Deputies with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office will begin this week retaking their psychological tests after it was discovered a psychologist who administered the exams has not been licensed to practice in Tennessee since 2001.

Shelby County officials said the human resources department was informed by the Sheriff’s Office that the state identified the “flaw” in the county’s standard pre-employment process for new deputies dating back to 2013.

“This has resulted in a need for additional psychological testing. The retesting of deputies hired under this 2013 process is underway,” said Mike Lewis, the county’s human resources administrator.

Lewis said in addition to the deputies, some jailers and corrections officers will have to retake the testing. Since 2013, roughly 650 employees have been added, and 200 will have to be retested.

Lewis said it will cost $200 per employee, a total of $40,000.

It is not known why it took six years for the licensing issue involving psychologist Dr. Charles T. Kenny to be discovered by the county.

According to the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance spokesman Kevin Walters, the office was notified in December when the Peace Officer Standards & Training Commission, or POST, raised questions about Kenny’s qualification. He was listed on paperwork for performing the psychological profiles for SCSO deputies.

“It is estimated by SCSO officials that Dr. Kenny has been performing the psychological exams since 2014 for Shelby County. SCSO officials have told POST they have identified around 200 applicants who may be at issue because of the doctor's expired license,” Walters said in an emailed statement Tuesday.

The state said the psychological evaluations for SCSO deputies were signed by Kenny and supervised by Dr. John T. Johnson. Johnson is a licensed psychologist and works in Greeneville, Tennessee.

The Tennessee Department of Health website shows Kenny and Johnson were issued their psychologist licenses in 1971. Johnson’s license does not expire until June 2020, while Kenny’s license expired in September 2001.

In Tennessee, law enforcement applicants must take a psychological evaluation, conducted by a “Tennessee licensed healthcare provider qualified in the psychiatric or psychological field.” The provider must be certified to be “free from any impairment as set forth in the current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association,” Walters said.

“POST accepted the earlier SCSO psychological evaluations as being properly conducted by a qualified mental health professional until we learned otherwise,” Walters said. “Shelby County has begun the process to employ a new examiner and implement a new methodology to have the proper examinations performed for the officers.”

Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner, who was elected last year, said in a statement from his spokesman that he had no comment about the incident. When testing was performed by Kenny, Bonner was second in command with the SCSO, serving as chief deputy under former Sheriff Bill Oldham.

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, also newly elected last year, told the media Monday at a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday event the county is investigating.

“We’re working real hard on that,” Harris told reporters. “This is four or five years ago. We are investigating right now. If any of what we have heard so far is true, then we’ll be making a reference to the district attorney’s office to see whether or not any laws have been broken and see if the community can get some kind of reasonable settlement.”

Kenny is listed online as the owner and president of a marketing firm called Right Brain People.

According to the company’s website, Right Brain People is in its 40th year of “helping clients build power and equity into their brands. We pioneered emotional research, by developing Right Brain Research, a proprietary methodology for uncovering the emotional needs and emotional barriers that drive perceptions, feelings, behavior and decisions.”

The company states on its website it has worked with 600 of “America’s top companies,” including McDonald’s, Walmart, Wells Fargo and First Tennessee.

Kenny could not be immediately reached for comment at his Memphis office.

Reporters Bill Dries and Omer Yusuf contributed to this story.