On Monday, the Antioch Police Department provided its 2024 Hate Crimes data to the Police Oversight Commission.
Police provided overview on 5 incidents from 2024, which showed a 66% increase from hate crimes in 2023. Police said while the increase percentage was high, it was 5 cases which was called “low” given the size of the city.
Acting Lt. Bill Whitaker shared, “we did experience 5 hate crimes in 2024, that was a 66% increase unfortunately. As you can see in the crime trends, we pretty much had an increase in everything last year. We went from 2 the year prior, to 5 this year.”
- Case # 1 – This was a vandalism report at a local church. During the investigation, the officer located a broken window to the church building, and graffiti to a storage shed. The graffiti on the shed had derogatory language and qualified as hate speech. (Unknown SUSPECTS – no leads or evidence)
- Case # 2 – This case was at one of the high schools and reported by the student who was the victim. The student was threatened and then was involved in a physical altercation with several students. During the physical altercation, the student was called negative names regarding his sexuality. (ARREST made and the case was filed)
- Case # 3 – This was a vandalism case at a privately owned residential home. During this report, the victim displayed a pride flag in front of their house, which was taken down and lit on fire. (Unknown SUSPECTS – no leads or evidence)
- Case # 4 – The victim reported meeting a subject from “Grinder” at a park in Antioch. When he arrived, he was confronted by about ten people who broke all the windows of his vehicle and stole his backpack. During the incident homophobic slurs were yelled at the victim. (Unknown SUSPECTS – no leads or evidence)
- Case # 5 – The victim was spending time with his significant other at the Marina. They were confronted by a group of subjects who began yelling homophobic slurs at the couple. The group then began physically assaulting the couple causing significant injuries. (ARREST made and the case was filed)
Whiteaker shared that in California, a hate crime is defined as any criminal act motivated by the victims actual or perceived race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or disability. These crimes involved targeting individuals or groups because of these specific characteristics, leading to harm, intimidation, or terror —the penal code is 422.6
“The best way to explain this and to put this in layman’s terms, is to qualify to arrest someone and qualify to arrest someone for these crimes this is like baking cookies,” stated Whitaker. “You have to have all the ingredients or the cookie doesn’t taste right. The same thing applies to the penal code and specific to this penal code section. You have to have all the elements of the crime to be able to arrest somebody and for it to be prosecuted.”
Commissioner Lisa Elekwachi asked what environmental factors contributed to the increase.
Whitaker stated that the overall crime rate was higher and hate crimes increase matched the overall crime trend. He was unaware as to “why” it went from 2 to 5. He said there were no specific reasons as to why this happened, these were just documented cases where they could establish the Penal Code 422.6 on top of other crimes.
Commissioner Susan Kennedy expressed concerns that 80% of the hate crimes had targeted the LGBTQ+ community. She asked if they were seeing any other incidents targeting this community that didn’t rise to the full Penal Code.
Whitaker said “no” but could not speak for unreported crimes against LGBTQ+ community. He added that the element was easy to make if someone calls a derogatory slur regarding someone’s sexuality while committing another crime (assault, burglary, vandalism) it would automatically qualify.
Commissioner Alicia Lacey-Oha asked if police could share what districts the hate crimes occurred in. Whitiker stated they were spread across the city, using general locations:
- Crime 1 – Lone Tree/Putnam
- Crime 2 – Downtown High School
- Crime 3 – Near Sutter Delta Hospital
- Crime 4 – off of Country Hills and Hillcrest at a park
- Crime 5 – Antioch Marina
Commissioner Joseph Mitchell called it disturbing that 80% of the hate crimes were targeting any one group and asked if there were any tips on prevention.
Whitaker called it difficult because the incidents were spread out across the city and not by any single individual or group. He advised for prevention, if you see something, say something.
Mitchell questioned if a notice could be issued such as “don’t hang out at the marina” in which Whitaker stated it was a complete isolated incident and the only hate crime incident he was aware of in the past 5-years at the marina he was aware of.
Kennedy confirmed a bulk of the hate crimes had been against men, had any been against women? Whitaker said “no”.
As of June 2025, there have been no hate crimes reported to date according to Whitaker.
Editors Note: FBI Releases 2023 Hate Crime Statistics: On September 23, 2024, the FBI released the hate crimes data from the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program as reported by law enforcement agencies across the country. Those agencies reported 11,862 hate crime incidents involving 13,829 offenses. More detail is available below and on the FBI Crime Data Explorer.
Chiefs Report
In a separate item, here is Chief Vigils report out to the commission on the status of the Antioch Police Department:
- Sitting at 89 officers, 3 on long-term injury leave, 1 on military leave, 1 on administrative leave for pending personnel matter.
- 10 officers in field training program
- 2 recruits in ALCO police academy set to graduate in September
- 2 in the CoCo police academy set to graduate in October
- 1 in another ALCO police academy set to graduate at end of year.
- Hoping to fill vacant captain and lieutenant positions – a certified list by end of the month.
To watch the police oversight commission meeting, click here