On Tuesday, the Antioch Police Department provided a report on staffing and limited crime data to the Antioch City Council.
Antioch Councilmember Mike Barbanica asked several questions of the Antioch Police Department while saying none of his questions were aimed at showing disrespect to the police department but wanted to ensure they had enough staffing for the community and for officers to stay safe.
Barbanica also asked acting chief Joe Vigil if it was time to bring in aid from CHP or the Contra Costa County Sheriffs Office – noting he had conversations with both Sheriff David Livingston and Assemblymember Tim Grayson (D-Concord) after concerns over Antioch Police staffing levels.
Vigil sidestepped the question stating “it depended on what was going on in the city”.
“I believe we need help, I don’t believe we have enough staffing or people for 115,000 people. There is absolutely no pro-activity going on. I don’t remember the last time I saw a traffic stop and this is not me pointing a finger saying an officer is lazy. This is just me saying there is 4 people for 100 calls for service, if we do the math, the reality is they are running call to call to call all day long let alone write paper,” said Barbanica.
Here is the exchange between Barbanica and Vigil (Summary)
Barbanica: For the 7-beats, how often are they all full?
Vigil: responded they are full maybe once a week
Barbanica: What is the lowest that we get down to?
Vigil: per day shift, 4 and that is with a holdover, forced or volunteer—supervisors doing a good job of forecasting vacancies and posting it. We are fortunate enough not to force people unless absolutely necessary.
Barbanica: What about when we go into swing shift?
Vigil: Same…
Barbanica: Prior to going into this staffing crisis, were we running full 7-beats? And were we running full 3-shifts per day.
Vigil: Yes.
Barbanica: Priority 1 calls, are those suffering as far as ETA to calls, calls stacking on the board.
Vigil: All calls across the board are suffering when it is busy. Tonight, Tuesday, there were 25 calls pending before I came to the council meeting.
Barbanica: Prior to where we are at with staffing now. We have 31 assigned to patrol. How many did we have prior.
Vigil: Upper 40’s to low 50’s assigned to patrol.
Barbanica: Traffic, what was it prior to and what is it now.
Vigil: Went from 1 supervisor to 4 or 5 officers. Right now, APD has 0.
Barbanica: Gang or POP teams
Vigil: zero
Barbanica: How are calls for service as far as complaints for traffic going. Have they increased or are we seeing fatal’s and injury collisions increase as a result of having no traffic officers.
Vigil: did not have traffic statistics but excessive speed remains the number 1 complaint in our city.
Barbanica: Are we allowing things to fall through the cracks because there are only so many officers and so many hours in a day. It looks like we are running almost half of what we were running before. In investigations, we have 7—how many did we have before?
Vigil: 14 and the 7 we have now we are forecasting to lose 3 before the end of October.
Barbanica: So we are going to be at 4 and by October we are going to be minus 10 in investigations.
“I know you inherited this so I am just trying to gather data for this,” said Barbanica. “My concern is we are drastically understaffed and we are going to have burnout not only with our officers, we are going to continue to lose officers going to other places when they don’t have to work overtime everyday and not 115,000 people with four people policing the city in a 12-hour period. I just think that is absolutely ludicrous. That being the case, do you believe we need to bring in CHP to assist?”
Vigil: “it is a possibility and the conversations we have had with the CHP and the sheriffs department it was made clear to us that there is no assistance made available to us right now outside of a mutual aid agreement which is clearly outlined in the county’s mutual aid agreement.
Barbanica: “I’m not trying to argue with you but I’ve personally spoken with the Sheriff and the sheriff said he was ready at a moments notice to offer personnel if we need them in an emergency situation and an overtime reimbursement across the board. I also spoke with Assemblyman Tim Grayson who assured me Sacramento is ready to go. Are you saying you are getting a different story when you reach out?”
Vigil: Correct.
Barbanica: “I don’t know how much lower we can go. We are literally half, minus 10 in investigations, we are 0 in traffic, 0 in any type of street team and 4 people working the street at any given time, I don’t know how much lower we can go on this. If this is not a time to get mutual aid and if this is not a time to bring in CHP or the sheriff to help out, what is that number. How low does it need to go?”
