Alameda Co. Sheriff faces fallout over deputies taken off duty over psych exams
OAKLAND – The Alameda County Sheriff's Office is dealing with the fallout Tuesday after it was revealed that nearly four dozen deputies allegedly failed their psychological evaluations.
A total of 47 deputies were stripped of their weapons and put on desk duty, after an internal audit revealed they did not pass psychological exams during the hiring process and were wrongly hired.
"This is a mess that should never have happened," said LaDoris Cordell, a retired superior court judge and former independent police auditor for the City of San Jose.
"Somebody knew, or if no one knew in the Sheriff's Department, this is just gross negligence and not even knowing what the requirements are to be a law enforcement person in California," Cordell went on to say.
The 47 deputies received a letter from Sheriff Gregory Ahern, explaining the office operated under inaccurate guidance from the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) that they could hire candidates who received a "D. not suited" mark on their psychological evaluations.
"Unfortunately, this is not the case," the sheriff wrote in the letter.
"I think this was an error on the part of our management that's in charge of the hiring process, as well as a problem where we were given some bad information," said ACSO spokesperson Lt. Ray Kelly.
Kelly told KPIX 5 the POST standards have changed since 2016.
"The sheriff was advised that the 'D' was a passing score, and based on the totality of the background – all of their other character references, their criminal history, their ability to do the job – had passing scores. This was one piece of 10 different dimensions that we look at in a hiring," he said.
"There's more to it than this score, and it's being represented like we hired a bunch of psychopaths – no, these are people that we're trying to suit and give opportunities to from our community and that will grow into their profession," the spokesperson went on to say. "If they don't along the way, that's why we have probationary periods and performance improvement plans and other ways to deal with problematic employees. We have an internal affairs bureau, we have a lot of different ways to deal with people who become problematic employees."
Kelly said the sheriff acted quickly once the department became aware of the issue.
"He chose to immediately suspend peace officer powers for those individuals," Kelly said. "We want to reassure POST, we want to reassure our sheriff, our management team, and our community most importantly, that we have remedied the problem and fixed it."
Cordell described the situation as, "problematic on every level." She anticipates there may be legal fallout from several directions, as a result.
"You have people who were perhaps, arrested by these folks. You may have defendants who were prosecuted and maybe convicted because of testimony of these individuals," she explained. "I guarantee you, there will be some defense attorneys who will be raising these issues in court."
Cordell also said the situation causes major problems for the staff who were improperly hired.
"Then, you have these 47 individuals who all of a sudden are put on desk duty and have been told, probably for the very first time, that they are not psychologically, or at least were deemed not psychologically suited for the job," she said. "How must they feel?"
Cordell says big picture, there is still a question that needs answering.
"The evaluation was done according to the law, and written reports were given to the sheriff's department that at least 47 individuals were not deemed to be psychologically suitable to be in law enforcement. And yet, those 47 were hired," she said. "So the question remains, why would anyone in the sheriff's department, rule or no rule, hire someone who has been deemed to be psychologically unsuitable to be in law enforcement?"
The deputies will retake the psychological examinations in the coming days and weeks, and if they get a passing score, they will be reinstated to full duty, according to Kelly.
