Phoenix VA Police Leadership Retained Despite Substantiated Racial Harassment Findings

What Is “The Hallway Strut”?

At Phoenix VA Police, “The Hallway Strut” is the swagger of leadership officials who kept their badges, authority, and control after substantiated racial discrimination and sexual misconduct—because the Phoenix VA "Executive Leadership" overseeing the department from 2022 until its 2025–2026 consolidation under OSP allowed protection over accountability.

They did not clear their names.

Executive leadership simply allowed the consequences to be optional—and left employees (especially female employees) and taxpayers carrying the damage.

https://c.org/VkJDJcbyKF

UPDATE: THE PAPER TRAIL IS HARDCODED. VAIOC LOGGED.

​On July 7, 2026, the complete administrative record of corruption was officially forced into the VA's national Integrated Operations Center (IOC) under VA Directive 0322.

​Phoenix Executive Directors Elijah Ditter and Stacey Scherpf, along with national OSP leadership, were placed directly on the open transmission. Local management can no longer hide or filter this crisis.

​The national enterprise log now permanently records:

​• The binding 2023 OEDCA liability finding for a racially hostile work environment (Case No. 200P-644-2022-147530).

​• The substantiated 2023 sexual harassment findings against a retained supervisor.

​The Bottom Line: National security desks are now actively monitoring the footprint. Any further attempts by local leadership to sweep this under the rug or target whistleblowers are being tracked at the highest level of the agency. The truth is locked in.

UPDATE: HERNANDEZ KNOWS. THE LEADERSHIP REMAINS.

On June 22, 2026, Patrick L. Hernandez, Chief of the VA's Office of Operations, Security, and Preparedness (OSP), received our Open Letter regarding the Phoenix VA Police Department.

This was not the first warning.

On February 11, 2026, Hernandez personally visited Phoenix VA Police after years of whistleblower disclosures involving racial harassment, sexual harassment, retaliation, and credibility concerns within police leadership.

He heard the concerns.

He became aware.

Yet the same leadership remains.

Officials associated with substantiated misconduct continue to occupy management positions, while employees continue to report retaliation.

Most troubling, OSP's own Office of Security and Law Enforcement has recognized that certain officials can become:

• "potentially a Giglio-impaired individual unsuitable for a VA Police position."

Notice for Applicants and Potential Hires:

Please be aware that as of 2026, the Phoenix VA Police leadership actively employs and retains individuals in supervisory positions who have violated harassment policies, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and engaged in racial discrimination and sexual harassment. Furthermore, whistleblowers and individuals who file complaints reportedly face ridicule, discreditation, further harassment, and retaliation. This environment persists because the Executive Leadership of the Office of Operations Security and Preparedness (OSP) has failed to take effective action to reform the department, despite confirmed instances of racial and sexual discrimination.

Multiple Final Agency Decisions (FADs) involving Phoenix VA Police-related matters are currently pending as of now, with employees and observers awaiting determinations regarding discrimination, retaliation, hostile work environment allegations, and related workplace misconduct concerns.

Pending matters demonstrates that concerns surrounding Phoenix VA Police were not isolated incidents, but part of a broader leadership and workplace culture controversy that remained hidden for years behind what some employees described as a “small-town mentality” within a federal law enforcement environment.

Recent public relations efforts and image rehabilitation attempts cannot erase years of documented complaints, substantiated findings, retaliation concerns, and leadership decisions.

Under OSP oversight of the Phoenix VA Police Department, the message has become clear:

• If you are a Black or African American employee, your voice will not be heard—even when discrimination is substantiated."

OSP "Executive" Leadership continues to retain supervisory officials with substantiated "racial and sexual harassment," signaling that this conduct is acceptable.

And if you are a woman—especially a Black woman—
you are even less likely to be heard.

This is not oversight.
This is tolerance of discrimination under federal authority.