Vigil: It would depend what the call volume looks like and what is going on in the city. Specifically related to the mutual aid agreement—CHP said they their first course of action is the Alameda County Sheriff Office who would then defer to the Contra Costa County Sheriffs office. I think that is part of a bigger conversation. I don’t take any offense to what you are saying, maybe you and I and the city can have a conversation to fill in the gaps of why we are being told what we are.
Barbanica: would be happy to reach back out to Assemblyman Tim Grayson who assured him he would be happy to help from Sacramento. “He told me he was there to help if need be”.
“I believe we need help, I don’t believe we have enough staffing or people for 115,000 people. There is absolutely no pro-activity going on. I don’t remember the last time I saw a traffic stop and this is not me pointing a finger saying an officer is lazy. This is just me saying there is 4 people for 100 calls for service, if we do the math, the reality is they are running call to call to call all day long let alone write paper.”
“I don’t want to overstate his promise, but he did tell me that he is very concerned with it and that he would assist in any way he could.”
Other Council Q&A:
Torres-Walker: Can you tell us why we don’t have a traffic division?
Vigil: The remaining traffic officers got absorbed into patrol about six months ago.
Mayor Thorpe: I think what Torres-Walker was asking is why was the traffic unit impacted.
Vigil: I will defer all personnel matters to the attorney and acting city manager.
Thorpe: “The traffic division was impacted by the racist text messaging scandal”
Torres-Walker: “I know I am asking you questions you cannot answer. I just think it’s ridiculous. We all know why the numbers are low. It’s because the standards for over 2-decades for policing in this city has been low. That is why the numbers are low. That is to no fault of your own.”
Other Tidbits:
- Vigil says they are working to provide more data on their website from complaints, shootings, calls for service and
- During the exchange, Torres-Walker said she didn’t have a problem with mutual aid during an emergency, but it was telling that both Vigil and Councilmember Barbanica are getting mixed messages from the sheriff or highway patrol. She hoped both could come back with clear answers around the miscommunication and how they could move forward on what the needs might be.
- Lori Ogorchock asked about number of female officers…. Vigil said currently they have 2 working. Vigil said its not as simple as signing up for the 30×30 Pledge under Chief Ford. because what they are finding is the city is they are getting a lot of questions around maternity leave and compensation and areas which Antioch is “grossly behind” all our competitors of how we treat mothers and people returning from maternity leave (leave banks). Vigil asked when they change city rules and ordinances they need to give some consideration to as its an area a lot of people talk about how limited it is.
- Monica Wilson wanted to see how Antioch was compared to cities with comparable sizes (Crime data & staffing) –how they are doing. She also wanted breakdowns by Council District.
Mayor Lamar Thorpe Comments;
“Just so I am clear, we have 95 people we are paying on the books and only 44 of those people are actively working in the police department,” stated Thorpe. “51 are on some type of administrative leave or some type of injury,”
Vigil explained the different type of leave or officers on light duty due to medical.
“51 officers out on some type of leave, that is unfortunate. But its where we are at,” said Thorpe.
Thorpe then accused the “bloggers and Facebook warriors” of using the data inaccurately or say there is an increase or rise in crime in the city of Antioch which he called “inaccurate”. He said there was misinformation people was using as weapons against the council and overall in the city of Antioch.
The report shows a 31.09 percent increase in crime—including 33.3% increase in homicide, 47.2% increase in robbery, 62.5% increase in burglary, 19.4% increase in theft, 85.7% increase in auto theft.
The presentation is the result of expressed frustration by both the community and members of the council who for months have questioned staffing levels, police response and crime data.
According to the data provided in the presentation, which its not clear what date the information was pulled, here is a look at the staffing levels to be provided Tuesday.
