Student

Lev Stowe

Contract Specialist | VHA | SAO East

734 Fox Ridge Ln.

Lebanon, PA 17042

July 1, 2016

Reginald Winbush

Chief of Police | VHA | SNHCS

VA Medical Center - SNHCS

6300 N. Pecos Rd.

Las Vegas, NV 89081

For the Attention of Advanced Leadership of the SNHCS

Dear Chief Winbush:

I was recently notified by some of my former colleagues that Officer Wilson is conducting a Salary Survey, with hopes that his efforts will lead to a pay increase for VA Police Officers operating in the SNHCS. After learning of this, I was compelled to write to you in support of this initiative.

As I’m sure you remember, you hired me as one of your Officers in February of 2012, and I’m proud to say it allowed me to do a lot of great things for the VA, up until I chose to leave 3 years later. As a member of your team, I was given the opportunity to serve and protect my fellow Veterans, and I was privileged to work alongside talented Officers who all came to the VA Police with diverse backgrounds in Law Enforcement.

As a Police Officer, I was given the opportunity to be heroic, and that was always important to me; being there to protect Veterans and Employees from threatening situations and violence. We never received recognition for the times we responded to gun fire on VA property, or the times we were dispatched to PCC’s because someone threatened to kill everyone there, but that was always fine for us; no one becomes a Police Officer for recognition, we do it because protecting and serving is what we love.

It’s unfortunate that a lot of what we did never truly made it to the ears of Advanced Leadership – though every case is still searchable. If Advanced Leadership knew of all the times we removed deadly weapons from visitors, and forcefully subdued a drug addicted menace that was in the midst of a psychotic episode, I feel that the discussion of a pay increase wouldn’t last very long. The fact that we never “qualified” for hazard pay was always a mystery to...