Summary: Since 2022, the Phoenix VA Police have been buried under nonstop EEO complaints, OAWP investigations, fact-findings, and alphabet-soup investigations. Leadership says there are “no issues” (specifically regarding discrimination and other issues) — but the paperwork says otherwise. When will the focus shift from binders to actually helping Veterans instead of retaliating against their officers?

🔎THE PHOENIX VA FACT-FINDING POLICE DEPARTMENT🔍

(Now Hiring: Investigators of Investigations 🕵️‍♂️📑)

If there’s one thing the PHXVAFFPD never run short on, it’s fact-finding and administrative investigations. Some departments measure success by arrests made, crimes solved, and convictions secured. At the Phoenix VA, success should be measured by how many Veterans were actually helped 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 — whether through the judicial system or not. Instead, it seems they measure it by how many fact-finding and administrative investigations can be launched against their own department — and how many harassment complaints can be opened, which only leads to even more fact-findings. At this rate, the VA may need to create a brand-new position: the "Fact-Finding Investigator" 👔.

❓A CULTURE OF QUESTIONS ❓

Harassment Prevention Program (HPP) inquiries, EEO complaints, administrative reviews, and even lawsuits ⚖️ — the stack keeps growing. It’s almost impressive: no matter the situation, somebody, somewhere, is guaranteed to be under investigation. Officers joke that if you make it through a month without being interviewed, you must be invisible 👻. Others say the department should hand out a frequent interview punch card — after ten fact-findings, the next one’s free 🆓. For new hires, instead of orientation, they should just be escorted straight to the interview room. Forget the welcome packet — around here the real first-day gift is a seat at your own fact-finding session.

And lately, it’s not just investigations. It’s musical chairs with leadership 🎶 — shifting seats every time a new accusation lands. Leadership seems to think this shuffling is discreet, but you all know better (Yes....speaking to you🫵Phoenix VA Police officers reading this). Misconduct only avoids accountability if people stay quiet 🤐 — like the so‑called “Silent Few” (Black Officers Stay Silent) who allow misconduct to go unchecked. That silence ensures someone still gets a new office, a fresh title, and the same issues circling back around, just with a different nameplate on the door.

📂 THE NEWEST CREATION??: THE FACT-FINDING INVESTIGATION DIVISION?? 📂

Satirically speaking — yes, you read that right. Imagine there’s now practically a Fact-Finding Investigation Division inside Phoenix VA Health Care System, all because of the Phoenix VA Police 🚔. Its sole purpose? To investigate the investigations 🔍. Think of it as quality control for paperwork. Instead of catching bad actors (or helping Vets), they’re catching typos in the latest “administrative inquiry” - to suspend an officer's arrest authroity and take them out of uniform. It’s like an Internal Affairs unit, but for three‑ring binders and filing cabinets 📚 — where leadership’s main job seems to be targeting their own officers instead of working with them.

This division would investigate the fact‑findings, investigate the reasons for the fact‑findings, decide if there needs to be more fact‑findings, and ask why we have fact‑findings in the first place. Sadly it seems this department has racked up more fact‑findings than anywhere else in the Phoenix VA Healthcare System. It’s the Inception of investigations: fact‑findings inside fact‑findings, about fact‑findings. If absurdity had a flowchart, this would be it 🔄.

👮🏿‍♀👮🏽 👮🏽‍♀THE EVEN BIGGER HEADACHE: EEO INVESTIGATIONS 👮🏻‍♂️👮🏿👮🏻‍♀

As endless as fact-finding can be, the EEO investigations are even worse. And for many of you 🫵🏻 Phoenix officers reading this — brace yourselves ⚠️. Multiple are on the way despite leadership insisting the department has no issues, and they’re expected to last well into next year 📅! Chances are, you’re about to be questioned. Since 2022, the Phoenix VA Police have been dealing with nonstop investigations and discrimination accusations — EEO, OIG, OS&LE, OAWP — and who knows how many more alphabet soup acronyms might get added soon 🥣. It’s pretty bad, because the so‑called “lessons learned” from the past have only led to new rounds of questioning, new interpretations, and new procedures. Each cycle promises change, but mostly delivers another round of interviews 🔁.

🕵️THE MYSTERY🕵️

The question practically writes itself: Why are there so many investigations in the first place?

• Why do harassment and discrimination claims appear faster than they can be processed? 📝
• Why are so many employees being questioned, shuffled, or reassigned? 🔄
• And why do lawsuits keep piling up as if the courtroom is just another extension of the office? 🏛️

It almost feels like the system is designed to keep the wheels of paperwork spinning, no matter the cost 💸. Investigations are supposed to bring resolution, but here they seem to generate more investigations, as if the process itself has become the product. The only investigation that hasn’t been opened yet is into why there are so many investigations — and when that one comes, it might need its own fact‑finding division just to keep up 📈.

🤔 THE IRONY🤔

Fact-findings and EEO, OAWP, HPP, ELLR processes are meant to protect employees and resolve problems. But when they multiply endlessly, they start to feel less like solutions and more like a way of life. Instead of solving issues, they begin to look like an industry of their own — one that churns out interviews, reports, and binders faster than resolutions 📑. The very tools meant to address misconduct end up raising more questions than they answer, creating an endless loop where process replaces progress 🔄.

📂FOR THOSE SEEKING PROOF FOR THEMSELVES📂

If you want to do your own fact-finding, the public record is only a few clicks away. Make a PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) account (Here). There you can pull the very documents referenced in the “Dirty Badges” series and more (See Here). One case in particular — Ramirez v. Phoenix Veterans Affairs Police Department et al (Case # 2:25-cv-00959, D. Ariz.) — includes sworn statements, OAWP findings, Reports of Investigation (ROIs), fact-finding summaries, a firearm scandal (Buying & Selling) 🔫, proof of harassment and discrimination ⚖️, and enough material to spark another 2014-level scandal 💥(however, alot of people don't even know the "VA Police" is a thing - so naturally they won't bat an eye).

Be warned ⚠️: PACER isn’t free. The government charges per page and will send a bill if you don’t pay, even reporting nonpayment to your credit 💳. However, if you remain under $35 a month, there’s no charge ✅.

💭FINAL THOUGHT💭

Every workplace has its challenges, but when the volume of investigations begins to overshadow the mission, it’s worth asking: is the system working — or just working overtime? 🕰️

If a workplace produces this many complaints, fact-findings, EEO interviews, supervisor reshuffles, and lawsuits, maybe it’s not the employees causing the disruption — maybe it’s the culture 🌐.

Because at the Phoenix VA "Fact-Finding" Police Department, the paperwork always gets its man — it’s the people who never do 📄🚫.