VA Overhauls Its Police Force After Years of Warnings

A unified chain of command, higher pay grades and a new leadership structure will replace a fractured, decentralized Department of Veterans Affairs police force whose officers were serving as parking valets.

The Department of Veterans Affairs announced a series of reforms to its police force on June 24, 2026, addressing long-running problems that the VA’s own Office of Inspector General, along with the Government Accountability Office, had flagged for years without resolution.

“Secretary [Doug] Collins became aware of the problem shortly after his confirmation in February 2025 and moved to consolidate the VA Police under an assistant secretary for Operations, Security and Preparedness,” said Quinn Slaven, VA spokesperson. “OSP was moved out of the Office of Human Resources and Administration in October 2025, and Assistant Secretary Reginald Neal was appointed in December 2025.”

The VA police force employs more than 5,000 officers across the country, making it one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the federal government. Its mission covers the largest integrated health care system in the United States, responding to emergencies, preventing crime, conducting investigations and carrying out safety initiatives at VA medical centers and facilities that see millions of veterans, family members, caregivers and employees every year.

The reforms announced in June address three structural problems that had accumulated over years of decentralized management and inadequate oversight.

What Was Wrong With VA Policing

Before the current presidential administration, VA police officers were managed by individual medical facilities and reported to medical center administrators rather than to law enforcement leadership. The arrangement produced inconsistent policing standards across the country, undermined discipline and accountability, and in some facilities led to police officers being assigned to non-law-enforcement duties, including working as parking valets for medical center visitors.

The decentralized structure also made it difficult to hire, retain and promote experienced officers. VA consistently lost senior personnel to other law enforcement agencies that could offer clearer career advancement and more competitive pay. A parallel problem with job classification compounded the issue: VA police positions had not been properly classified under federal standards, and an effort by the Biden administration to correct the classifications threatened to reduce pay grades for many officers, deepening the recruitment and retention crisis at exactly the wrong moment.

What Has Changed With VA Policing

The core reform is a unified chain of command. The entire VA police force has been placed under a dedicated assistant secretary within a new Office of Operations, Security, and Preparedness. Officers no longer report to medical facility administrators; they are now led by law enforcement professionals who can enforce consistent standards, provide standardized training, and manage staffing requirements nationwide. The reorganization is under way and is expected to be complete by the end of fiscal 2026.

The new structure is also designed to address the recruitment problem directly. VA has raised the entry-level grade for police officers to GS-6 and created career tracks running from GS-6 through the Senior Executive Service level, giving officers a visible path for advancement that the old decentralized system could not provide. The VA says the impact is already visible: A recent posting for VA police officer positions drew 3,800 applicants across the country.

VA is also conducting a full review of police job responsibilities and requirements and reclassifying positions at higher pay grades to reflect the complexity of the work. The reclassification addresses the pay compression problem that had made VA less competitive than municipal and county law enforcement agencies recruiting from the same candidate pool.

“Keeping the millions of veterans, families, caregivers and employees who visit VA facilities safe is our most important responsibility,” said VA Secretary Doug Collins in the news release announcing the change. “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.”

What It Means for Veterans Using VA Facilities

For veterans and their families visiting VA medical centers, the practical effect of the reforms should be greater consistency in security and response across facilities. Under the old decentralized model, policing standards and response capabilities varied significantly from one VA medical center to the next depending on local management decisions and staffing levels. A unified chain of command with nationwide standards addresses that variation directly.

The VA police force protects facilities that together represent the largest integrated health care system in the United States. The conditions that had developed — officers used for non-law-enforcement duties, senior officers leaving for other agencies, pay grades misaligned with comparable federal law enforcement positions — were not abstract management problems. They affected the capacity of VA facilities to maintain safe environments for some of the most vulnerable patients in the country.

Veterans interested in a career with the VA police force can find current postings at vacareers.va.gov.