VIP (here, Santa) safe while moving through public spaces, entering and exiting vehicles and buildings, and managing crowds.
• Training side‑by‑side with multiple local law‑enforcement agencies, which improves communication, coordination, and relationships they can draw on during real‑world operations. These activities closely mirror the techniques DSS uses to protect real high‑level officials.

Julia P. Sweeney is a career Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) special agent and a Senior Foreign Service officer who serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and Assistant Director of DSS for Domestic Operations. Her office oversees:

• All DSS protective operations (such as security details for officials).
• DSS counterintelligence activities.
• Domestic and overseas criminal investigations conducted by DSS.
• Security and protection of domestic State Department facilities.
• Operations of all DSS Field Offices and Resident Offices throughout the United States. She also chairs the interagency International Security Event Group, which coordinates U.S. security and law‑enforcement planning for major overseas events like the Olympic Games.