HR 259

Commending Colonel Matthew D. Hanley.
Agreed to by the House of Delegates, March 9, 2026
WHEREAS, Colonel Matthew D. Hanley retired as superintendent of the Virginia State Police after 32 years of service to the Commonwealth as a law-enforcement officer; and
WHEREAS, Matthew Hanley joined the Virginia State Police in 1993 and held numerous leadership roles, including director of the Bureau of Field Operations, director of the Office of Performance Management and Internal Controls, training officer, assistant division commander, and area commander; and
WHEREAS, Matthew Hanley was appointed as the 14th superintendent of the Virginia State Police on February 26, 2025, and led the Virginia State Police through a period of significant growth and modernization, working diligently to ensure that the agency was not only one of the best police organizations in the country, but also one of the best agencies to work for in the Commonwealth; and
WHEREAS, during Matthew Hanley's tenure as superintendent, traffic fatalities in the Commonwealth fell to a nine-year low, the Virginia State Police helped preserve the right to peaceful free expression at large-scale events throughout the Commonwealth, and the agency deployed resources to assist Virginians during several dangerous weather events; and
WHEREAS, under Matthew Hanley's leadership, the Virginia State Police aggressively targeted the criminal trafficking of illicit drugs, resulting in the seizure of $650 million worth of narcotics, $7.1 million of which was fentanyl, directly contributing to a decline in fatal opioid overdoses in the Commonwealth; and
WHEREAS, Matthew Hanley also oversaw operations targeting violent offenders and high-crime areas, which resulted in the seizure of 1,241 illegal firearms from criminal actors; and
WHEREAS, Matthew Hanley created the Homeland Security Division to enhance the agency's capability to detect and respond to emerging threats related to terrorism, violent crime, human and narcotics trafficking, cyber security, and critical infrastructure protection; he hired additional intelligence analysts and the Expanded Behavior Threat Analysis and Management program to investigate threats of violence to determine appropriate countermeasures; and
WHEREAS, Matthew Hanley spearheaded a comprehensive overhaul of recruitment programs that resulted in a 54.8 percent increase in trooper applications, and when the 144th Basic Trooper Session began on June 25, 2025, with 99 new troopers, it was the largest class since 2018 and the fourth largest in history; and
WHEREAS, Matthew Hanley also enhanced training capabilities by obtaining approval to proceed with an $8.6 million project for a new, 184,000-square-foot training academy; and
WHEREAS, Matthew Hanley made significant investments in employee health with an emphasis on mental health and initiated salary and benefits studies to address starting salaries, retention incentives, regional pay options to offset cost of living disparities across the state, and on-call pay; and
WHEREAS, Matthew Hanley further enhanced morale by creating the Trooper Advisory Committee and Dispatcher Advisory Committee to facilitate open discussions about job satisfaction, priorities, challenges, and achievements, as well as conducting final reviews of the new sworn promotion policy aimed at being fairer and more transparent at all levels of the agency; and
WHEREAS, Matthew Hanley implemented strategies to improve data reliability and availability, which resulted in the Virginia State Police receiving a second-place award for the large agency category in the Data Governance Maturity contest by the Virginia Office of Data Governance and Analytics; and
WHEREAS, thanks in large part to Matthew Hanley's dedicated and visionary leadership, the Virginia State Police is a more resilient, modern, and mission-ready agency that stands as a model of excellence for law-enforcement organizations across the nation; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, That Colonel Matthew D. Hanley hereby be commended on the occasion of his retirement as superintendent of the Virginia State Police; and, be it
RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to Colonel Matthew D. Hanley as an expression of the House of Delegates' admiration for his exceptional legacy of leadership in law enforcement and contributions to public safety across the Commonwealth.