Secretary-designate stresses community trust, cites recruitment challenges in public-safety hearing

The governor’s nominee for Virginia’s Secretary of Public Safety told the House Public Safety Committee on Friday that rebuilding trust with communities and improving staffing in corrections will be central to his agenda.

Speaking to the committee at its first meeting of the 2026 session, the secretary-designate outlined a career that included a 23-year tenure with the FBI and leadership of the Richmond field office, and said those experiences reinforced his view that “law enforcement is not an us versus them environment” and that agencies must “always be working to build trust with the communities that we serve.” He told members he looks forward to collaborating with state, local and federal partners and with faith-based and private-sector groups.

The nominee told the committee that recruitment and retention were recurring challenges across the Secretariat and in the Department of Corrections specifically. “When I have looked across the Secretariat, I think that recruitment and retention is a consistent theme in several agencies,” he said, adding that officer and inmate safety are both priorities and that he intends to work with new leadership to assess what can be improved.

Committee members pressed the nominee on corrections policy. Delegate Patrick Hope, a former committee chair, asked whether the nominee had considered restrictive housing practices and other corrections issues in the context of trust between corrections staff and the public. The nominee said he intends to review processes and work with agency leadership to ensure decisions are informed: “I believe that the best leaders are informed leaders,” he said.

Delegate Tony Wilt asked the nominee to address lessons from a previously released internal FBI memo and a related inspector-general review. The nominee referred members to the public inspector-general report and said it concluded there was “no malicious intent, no wrongful purpose, no bias, no targeting of religion,” and described his leadership philosophy as collaborative.

Delegate Eric Phillips raised whether an independent, outside agency should investigate in-custody deaths instead of the Department of Corrections. The nominee said he would first seek to understand current investigative processes and then work with leadership to determine whether changes are warranted so that decision-making is transparent and defensible.

Several members thanked the nominee for his federal experience and expressed eagerness to work with him. The committee did not vote on the nomination; the session’s business proceeded to subcommittee assignments and other organizational matters.

The committee is scheduled to hold subcommittee meetings next week to begin deliberations on legislation assigned to the Public Safety Committee.