Alameda County deputies demoted

The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office stripped 47 deputies of their arresting powers and firearms after an audit determined they should not have been hired in the first place because they failed to pass psychological evaluations, officials said Monday.

The office conducted the internal audit in the aftermath of the arrest of Deputy Devin Williams Jr., said Lt. Ray Kelly, an agency spokesperson. Williams, 24, is in custody on suspicion of murdering a Dublin couple at their home in an “execution style” shooting earlier this month.

The deputies flagged in the review received “unsatisfactory,” or “D. Not Suited,” scores on psychological examinations taken from 2016 to 2022 during the hiring process, Sheriff Greg Ahern told the deputies in a letter viewed by The Chronicle. Under California law, peace officers cannot work with these scores.

According to the Sept. 23 letter, the Sheriff ’s Office hired the deputies under information provided “a number of years ago” by POST — the California Commission on Police Officer Standards and Training — that “they can hire candidates who receive a ‘D. Not Suited’ evaluation.” The letter said sheriff’s officials learned only recently that they were hiring people they should not have.

Other deputies in addition to the 47 demoted may have earned D scores on psychological examinations before 2016, Kelly said. He said they were allowed to retain arresting power and their firearms because “prior to 2016, D was passing.”

However, when reached Monday night, POST said rules on psychological testing have not changed — and letter grades, such as Ds, are generally not used in psychological evaluations.

Meagan Poulos, POST spokesperson, said the agency only learned about the situation in Alameda County on Monday via the news media and was investigating the matter.

The action by the Sheriff’s Office, which was first reported by KTVU, raises questions about why it fell out of step with the law and other agencies, and how it will now deal with dozens of full-time staffers who aren’t eligible — at least until further testing — to fulfill their duties.

KTVU reported that in a prior news conference on Sept. 7, Kelly said Williams had passed all of his psychological evaluations. But Kelly told The Chronicle on Monday that that comment was based on the information sheriff’s officials had at the time.

“Because he is accused of murdering two people, we have pulled his personnel file and are looking at his psych backgrounds, as well as other people’s psych backgrounds,” he said.

The demotions come at a time when law enforcement agencies across the Bay Area are struggling to hire officers, and they will impact a broad array of law enforcement in Alameda County.

Kelly said that of the 47 officers who received unsuitable scores, 37 were hired between 2019 and 2022, with the other 10 hired between 2016 and 2019.

Some of the deputies may be able to regain their powers. Sheriff Ahern’s letter said the office plans to schedule secondary examinations for all 47.

Kelly said the office is working on making appointments with the small number of independent, POST-certified psychologists available to conduct tests for the deputies.

The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights released a statement Monday saying the hiring of the deputies was “disturbing.”

“When the Ella Baker Center, our partners, and thousands across Alameda County called for an audit of ACSO back in 2018, we already knew the harm that had been caused by Sheriff Ahern and his office – a blood trail of in-custody deaths, disastrous handling of COVID-19 at Santa Rita Jail, and the targeted, over-policing on our Black, Brown and low-income communities,” said the Center’s Organizing Director Jose Bernal.

The Center said that since 2014 there have been over 50 in-custody deaths at the Santa Rita Jail.

Annie Vainshtein (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: avainshtein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @annievain