Antioch Police Department has just 31 patrol officers, police union says

Phil Mayer
·2 min read
2

ANTIOCH, Calif. (KRON) — Amid a massive scandal that has caused several officers to be placed on leave, the Antioch Police Department has 80 sworn police officers, interim police chief Brian Addington said. Antioch Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe says staffing levels are improving, but the city’s police union says it needs far more reinforcements.

According to the Antioch Police Officers Association, a closer look at those numbers paints a more dire picture. APOA said many of those 80 officers are on leave, leaving “closer to 60” available to work. Of those, just 31 can work patrol.

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“Ideally the APOA would like to double those numbers, however an increase of merely 15 officers available to work patrol would greatly help with crime reduction and an increase in service to the community,” the OPOA told KRON4 in an email.

The scandal that rocked the police department involved officers sending racist text messages to each other. At least 45 Antioch officers were involved in the text threads containing these messages. In addition, some Antioch officers were arrested by FBI agents in August as part of a nationwide raid.

The city has authorized 115 sworn positions for the police department. A $30,000 hiring incentive is in place to get the department closer to that number.

“Given the situation, we thought we were going to have a difficult time, but I think the incentive program helped create a large pool of candidates in which we were able to pull from,” Hernandez-Thorpe said. “I don’t think people joined because of the incentive program. They joined because I think that they recognize that Antioch is a changing city and it has a changing police department. I think we’ve gone through the worst and they want to be part of the change.”

Hernandez-Thorpe says based on the length of academies and time required for new patrol officers to train in the field, the department is not expected to be fully staffed until the end of this year, but it will be close. He says many of the officers placed on leave have been cleared to return to work.

In the meantime, California Highway Patrol is helping out on the streets. Recently, CHP made two arrests in town — illegal drugs were found in the car of a reckless driver and a person was taken into custody for evading arrest and speeding after a sideshow.

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