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: mmellone@antiochca.gov.
Thank you, Antioch.
Michael Mellone
Lieutenant of Police
Professional Standards Unit
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