{"id":364746,"date":"2025-01-31T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-31T15:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=364746"},"modified":"2025-01-31T18:22:04","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T18:22:04","slug":"defenders-protect-veterans-at-medical-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=364746","title":{"rendered":"Defenders protect Veterans at medical center"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Southeast Louisiana VA<\/a> has a team of defenders specially trained to protect Veterans and employees at the medical center and community-based outpatient clinics 24\/7.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the best and most capable police service in the Southcentral VA Health Care Network,\u201d said Chief Connie Washington. \u201cWe have top-notch equipment and we participate in ever-evolving training. We are prepared to respond to any threat out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police Services performs a wide range of duties from access keys to anti-terrorism. While their duties include security, that\u2019s only part of what they do.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a federal law enforcement agency,\u201d said Sgt. James McGinty. \u201cOur standard of training is a lot higher than security companies or in-house security at other medical facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police Services works well as a team because many of its members are military Veterans.<\/p>\n

Good camaraderie where we treat this like the military<\/h2>\n
\n
<\/a>
Lt. Samuel Alexander and Officer Belton Brister patrol the entrance area on mobile T-3 units<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cMost of us served in either Iraq or Afghanistan, so we have that rapport with each other that we had in the military,\u201d said Ray Whitman, police captain. \u201cIt gives us good camaraderie up front, where we treat this a little bit like the military. We ourselves are a family and try to take care of each other the best we can. We have each other\u2019s back. If anything happens we can support each other both here on station and personally at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

The officers also make it a point to maintain rapport with other employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we walk around the facility, we talk to many people in other services so that we can be familiar with them,\u201d Whitman explained. \u201cMany of them know us by name. Sometimes they\u2019ll ask us questions or just have a conversation with us. By doing that, we\u2019re promoting teamwork among everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

With such a wide range of responsibilities, the officers must remain proficient in performing a variety of tasks to accomplish their work. Training is the key to maintaining readiness to respond to any situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe train more than other law enforcement agencies that are out there,\u201d McGinty said. \u201cThat includes ground defense training, gang and drug detection, de-escalation, online training, and training that is mandated from our law enforce training center every month.\u201d<\/p>\n

Close relationship with other agencies<\/h2>\n

Police Services officers are also equipped with body cameras, enabling them to live stream to a command post. That enhances situational awareness for a team responding to a situation.<\/p>\n

Police Services also maintain a close relationship with other agencies, such as the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, State Patrol and local police departments. It\u2019s not uncommon for Police Services to provide support from outside law enforcement agencies who request it and vice versa.<\/p>\n

As the dedicated staff continues its mission of providing the best care possible for Veterans, they can be sure Police Services is accomplishing its mission of protecting them and all Veterans at the medical center and clinics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Southeast Louisiana VA has a team of defenders specially trained to protect Veterans and employees at the medical center and community-based outpatient clinics 24\/7. \u201cWe are the best and most capable police service in the Southcentral VA Health Care Network,\u201d said Chief Connie Washington. \u201cWe have top-notch equipment and we participate in ever-evolving training. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":364748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,385,1267],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-364746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-va-police","category-visn-16"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=364746"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":364752,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364746\/revisions\/364752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/364748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=364746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=364746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=364746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}