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Alameda County removes 47 deputies' firearms and badges after psych evaluation audit [1]

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Date: 2022-09-27

The Sacramento Bee reports that the sheriff’s office said the six-year-long delay is a result of overlooking “a 2016 rule change disqualifying deputies who would previously have passed their psychological exams.” At the time, Alameda County Sheriff’s spokesperson Lt. Ray Kelly specifically said: “We looked into the files. We began to see that the rules had changed. The scores that we thought were passing (state standards) were just below passing, and as a result of that, the people that we employed would not qualify with their psychological exams to be peace officers.”

According to Kelly, the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training greenlit written and verbal messages in 2016 to hire people who received a score of “D-Not Suited” on a scale of “A” to “F.” The California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training says it is looking into the “situation.”

Alameda County Chief Public Defender Brendon Woods told SFGate that his office was not informed of this turn of events in regards to 47 deputies placed on leave. He found out when reporters called him up to get his opinion on the matter. "If these deputies were not fit for duty, then how can we trust them to investigate our clients and testify against them in court? How can we trust them to treat people properly at the jail? This revelation could compromise hundreds of cases — closed and pending. Unfortunately, we will not know how bad it is until we get more information from the Sheriff and the District Attorney’s Office," Woods said.

In the letter, Sheriff Gregory Ahern said he hoped to "resolve this issue as quickly as possible" and hoped to do so by scheduling new psychological examinations. Lt. Ray Kelly told reporters that the new testing would take place over the next “couple months.” He didn’t speak to the fact that of the 47 deputies who failed the test, 30 work at Santa Rita Jail. Santa Rita jail, according to KTVU, has had 59 “in-custody deaths since 2014.”

Kelly also went on to say something very strange in defense of these in-limbo deputies: "I know that people are going to assume that all these deputies are killers. But that's not true. This test tries to find out if you are psychologically suitable for the job, to handle all the horrible things we see. At the age of 22, sometimes you're not. I know this isn't good. But it's not as bad as it sounds."

Actually, that is exactly as bad as it sounds. Kelly’s defense is that the psychological test that they give to prospective recruits at the hiring age of 22 means there’s a good chance you are going to fail, but somehow still get hired because “all these deputies” aren’t “killers.” It’s a meaningless thing to say. Unless, of course, you don’t believe in having a psychological evaluation for police officers. But then again, Lt. Kelly had to talk with the press about a fortnight ago about how one such young deputy is suspected of murdering two people.

Kelly went on to explain to KRON4 that “Young people, fresh out of college with very little life experience, very little work experience, tend to not do as well on the psychological exams as people with more life experience. It’s based on your emotional intelligence and a bunch of other factors.” But his explanation was in comparison to taking an “SAT test” or an “IQ” test. Which, frankly, is the whole point. If you could easily game the test, then the test would be useless, wouldn’t it?

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[1] Url: https://dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/27/2125604/-Nearly-1-in-20-deputies-in-California-county-deemed-Not-Suited-for-work-with-public

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