HUGE INCREASE TO THE RUBBER GUN SQUAD

By bob Walsh

 

                                                                                   "Uh ... why do I want to be a deputy ... that's a good question ...  Uh ... I guess it's because I get to wear a uniform and carry a gun, and have girls gawk at me .. and break up parties and stuff like that ... Uh ... yeah, I guess that's it."

 

The Alameda County (CA) Sheriff's Department is a good size and reasonably professional organization.  Regular readers will remember I wrote a couple of weeks ago about a deputy who went completely off the rails and murdered two people.  That triggered a serious review within the department of something that might have been missed.  It ended up with almost 10% of their entire peace officer contingent being placed on the rubber gun squad.

The department did an audit of the psych tests going all the way back to 2016.  What they found was troubling.  

It seems that 47 of the current deputies failed their psych evaluations.  The officers continue to receive pay and benefits.  Assuming you believe what the S. O. is saying they got some bum info from POST.  They were allegedly told that they could hire deputies who received a D on their psych eval.  That is only sort-of true.  They can be hired if they take and pass a second exam finding them "suitable" for employment as a peace officer.

The S O spokesman announced that they hope to give the follow-up exams and have all 47 deputies back on duty within 60 days.  The shrink doing the evals will NOT be an employee of the S. O.  

By the way, it has come out that the murderous deputy, Devin Williams Jr., had been involved in a relationship with one of the people he shot, Maria Tran.  He had believed her to be unmarried.  He also murdered her husband.