OSP leadership has made a quiet but unmistakable statement in 2026: substantiated racial harassment is acceptable under their oversight. By retaining supervisory law enforcement officials found responsible for racial misconduct, they have endorsed placing individuals in positions of public trust who hold the power to arrest, charge, and impact lives permanently.

This directly contradicts VA’s own legal and ethical standards requiring integrity, impartiality, and public trust in federal service .

Rather than correcting the long-standing culture of R.O.T. (Retaliation, Obstruction, Tolerance) within Phoenix VA Police, OSP has absorbed it. The result is no longer just R.O.T.—it is now R.O.T.T.E.N. at the oversight level.

No matter how the department tries to spin the narrative, whether by claiming former officers “made it up” or dismissing complaints as exaggerations, the facts say otherwise.

The VA’s own attorneys confirmed what officers have been saying all along: this department has a real problem with race discrimination and sexual harassment.

That truth is already on record. It is only a matter of time before continued investigations, litigation, and public scrutiny expose the full scope of the damage and force accountability.

We will continue to support every effort to bring these systemic failures into the light until the harm is acknowledged, addressed, and stopped.

🚨 Update (Jan 2026)

On Jan 16, 2026, Phoenix VA Police reportedly detained a non-English-speaking man for ICE — no charges, no judge, no court appearance.

⚠️ ICE administrative warrants are civil, not judicial, and do not authorize VA Police to arrest or detain.

❗If accurate, this raises serious due process and federal authority concerns tied to longstanding oversight failures.

📄 Read here: https://c.org/LYyW2Vt5nN

Senior leadership within OSP and at the executive level of the Phoenix Healthcare System and the Phoenix VA Healthcare System are aware of substantiated racial discrimination, sexual harassment, and other serious misconduct. ❗

Despite this awareness, there appears to be little to no meaningful action taken to address or correct these issues. This lack of accountability raises serious concerns about leadership responsibility, oversight, and commitment to a safe and equitable workplace. ⚠️

These matters warrant further questioning and a formal investigation. To ensure transparency and accountability, an Administrative Investigation Board (AIB) should be considered. 🔍⚖️

Inside a Failed OIG Investigation: Records Show Phoenix Veteran Affairs Police Corruption — Case No. 2024-02060-HL-0660 — Referred to Their Own Oversight (OS&LE) and Cleared ("Non-Sustained")

https://archive.org/details/va-oig-hotline-case-2024-02060-hl-0660-complaint

VA OIG Complaint: #2024-03707-HL-1220 (Firearm & Sexual Harassment)

FOIA records raise serious concerns about Phoenix VA Police oversight. A firearm incident involving a non-patient employee was handled under a patient-only policy exception, limiting scrutiny. A related Harassment Prevention Program complaint substantiated 3 of 4 claims, confirming misconduct.

This occurred three days after the April 1, 2024 VA police tragedy in Kansas. Despite multiple harassment complaints elevated throughout 2025 to VA leadership and oversight offices, records reflect minimal corrective action.
Read the documents here:

https://www.scribd.com/document/974782995/VA-OIG-Complaint-2024-03707-HL-1220-Firearm-Sexual-Harassment

"OAWP Overtime Investigation Memorandum, 25-PhoenixAZ-28230 (Phoenix Veterans Affairs Police)"

https://www.scribd.com/document/967299488/OAWP-Overtime-Investigation-Memorandum-25-PhoenixAZ-28230-Phoenix-Veterans-Affairs-Police

This May 22, 2025, OAWP memorandum details a VA self-investigation (case 25-PhoenixAZ-28230) into anonymous claims of improper overtime at Phoenix VA Police for "investigative assistance" tasks, possibly violating 38 USC 902. OAWP's team found no issues, labeling overtime as administrative (e.g., document prep for audits), and closed the case.

However, conducting their own probe raises impartiality doubts, especially reinterpreting "investigative assistance" to avoid scrutiny—amid VA's ongoing scandals of racism, discrimination, retaliation, harassment, and abuse, particularly at Phoenix VA Police, fueling suspicions of bias or cover-ups.