On July 30, the Antioch Police Department welcomed three new police officers to its force to help the understaffed department.
Officers Rishi Negl, Jacob Ewart, and Frederick Blumberg were sworn in by City Clerk Arne Simonsen.
Antioch Police Chief Allan Cantando says his department will continue to hire as many offers as possible.
“We have three academy graduates starting the field training program which is 16-weeks. This is continuing our efforts to hire thanks to the voters of Measure C,” said Cantando. “We are now staffed at 89 officers and moving towards our goal of 102 officers.”
During the ceremony, Chief Cantando reiterated that although the hiring process is not as quick as they would like, they are not going to hire just anyone, but that they want the best possible applicants they can get.
In April, Antioch City Manager Steve Duran reported that for the first quarter of this Antioch violence crime was down 13.6% when compared to last year. Duran also shared that Total Part 1 Crime was down 7.7% and total arrests were up 21.3%.
