Antioch Police Chief Reports Part 1 Crime Down 9.7 Percent

Antioch Police Chief Allan Cantando reported Tuesday night that Part 1 Crime in Antioch has been reduced by 9.7% while arrests are up by 1% in the First Quarter of 2016 when compared to 2015.

According to the statistics, which compared the Quarter 1 of 2016 vs. 2015, the city had 1 homicide between January to March compared to 2 homicides in 2016–2 additional homicides were listed as “justifiable” by the District Attorney’s Office. The city also had 25 more robbery’s cases and 20 less aggravated assaults when compared to this time period last year.  Overall, violent crime is was up 0.6%.

Adult arrests saw a decrease of 0.9% while juvenile arrests increased by 15.4%. Police reported they made a total of 1,211 arrests between January and March which is up 1.1%.

Cantando also reported that in the 1^st quarter of 2016, Priority 1 calls were up 2.5% while overall totals, calls for service were up 4.1%.  They had a total of 20,752 calls for service. The average response time dropped 4-seconds to 10-minutes and 2-seconds.

Antioch saw an increase in traffic calls for service by 3.8% with a total of 468 calls with 1 fatality and 49 DUI’s. They also saw 324 accidents (up 11.3%) while another 74 accidents had an injury (a decrease of 10.8%).

The K9 unit had 24 arrests with 3 physical apprehensions

Chief Cantando also reported its current staffing levels which has 102 authorized sworn positions. Currently, they are at 92-full time positions are filled with 4-recruits in the academy who are set to graduate July, 2016.

Councilwoman Monica Wilson asked the chief how he was preparing the city for 15-to-20 years down the road so the city does not struggle like they currently are right now.  She wanted to know how they were setting up the city for success.

“The people we are hiring are not just entry level, they are lateral as well. If we had to hire everyone at age 21 and over the next 3-years we hired 30-people. 25-to-30 years we would have a mass exodus because people are coming of age,” explained Cantando. “Someone starting a career at 21 in law enforcement and having a career of 30-years, understand we lose people during that journey whether they want to do something else. That is what makes it difficult to tell you where we are going to be in 30-years. All we can tell you is because we are not only hiring 21-year-olds, due to the age ranges, its going to help the chief find their replacements.”

Mayor Pro Tem Lori Ogorchock asked about if the online reporting show up on the stat sheets.

Cantando highlighted that the Unified Crime Reports would show up after a supervisor reviews and approves it, it’s then downloaded and uploaded into the statistics. He noted that when they went to online, that is why crime went up because people were reporting it. Since that first year, he says a baseline was set and it’s leveled out a bit.

Councilman Tiscareno thanked the chief for his report saying they are doing a lot of good work. He says the proactive detail is very important to suppress crime and catch criminals while taking firearms off the street.

Pizza With the Police:

For more information on the police department and current happenings while further discussing its statistics, the Antioch Police Department will be hosting its Pizza With the Police at 300 L Street at the Antioch Police Department Community Room from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm.