Audit of VA’s Police Staffing Decision Tool

The VA OIG evaluated VA’s development, validation, and governance of a tool intended to determine facility-specific police staffing needs at Veterans Health Administration medical facilities. VA police officers provide critical security and law enforcement services, and in 2018, the OIG reported that VA lacked a standardized model to determine appropriate police staffing levels.

The OIG found that although VA initiated development of the staffing tool, it could not provide evidence that the tool had been validated or distributed for use across all medical facilities. In April 2025, during the audit, the VA Secretary directed the consolidation of all VA police under a unified command structure and later established the Office of Operations, Security, and Preparedness (OSP) as a stand-alone organization. VA officials acknowledged that a validated staffing tool is still needed to support modernization efforts.

The OIG determined that unclear roles and responsibilities contributed to delays and gaps in governance. Although the Manpower Management Service (MMS) and OSP’s Office of Security and Law Enforcement formalized an agreement in 2019 to develop a police staffing model, VA did not adequately monitor progress or ensure stakeholders met their obligations. Most police chiefs told the OIG team that they had not received a finalized staffing tool or were unaware whether the version they had was ready for use.

Additionally, MMS did not fully address vulnerabilities in the staffing tool, including risks of inflating staffing needs or inaccurately combining data. MMS also lacked documentation showing that it had followed its own procedures to validate the tool and complete required close-out actions.

The OIG issued four recommendations to strengthen VA’s processes to validate and disseminate a staffing tool or similar model. VA concurred with these recommendations to support the VA police realignment effort.