War Of Words Erupts Between Antioch Police Officers’ Association And Antioch City Hall

A war of words is erupting and accusations are being tossed around between the Antioch Police Officers’ Association and Antioch City Hall.

The following letter was released today by the Antioch Police Officers’ Association (APOA):

People of Antioch,

The APOA felt it was important to address several issues that our officers have been been dealing with and that you, those who live in Antioch, have likely felt the ramifications of. The issue is two fold and has been affecting our department for some time. These issues are staffing and messaging from our department.

The APD has been hemorrhaging officers for the better part of the last 12 months. Through injuries, attrition, the FBI investigation into a group of our officers, and a host of other issues, the APD’s patrol staff is currently staffed at 30 patrol officers. For perspective, the APD’s patrol staff had 65 officers available to work patrol in late 2020.

The reason we are addressing this now is because of the constant misrepresentations we see about our staffing levels and recruitment efforts being put forth by Mayor Thorpe. It cannot be said with enough emphasis that one of the major driving forces causing officers to leave our agency is the dangerous and irresponsible rhetoric coming from the Mayor. The Mayor’s constant negative comments towards our officers since the time of Chief Brooks has caused a large amount of officers to leave our agency because they do not feel the support from our city’s leadership.

Just as important, his behavior and rhetoric has also prevented current officers from other agencies from coming to work for our agency. Anecdotally, we have been told by lateral prospects all over the Bay Area that despite the signing bonus that the Mayor has offered, they will not work in Antioch because of the Mayor’s rhetoric against the police department. We have all heard the Mayor blame our staffing crisis on a national trend of an exodus from policing. Although it is true that staffing levels at police departments around the country are down, it is also true that APD’s staffing has hit critically low levels unseen by other departments in the area. Our neighboring agencies do not have the staffing crisis that we have and the APOA attributes much of that to the Mayor’s ongoing rhetoric.

Now, the APD’s recruiting team has been doing an excellent job hiring a good amount of new applicants and they are being put through the police academy as we speak. We know that help to our staffing levels are soon on the horizon and we are confident that the APD’s staffing levels will be back to where they were before. Chief Ford has also been implementing several positive changes and improvements to our training and procedures that will continue to improve our department over the long term. But to be clear, these positive improvements are happening despite the Mayor’s negative comments about our officers and not because of any efforts or programs he has been responsible for. No signing bonus can make up for the damage he’s done to our department but the officers represented by the APOA are resilient and will overcome yet this latest obstacle to accomplishing the mission of keeping the Antioch community safe.

To speak to the issues of keeping the community safe, most of you have likely heard about the burglaries which occurred recently at Antioch businesses and the subsequent apology which was released by APD administration regarding APD’s response. You were told in that apology that there would be positive updates to be released. Those positive updates to this point have not been released and the APOA has been informed that they will not be released because the Mayor has ordered APD’s leadership not to to release any further information regarding this incident. So we, as an APOA, will tell you that the person responsible has been arrested by alert and hard working APD patrol officers. Officers who responded to the original burglary were able to identify the responsible vehicle the night of the burglary and located the vehicle on February 16. They identified the driver as 34 year old Casey Beck and determined that he was responsible for multiple burglaries in the recent past. Beck was arrested and booked at the Martinez Detention Facility.

This update was prevented from reaching you because the Mayor ordered APD leadership from releasing it. We have been informed that this message has reached our department leadership through Chief Strategic Officer Rolando Bonilla. We have been told that Mr. Bonilla ordered the department’s Public Information Officer, Ashley Crandell, from releasing any further information regarding this incident.

This is an ongoing pattern that our department has experienced for years. Mayor Thorpe prevented Chief Brooks, interim Chief Morefield and now Chief Ford from updating the public with incidents occurring in the city. The APOA believes he has done this because he does not want our officers to be highlighted positively but rather wants an opportunity to craft the message himself to take the credit for the work our officers do. The APOA will not stand idly by and allow this to happen. We believe that it is important for the citizens of Antioch to know what is occurring with the city. The APOA does not answer to Mayor Thorpe and he will not silence our message. It seems the Mayor routinely forgets that Antioch is a General Law city which means we are governed by a city council of five and we have a “city manager” form of government. Despite this, the Mayor routinely tries to operate as though we are a Charter city with a “strong mayor” form of government. His actions are inappropriate on many levels.

We can assure the people of Antioch that our officers will continue to work diligently to keep you safe and the message of their work will reach you so that you are aware of what is occurring in the city.