Based on tests dating to 2016, 47 deputies with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office were alerted on Friday that they would, for the time being, be stripped of certain law enforcement duties. That includes their authority to make arrests and wield firearms, KTVU News reported after receiving a copy of the letter sent to deputies.

The affected deputies, who were found to have scored a “D. Not Suited” on the evaluation, constitute a little less than 5 percent of the office’s 1,000-member force. The deputies will retain their pay and benefits. In the letter obtained by KTVU, Sheriff Gregory Ahern promised to schedule new psychological evaluations for the deputies to “resolve this issue as quickly as possible.”

Deputies will be able to “return to full duty status once you obtain a ‘suitable’ finding” upon taking a new evaluation. The new tests will be administrated by a psychologist from outside of the sheriff’s office that is certified by the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, in order to ensure that the new results are trustworthy.

Lieutenant Ray Kelly, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, told KTVU that the audit was spurred by a recent incident involving Devin Williams Jr., a 24-year-old former deputy. Williams allegedly shot and killed a couple in their home after finishing a double shift at Santa Rita Jail, and had been carrying on a relationship with the wife. In the aftermath of the killings, sources claimed to KTVU that Williams had allegedly failed a psychological evaluation.

Most of the 30 deputies affected by the decision work at Santa Rita Jail, site of 59 in-custody deaths since 2014. The remaining 17 deputies work other jobs, such as patrol.

“I know that people are going to assume that all these deputies are killers,” Kelly said. “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.”

The issue, according to KTVU, has likely been exacerbated by the pressure that the sheriff’s office is under to hire more deputies.

Newsweek reached out to the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office for comment.

Alameda County is among the biggest counties in California, located in the San Francisco Bay area and boasting a population of more than 1.6 million, making it the seventh-most-populous county in the state. The county seat is Oakland.