The state agency vested with the power of overseeing the hiring and training of law enforcement in California will now be auditing every police department in three Bay Area counties stemming from revelations that 47 Alameda County sheriff's deputies were hired despite getting 'not suitable' marks on their psychological exams.
Community activists protest the actions of Alameda County Sheriff Greg Ahern who hired 47 deputies who received a"D. Not Suited" on their psychological exams. Oct. 5, 2022.
Meagan Poulos, spokeswoman for the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, told KTVU that a letter was sent to all the police departments that operate within Alameda, Contra Costa and San Francisco counties, asking them to make their hiring files available dating back to 2016.
The POST letter indicates "certain anomalies regarding peace officer background files in your region of the state" and asks that each department make its files available by Monday. POST did not just send letter to sheriff's offices, but also to every individual department in those three counties, including Oakland, Hayward, Richmond, Antioch and Pinole, for example,
The review will not be statewide at this point, Poulos said, because there is no indication that what happened in Alameda County is being replicated throughout California. "We have a team deploying now," she said. "We're fact gathering. We have no idea how many files this will entail."