Editorial: Crime is Up, Antioch Should Stop Sweeping it Under the Rug

As usual, the Antioch City Council majority remains asleep at the wheel when it comes to the impact crime is having on everybody in the City of Antioch.

Antioch Police data shows for the first 7-months of the year, that crime is up across the board in categories most people care about when compared to 2023 – murder, robbery, burglary, vehicle theft and assaults. Over 1,000 vehicle thefts year to date? Homicides are now 9?  This is outrageous! Why is no one talking about this?

The city council majority response of Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe, Tamisha Torres-Walker and Monica Wilson… crickets, deer in headlights and they apparently haven’t got a clue or seem to care!

Here is the data.. And lets be honest, aside from murder, these crimes are likely under-reported, but here is the crimes reported by APD:

The justification for higher crime for most people will be police staffing levels which you can make up your own mind as to why there are only 76 officers. But in my mind it comes down to culture. Who in their right mind would want to work for a police department under the sitting mayor and majority city council? Not many and it shows.

Sure, many will shout police text messages which is the low hanging fruit answer that began out of the Pittsburg Police Department, but once Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe, Tamisha Torres-Walker were elected, and Monica Wilson re-elected, officers actually began leaving then when they were attacked during the black lives matter movement–and the protect the criminal mentality versus considerations of the victims began. The text message scandal only compounded the hiring/retention problem only worse. Essentially, officers were handicapped from doing their job.

To make matters worse, the circus like behavior of the city council has contributed to low staffing levels across the board. I won’t go into much detail on the Grand Jury Report, DUI, sexual harassment, gunshots infront of councilmembers house, sideshow attendance or shenanigans with the District Attorney as to why Antioch has a hiring problem–that is self explanatory. People want stability, not a circus where anything can happen at any given time.  The City Council should be embarrassed on the culture they have created and actually embraced. And people really wonder why crime is up and the city as a whole has 4x the amount of vacancies as the national average?

Even worse, the majority council has sabotaged its police department through de-fund the police tactics which has only hurt residents, businesses and even the school district. Everything has been a battle–especially for Councilmembers Mike Barbanica and Lori Ogorchock:

• Antioch School Resource Officers Grant Rescinded — essentially removed 6 officers.
• Body camera discussion took 6 requests by Barbanica — and they still denied his request for updated tasers.
• Sideshow Ordinance took two-years
• Antioch Crime Commission went away – along with Neighborhood Watch Program
• Emergency Operations Center took 7 requests by Barbanica
• Antioch Police Vehicle Replacements
• Purchasing Training Ammunition
• A “fake” Antioch Police Oversight Commission established

To its credit, Antioch has attempted to hire new officers and recruit, but its not been successful–even with a $30k bonus. It simply comes back to the city council who have created the tone of the city, and an anti-police rhetoric culture. Ultimately, the majority council refuses to look in the mirror and see they are and have been the problem form day 1–the Contra Costa County Grand Jury agrees by the way!

What is frustrating to see, and I know others see it, is Hernandez-Thorpe and Chief Brian Addington continue to claim Antioch has hired officers and folks are in the academy–while this may be true and good public relations efforts, its just empty words because results are lacking.

What good is it for HR to move forward with a timely and costly process if people do not complete or make it out of the process. Hired officers go through the academy, then they have a 16-week FTO program followed by an 18-month probationary period. Why are people washing out? Not completing the program? Why is Antioch not increasing its staffing levels?

Based on previous news reports, here is staffing levels of the Antioch Police Department over the past few years.

• Dec. 17, 2019 – 112 officers
• May 6, 2020 – 115 officers (fully staffed)
• Nov. 2020 – Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe, Tamisha Torres-Walker and Monica Wilson make up council majority, begin implementing police reforms
• Aug. 29, 2022 – 101 officers (72 full duty, 38 on patrol)
• Sept. 2022 – Antioch approves $30k bonus program for officers
• Oct 11, 2022 – 102 officers (76 full duty)
• March 2023 – Antioch Text Messaging scandal broke out, council did not wait for investigation to be completed before attacking APD. (officers charged in August)
  
• Sept. 25, 2023 – 95 officers (44 active, 31 on patrol)
• Feb. 2,2024 – 95 officers (44 active, 31 on patrol)
• March 8, 2024 – 85 officers (55 active sworn, 38 on patrol)
• July 1, 2024 – 76 officers (59 active, 44 on patrol)

Between low staffing, moral issues, and no accountability, the majority city council has created an environment that will likely set the unfortunate record of highest crime over the past decade–unless things change the second half of the year.

At the end of the day, the mayor can blame “bloggers”, others in the media, and “old Antioch” all he wants, but the data is what the data is–ask AMTRAK about safety. Furthermore, the Antioch City Council has contributed to more to its crime statistics in Antioch than this “blogger”.  By I shall digress.

Its time the community stop tolerating this behavior, stop accepting this level of crime and begin getting re-engaged. Demand better! Call out stupidity. Begin to shut down the shout-down cancel culture rhetoric and instead partner with others such as non-profits, faith based organizations, and find folks that will help create result-driven solutions that works for everyone.

Mike Burkholder
Publisher of  ContraCosta.news
[email protected]