On Tuesday, the Antioch City Council will look to approve a contract with a security firm to provide services in the downtown area at 9 parking lots.
According to the Agenda, the council is being asked to approved a contract with Shield Protection & Public Safety (Spearhead Protection) to provide private security services of city-owned assets and parking lots in the downtown area.
The contract is not to exceed $50k for Fiscal Year 2023-24 and $100k for 2024-25. The funding is apparently coming from the City Managers department adopted in the 2023-25 General Fund budget.
The move comes after many local businesses in Downtown Antioch have been experiencing crime, vandalism and other criminal activities. In response, over the past 18-24 months, Rivertown/Downtown business owners and their customers have experienced an increase in criminal activities either on or near city-owned public parking lots.
In late 2022, a group of business owners began working with City staff on identifying viable solutions to improve the safety of the Rivertown/Downtown area. In addition to several of the businesses hiring their own private security, one proposed solution consisted of the City hiring a private security firm to monitor City-owned assets and parking lots. The security service provider would function as a visual deterrent and would have the ability to identify potential safety issues and report those issues to Antioch Police.
At the Dec. 13, 2022 council meeting, Antioch city council gave staff the direction to issue an RFQ for private security services. On September 22, 2023, eight private security companies submitted their qualifications for consideration. Staff has determined the best qualified company for this effort is Spearhead Protection
Spearhead Protection is an Antioch-based company that has worked with public and private clients throughout the state. The provided security service will include 7 hours of security between 5pm and midnight, seven (7) days a week including holidays. Spearhead Protection will provide one uniformed security guard that will patrol the Rivertown/Downtown area in a marked security vehicle performing checks at nine locations in the area.
The city originally issued an RFQ on January 25, 2023 with a due date of February 8, 2023 under former city manager Cornelius Johnson, but it appears they did not award the contract.
The city did not include who the 8-firms were that submitted for the RFQ or what their bids were. The firms responses was also not included in the staff report.
Antioch City Council Meeting
Jan 9, 2024
200 H St, Antioch CA
Full Agenda, click here
Related
- Aug 15, 2023 – License Plate Readers Coming to Downtown Antioch
- Dec 12, 2022 – City of Antioch to Look at Private Security for Downtown Area
1 comment
How wonderful criminals get to take a nap before doing crimes in downtown area from 1 – 5 am.
Speaks volumes when a city having a Police station within a few blocks of downtown has to hire private security.
Antioch is in need of a good house cleaning.
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