Advertisement Officer: Omaha's VA police department 'out of control' I-Team obtains memo filled with scathing criticism & video of fight between armed cops Share Shares Copy Link Copy

A memo the public was never supposed to see paints a picture of a problem-plagued police department in the VA's Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System (NWIHCS).The KETV NewsWatch 7 I-Team obtained the memo, dated April 14, 2014. In it a smattering of words no department would want associated with it: "inappropriate behavior, favoritism," and "a harassing and hostile work environment."Video: Squad room scuffle caught on cameraThe memo also accused police command of "unfair and unethical" hiring practices in the early 2014 selection process of a new detective."The chief has to go, the deputy chief has to go, the captain has to go," said one officer, with experience in the Omaha VA police unit. The officer, whose identity the I-Team agreed to protect as a whistle-blower, has years of experience training federal police."There's unprofessionalism everywhere," said another officer, who's currently on the force in Omaha.The VA maintains its own police force to secure and investigate crime on its property. There are 153 sworn units across the country. Omaha's has about 27 full-time employees. The department -- including the chief -- answers to the facility's administrative staff. Marci Mylan has been director of the NWIHCS since 2011.The Administrative Investigation Board (AIB) memo also contains testimony about a fight -- caught by security cameras -- in the police squad room. The fight happened in January 2014."Just cops horse playing ... You do stupid things when you're boys," the testimony explained of the incident."That's the language of a frat house," said Sam Walker, UNO emeritus professor of criminal justice. "It's just not the language and the thinking of a professional law enforcement agency."Walker has decades of experience as a police policy expert. He told the I-Team the obscurity of the VA police department adds to its pattern of problems."Because this is sort of off stage and in the shadows somewhere you haven't had that kind of awareness, or that same kind of pressure to improve," he said.KETV NewsWatch 7's I-Team asked both officers to describe the squad room brawl. The words they used? "Unacceptable, unethical, unsafe, unprofessional," and "dangerous."Even with witnesses in the room, both the officers involved in the fight walked away with just letters telling them to get help -- but those letters didn't go out until a month after the brawl.The AIB memo said the department's discipline of the officers was "not appropriate.""What if the lieutenant had drew his weapon, and the sergeant draws his in response? Then what? Then we have a whole totally different thing we're talking about today," said one of the officers, in bewilderment.Omaha's VA hospital sent KETV NewsWatch 7 a statement saying it's addressed the problems raised in the AIB report. The hospital said it ordered "administrative action and remedial education.""We also brought in an acting police chief from another VA for temporary leadership," the statement read.The I-Team discovered the acting chief referred to in the statement was previously a captain in the Omaha VA police until 2011. Bringing that individual back was a move Walker found unsatisfactory."You don't bring in one of your own former employees to try and right the ship," he said.