Lead Police Officer - Recruitment/Relocation Incentive Authorized

Full Job Description

This position is located within the Greater Los Angeles VA Healthcare System, performing law enforcement work for the preservation of peace and the prevention, detection, and investigation of crimes occurring on Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) controlled property.

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement: Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

For a GS-07 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-06. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service.

An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials.

If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement.

In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade.

Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment.

We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced professional for our team who has specialized training and experience in managing high-stress crisis situations.

The ideal candidate will have successfully completed Crisis Negotiation Training (CNT) and Crisis Intervention Training (CIT).

Additionally, applicants should have direct experience in negotiating with persons in crisis, including but not limited to barricaded suspects, hostage takers, and individuals attempting suicide.

These qualifications are essential for ensuring effective responses and resolutions during critical incidents.

The ability to remain calm under pressure, employ strategic communication techniques, and demonstrate empathy and patience is imperative for this role.

Preferred Experience Crisis Intervention Training (CIT): Experience in handling individuals in crisis, including de-escalation techniques and emergency response.

Crisis Negotiations (CNT) Skills: Proficiency in negotiation techniques to manage situations involving veterans in crisis, such as barricades, hostage scenarios, and suicidal individuals.

Collaboration with Law Enforcement: Previous experience working alongside community law enforcement agencies in joint operations.

Veteran-Specific Knowledge: Understanding of the unique challenges faced by veterans, including military trauma and combat-related stress.

Risk Assessment Abilities: Expertise in conducting continuous risk assessments to ensure the safety of all parties involved during crisis interventions.

Training and Education: Background in delivering training and education to community partners on VA services, suicide prevention strategies, and veteran-specific issues.

You may qualify based on your experience as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-06 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.

Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Leading and/or providing guidance to employees in their duties in response to potential threats, detecting criminal activity, fire and other emergencies; enforcing federal, state, and local laws; making arrests; conducting foot and vehicle patrol; maintaining control of a scene or incident; taking statements from witnesses/suspects and advising them of their rights; preparing detailed reports of criminal offenses, violations, incidents, and citations issued; interrogating suspects; and applying all correct rules of search and seizure.

Creditable specialized experience may have been gained in work on a police force; through service as a military police officer; in work providing visitor protection and law enforcement in parks, forests, or other natural resource or recreational environments; in performing criminal investigative duties; or in other work that provided the required knowledge and skills.

Experience as a security guard or corrections officer is generally not qualifying.

Note: Experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title, duties, month and year start/end dates AND hour worked per week.

Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social).

Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment.

You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week.

Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities.

Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment.

Physical Requirements and Work Environment: The work requires regular and recurring physical exertion, such as long periods of standing, walking, bending, stooping, reaching, crawling, and similar activities.

Performance of work may take place in attics, crawlspaces, walls, ceilings, and other limited access spaces, or in rough terrain.

The work may require some common characteristics and abilities of physical agility and dexterity to work in confined spaces and to move or lift moderately heavy objects.

The work environment involves frequent exposure to moderate risk situations, some discomforts, unpleasant working conditions, and adverse weather conditions e.g. hot, cold, dry and wet.

Safety or security precautions sometimes are necessary, and the position may have to use appropriate clothing or gear.

May be required to work long and irregular hours, on weekends, holidays, or at night, and change shifts and duty hours to conduct extensive criminal investigations.

Medical Requirements: The duties of positions in this series require moderate to arduous physical exertion involving walking and standing, use of firearms, and exposure to inclement weather.

Manual dexterity with comparatively free motion of finger, wrist, elbow, shoulder, hip, and knee joints is required.

Arms, hands, legs, and feet must be sufficiently intact and functioning in order that applicants may perform the duties satisfactorily.

Sufficiently good vision in each eye, with or without correction, is required to perform the duties satisfactorily.

Near vision, corrective lenses permitted, must be sufficient to read printed material the size of typewritten characters.

Hearing loss, as measured by an audiometer, must not exceed 35 decibels at 1000, 2000, and 3000 Hz levels.

Since the duties of these positions are exacting and responsible, and involve activities under trying conditions, applicants must possess emotional and mental stability.

Any physical condition that would cause the applicant to be a hazard to himself/herself, or others is disqualifying.

For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

Major Duties:

Leads a unit or team of employees and distributes/balances workload in accordance with established workflow or job specialization; Empathizes, engages, and communicates with all individuals encountered to ensure a positive and safe environment; Instructs/trains employees in specific tasks and job techniques; Resolves simple, informal complaints of employees and refers others to supervisor; Assures compliance with federal, state, county and municipal laws and ordinances as they pertain to VA property and agency rules and regulations pertaining to law enforcement work; Writes uniform offense reports covering incidents that contain pertinent information, which is factual, classified properly, and submits reports timely; Questions victims and witnesses at the scene of an incident; Issues citations for personally observed violations of the law, rules, or regulations; Assists victims of accidents or assaults by providing first aid, etc.; Obtains statements from persons involved in or who has witnessed an accident; Pursues and apprehends person feeling a crime scene or attempting to resist arrest while on VA property; Identifies and reacts to overcome life threatening situations such as natural or manmade disasters, hostage, barrier, terrorist attack, kidnap, or felony assault; Conducts long and short-term investigations; Performs all other duties as assigned.

Designated Drug-Testing Position: Applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment.

Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA. Applicants will not be appointed to the position if a verified positive drug test result is received.

Work Schedule: Compressed/Flexible Schedule. Candidates must be willing to work weekends, irregular work hours and extended hours if determined by the needs of the service.

Furthermore, candidates must be willing to be placed, detailed, or temporarily assigned to other related services and/or locations, if necessary. Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Position Description/PD#: Lead Police Officer - Recruitment/Relocation Incentive Authorized/PD14756A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: May be eligible for 15% lump sum payment for highly qualified applicants!

90 days after appointment, may be eligible for a 15% lump sum retention incentive! If selected, you may be required to attend the VA Police Academy (Law Enforcement Training Center LETC).

In order to attend the VA Police Academy (Law Enforcement Training Center LETC), you must be able to pass a physical fitness test of a 1.5 mile run, pushups, and sit-ups based off VA physical standards.

Failure to complete the Police Academy as scheduled by the agency may result in a removal as a VA Police Officer.

The Veteran Mental Evaluation Team (VMET) is an initiative designed to extend VA resources into the community, providing immediate support and facilitating access to VA healthcare and mental health services for veterans in crisis.

Through strong partnerships with local law enforcement and community organizations, VMET aims to reduce veteran suicide rates and improve overall well-being by ensuring seamless transition from crisis intervention to ongoing care.