On Tuesday, the Antioch City Council unanimously approved a contract to provide security at 9 parking lots in the downtown Antioch area.
The $150k contract will go through 2024-25 fiscal year with Shield Protection & Public Safety (Spearhead Protection) who will be asked to provide one unarmed security guard and be the eyes and ears of downtown Antioch from the hours of 5:00 pm to midnight at 9 identified locations.
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
Councilmember Tamisha Torres-Walker questioned the number of city owned properties and if other areas also needed services outside the nine parcels. She also questioned if they are getting the security because they were louder than other businesses in other parts of the city.
Acting city manager Kwame Reed said this RFQ was only for the Rivertown area but they could increase the contract in the future.
Reed also explained to Torres-Walker that when this was first brought up two city managers ago it was only for the downtown area.
“If council wants us to look at other city owned assets outside the downtown we can,” states Reed.
Councilwoman Lori Ogorchock said she also wanted to discuss parking lots outside of the Rivertown area including Hillcrest and the Antioch Water Park.
“I don’t know why other city managers didn’t pass the information down but it was requested for all city assets and all the city parking lots. I am agreeing with Councilmember Torres-Walker,” said Ogorchock.
Mayor Lamar Thorpe said the contract can grow, it doesn’t have to preclude anyone.
“This did originate from downtown merchants expressing concerns and it was always the focus, especially after Monica’s opened,” stated Thorpe. “Their concern was they were just having folks hang out at their parking lot and creating concerns. It didn’t originate from the homeless, it was a concern of the patrons who were creating problems in the parking lots and doing donuts.”
Councilmember Mike Barbanica said he was in the meetings with the merchants when this was discussed.
“It was specifically everything north of 10th Street was the discussion and we can always add onto this later if we have other needs,” stated Barbanica. “But I sat in the meeting with the downtown merchants and this was specifically those groups asking for help in the downtown area. That is how this came about.”
Torres-Walker said she was in the same meetings noting business owners also have a duty to pony up the resources to secure their own properties—while the city has a responsibility to hire a city manager, police chief and rebuild the police department.
“Its not if we have a problem in other parts of the city, its that we do. Beyond the expanding of this contract, there has to be other strategies other than extending a contract with the resources we have now,” said Torres-Walker.
Barbanica said he would repeat details because it was horrific.
“In one of our parking lots, we had a horrific crime that occurred that should not have. I am not going to go into details out of respect to the victim of that crime, but that sold me on this and how can we ask, if we want to build up our downtown area, this is a starting place. How can we ask residents to come down and frequent our downtown area when they don’t feel safe. I just feel this is a starting place to make that happen,” stated Barbanica.
After the motion was made by Barbanica and seconded by Torres-Walker, Ogorchock requested they add in other city assets to the contract and bring this back, she also wanted staff to answer questions by a public speaker on what services they are actually getting and the authority level of the security guards.
“Are they carrying guns or are they calling the police,” asked Ogorchock.
Reed explained the city is not paying for armed security and they would be reporting to police.
“They are basically going to be additional eyes in the city when something arises and hopefully they will be there to deter some activity that happens when people walk from a restaurant to their car or things like that. Its just to provide extra eyes and security in the downtown during those early hours of the night,” explained Reed.
Thorpe asked if there was an option for them to be armed.
Reed stated there was an option but the city was looking at security that was not armed.
Ogorchock said she was not asking for armed security, but would hate to see a security guard sitting in the parking lot all night and that was it.
Reed said under the contract, they are supposed to patrol 9 parking lots during the time.
The council then voted 5-0 to approve the contract.
Editors Notes:
- While the city is hiring 1 security guard for 9 lots… what the city did not say is other businesses will be hiring their own security which could provide 3-4 total security guards in the downtown area in the evening hours–IE new cannabis business.
- 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.
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