The Department of Veterans Affairs today announced a series of reforms to the VA police force that will improve police recruitment and retention while increasing safety and security for Veterans, families, caregivers and survivors, and VA employees.
VA police officers respond to emergencies, prevent crime, conduct investigations and carry out Veteran-focused safety initiatives for the largest integrated healthcare system in the country. When the Trump Administration took office in 2025, it inherited a fractured VA police force that was plagued with problems that had been highlighted for years by VA’s Office of Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office.
Major issues included:
- The more than 5,000 employees in VA’s police force were managed by individual VA medical facilities and reported to medical center personnel instead of law-enforcement leaders. This led to inconsistent policing standards across VA facilities and a lack of discipline and accountability. In some facilities, VA police were being used for non-police missions, including serving as valets to park cars.
- The lack of a centralized police structure made it difficult to hire, retain and promote seasoned officers. As a result, VA lost many senior officers to other law enforcement agencies.
- To make matters worse, VA police positions were not properly classified in accordance with federal standards. The Biden Administration’s scattershot approach to addressing this problem threatened to lower the grades and pay of many VA police officers. The threat of lower grades and less pay created an even deeper crisis for the force, as it became far less competitive compared to other law enforcement agencies.
VA has taken several steps during the second Trump Administration to fix these issues and stabilize its police force:
- VA created a unified law-enforcement chain of command by placing the entire VA police force under a dedicated assistant secretary within the new Office of Operations, Security, and Preparedness. Now, VA police officers are no longer managed by medical facility staff and are led by law enforcement leaders who can consistently enforce standards and discipline, provide standardized training, and ensure nationwide staffing requirements are managed and fulfilled. This reorganization is underway and will be completed by the end of fiscal year 2026.
- This new centralized structure will make it easier to hire, retain and promote officers, as it creates a system that supports career advancement. VA has already seen signs this new structure is attracting more candidates – a recent job-posting for VA police officers garnered 3,800 applicants across the country.
- VA is conducting a complete review of VA Police job responsibilities and requirements and classifying VA police officers at higher pay grades based on the complex work they do.
- VA raised the entry-level grade for police officers to GS-6 and created positions from GS-6 through the senior executive service level, creating more career stability and making VA a more attractive place to work for law-enforcement professionals.
“Keeping the millions of Veterans, families, caregivers and employees who visit VA facilities safe is our most important responsibility,” said VA Secretary Doug Collins. “These reforms will help us accomplish that mission by creating a stable VA police force with clear lines of authority, accountability and career progression. The result will be better police recruitment and retention as well as improved safety and security for Veterans, staff and visitors.”