After multiple burglaries were reported by local businesses in the City of Antioch over the past 48-hours including complaints of long-response times of up to four-hours, the Antioch Police Department penned an open letter to the community.
- Two More Antioch Businesses Hit With Burglary, 50 Business Burglaries in 2023
- Antioch Police Take 4 Hours to Respond to Hillcrest Taphouse Burglary Call
- Antioch Police Make Arrest in Sycamore Square Fatal Shooting
Here is the letter issued by Antioch Police:
February 16, 2023
To the Antioch Community:
We are aware of recent concerns about our police response to in-progress property crimes (such as burglaries). I wanted to take a few moments to offer a few words – and apologize. Specifically, our response to the Hillcrest Restaurant & Taphouse and Cocina Medina burglary incidents fell short of our goals, and I want to be very clear about that.
When our Dispatch Center receives an emergency call, they often get triaged based on our available officer resources, and whether the incident is a threat to life, property, or both. In this instance, all of our officers were committed to high priority calls, and we did not respond in a timely manner to these burglary incidents. We have looked into both incidents, found areas where we could’ve done better, and are taking immediate steps to address it.
If I could ask our community, please do not fault our hard-working officers or dispatchers for this lack of performance. I can tell you – without question – that our officers and dispatchers take great pride in serving and protecting Antioch, especially since many of them are from here. In the majority of incidents, we would normally respond quickly to an in-progress burglary, but for these particular incidents we did not, and I apologize to these individual business owners, and our community.
We know that folks in Antioch do not like to hear excuses – especially from their Police Department. I can tell you we are taking immediate steps to improve our staffing levels through robust recruiting efforts. We are sending four police recruits to an academy in the next few days. Three out of four are from Antioch (the other from East County), and all represent a cross section of the community we serve. We also have 10 police applicants in our hiring process currently – and if they meet our high-standards – will be additional help for improving our staffing levels.
These recruiting efforts include concerted attempts to attract women and individuals from the wonderfully diverse community we serve. Soon, we will be announcing a nationwide campaign we have joined to improve our efforts to increase the numbers of women and diverse individuals into our Police Department. We look forward to telling you more about this very soon. My shameless plug is – if you know someone you think would make a great Antioch Police Officer, please ask them to visit our website JoinAntiochPd.com, or give me a call.
We greatly appreciate the support we receive from everyone, but also appreciate (truly) when you hold us accountable when we fall short. Hopefully you’ve noticed our attempts to double-down on our transparency efforts. This is not just in-line with best practice policing reform efforts, but is our obligation to keep you informed about what’s going on, and also level with you when we fall short.
I am pleased to announce that we will have some positive news about these specific burglary incidents very soon – stay tuned. If anyone would like to talk to me about their concerns on this or any other matter where you expected better (or thought we did a good job), I can be reached at (925) 779-6938, or email: [email protected].
Thank you, Antioch.
Michael Mellone
Lieutenant of Police
Professional Standards Unit
6 comments
Antioch is filled with the criminal element as evidenced by all the crime we see and read about – thefts, burglaries, assault, homicide, hit and run. This community needs more officers yesterday, and we need to get back to and surpass what is considered normal staffing levels to deal with and set the tone that crime will not be tolerated here. Lip service, long apologies and explanations won’t do.
Can’t APD partner with other police when they aren’t available to respond due to higher priority calls? Four hours is ridiculous.
APD Please Hire good people who want to be police officers and enforce laws. Do not lower standers or make exceptions based on need. The public needs hard working police officers; who will confront criminals and enforce laws.
To the politicians stop scapegoating and using the institution of policing for your failed policies and soft on crime approach. Your Crime Policies are the real reason California is suffering. Politicians and the Media have demonized the police; this is one factor why nobody wants to be a police officers. Politicians continue to try an pass laws to demonize the police and hoodwinking the public. Yes and of course if a member of law enforcement does something wrong they should be held accountable.
Politicians ask yourselves: Why would any Mother or Father encourage or support their son or daughter to become a police officer in your city or community? Under the current political clement which politicizes, and demonizes the police and the work they do.
Antioch as well as every city in California needs police officers. The Cities with the pest polices and leadership will recruit the
best police officers. Poor knee jerk reaction polices to gain political favor; is why some Police Departments are losing Officers in record numbers. Leadership will make a Police Department better not policies.
Voters: Who you vote for in local and state elections; have a direct effect on public safety and policing. Don’t let the politicians you voted for continue to use police officers as a scapegoat. The politicians are the ones who are responsible for crime in your neighborhoods and across the state. The drug crime/abuse, homelessness, retail theft, property crime, and violent crime didn’t exist at this level 12-15 years ago (50 small business burglaries is unacceptable). Politicians and their failed social polices did this, and the entire time politicians blamed the police and demonized them. This is the result and it will only get worse if we continue to go down this road.
There is a direct correlation between Antioch PD’s increasingly severe staffing shortages and the reign of Lamar Thorpe and his cronies. Wake up, Antioch voters!!
Too late for that. The voters already had a chance and they blew it. Now their more embolden to move forward with their left wing agenda. When only a handful of people vote and you can watch them register and have homeless vote with the address of city hall something is definitely wrong.
My beef is with the people who don’t vote. Mostly conservatives that gave up and just do not vote. The liberals got what they voted for and they molded this state. But, not voting at all is killing large and small businesses and feeding the criminal machine in this state.
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