Antioch Police Staffing Levels
115 Authorized positions
- 95 of those positions are filled
- 44 of those 95 positions are in service
- 31 officers are assigned to patrol
- Averaging over 100 calls a shift
- Modified work schedule
- 7 officers are assigned to investigations
- Those 7 averaging a case load of just over 300 cases
- 7 detectives are doing all filling and follow up
Animal Services
- 18 positions in the unit
- Between full time and part time staff, 5 vacancies
- 2 Part time openings
- 2 full time openings
- 1 Animal Control Officer Opening
- Functions
- 25 walk in’s daily
- 8 surgeries per day
- 10-20 ACO calls per shift
- 80-160 Animals in the shelter at a given time
Records
- Authorized 10 full time positions
- 1 supervisor position
- 2 leads & 7 regular positions
- 4 part time positions
Community Service Officers (CSOs)
- Authorized 11 full time positions, no vacancies
Police Dispatch
- 1 supervisor
- 4 leads
- 8 dispatchers with 3 vacancies
Previous Stories:
- Sept. 25 – Antioch Police Set to Present Staffing Levels and Crime Data
- Sept. 18 – Antioch Agrees to Extend Incentive Program to Attract Police Officers
- Aug 30 – Antioch Surpasses Stolen Vehicle Total From 2022
- Aug 17 – Antioch and Pittsburg Police Officers Charged With Various Crimes
- Aug 17 – Antioch and Pittsburg Police Officers Indicted
- Aug 15 – License Plate Readers Coming to Downtown Antioch
- Aug 9 – Antioch Mayor Claims Sideshows and Crime is Down
- Aug 7 – Vigil Named Acting Antioch Police Chief
- July 19 – Antioch Police Chief Announces Retirement, Last Day Is August 11
- Oct 11, 2022 – Antioch Police Staffing Levels Drop to 76 Full-Duty Officers, Work on Hiring
- April 12, 2022 – Great Resignation? A Look at Contra Costa County Police Agency Staffing Levels
8 comments
Watching the meeting was hard to listen to because this department is toast. APD should admit they need help and go forward. At least bring CHP in for traffic control. Thorpe once again proves he is the biggest jackass in the history of mayors. This crime data is on him and what has transpired under his leadership which is his actions have created an environment no one wants to work here and if they do they are rejects from other departments who need a job or build a resume.
I get the concept of having more LEO presence and that would be nice; but why do people magically think that CHP or Sheriffs automatically have all these extra resources to throw around wherever somebody thinks it’s needed? They’re stretched thin, too. The state even passed a law that non-citizens can be CHP—- because they are ALSO understaffed. I don’t know about the sheriff but I’m guessing that they are probably short, too.
And even worse, in this environment where Soros-funded DA’s work hard to turn LEO’s into the criminal (and same for victims defending themselves), why would anyone even WANT to go into, or be employed, in an atmosphere like this?
But yeah, vote harder next time for the same stuff. That will fix it.
“it depended on what was going on in the city”
“unknown male shot at them at least nine times striking the vehicle several times”
“The report shows a 31.09 percent increase in crime—including
33.3% increase in homicide,
47.2% increase in robbery,
62.5% increase in burglary,
19.4% increase in theft,
85.7% increase in auto theft.
“it depended on what was going on in the city”
Crime in Antioch is out of control.
Perhaps Governor Newsom should do for Antioch what he did for San Francisco.
It’s a no brainer that Antioch either needs to hire more officers immediately or get help from outside agencies. The “mayor,” and I use the term lightly, takes every opportunity when others are gathering data to advance safety in the city to bash the police and drive home his “it’s their fault”agenda. How does that help? What a petulant little baby. Please vote him out so we can get a serious leader in place. Antioch deserves better.
Barbanica playing Monday morning quarterback. LOL
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CHP & Sheriff can’t hold everyones hand. Antioch needs to unbury itself from the cesspool.
Antioch needs to become a contract city like the sheriffs other ones.
Our feckless mayor said “stats are inaccurate.” Yet the report says there’s a 31% increase. Who’s lying? My money’s on our Police Department’s statistics. The more Thorpe lies and bashes the dedicated men and women of our PD the more people see him for the whiner he is. The fact is inescapable. Much of the difficulty our PD is experiencing is due in large part to his disregard for police. What’s worse is his disregard for the safety of our community. It’s too bad the RECALL effort failed. We probably wouldn’t be in the predicament if it didn’t. Voters of Antioch, let’s commit, as a community to not make the same mistake next election cycle. Vet the candidates, ask questions and don’t vote because of name recognition or because it’s stylish to elect someone.
Well said. Action is required and I hope people don’t sleep on the next election.
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