Compass Lexecon Contributes to Investigative Report Uncovering Impact of Policing in VA Health Centers

Mark Rodini, Bret Dickey, and Adam Vogel of Compass Lexecon’s Oakland office provided pro bono data analyses to the UCLA School of Law’s Veterans Legal Clinic (UCLA), Disability Rights California, and the National Association of Minority Veterans for their investigative report, “Unmasking Policing in Veterans Healthcare: Advocating for Equitable Access to Services for Disabled and Unhoused Veterans.”

This report was originally published by Disability Rights California here. The views expressed in this report are the sole responsibility of the authors and cannot be attributed to Compass Lexecon or any other parties.

Summary

The report examines concerns raised by veterans about the policing tactics of the Veterans Affairs Police Department (VAPD), one of the ten largest federal administrative law enforcement agencies in the country, at Veterans Affairs (VA) health centers. Using descriptive narratives and data analyses drawn from police records, the report emphasizes how police at VA health centers are over-involved with veterans’ healthcare, negatively impacting care and potentially deterring veterans from seeking out services.

Drawing upon analyses conducted by Compass Lexecon of a database of VAPD incident reports from four VA health centers, the report finds that VAPD routinely had encounters involving wellness checks and veterans' behavioral health and that they heavily police physical spaces, potentially criminalizing veterans who are at the facility seeking healthcare (e.g., by issuing citations for loitering, trespassing, or disorderly conduct). The analysis provides further evidence that the VAPD is heavily involved in veterans’ healthcare experiences on VA campuses.

Read the full report