17 Sep Crime Overall Is Down in Antioch; Rapes and Arrests Are Up

Antioch Police Chief Joe Vigil delivers a report on crime and arrest statistics to the Antioch Police Oversight Commission on Tuesday. (Screenshot captured by Samantha Kennedy / The CC Pulse)

By Samantha Kennedy

Crime is largely down and arrests up for Antioch through the first seven months of the year, but two factors aren’t following that pattern. 

From January to July, the number of recorded rapes increased by 58% compared to the same time last year, according to police department data. And responses from the Angelo Quinto Community Response Team are down by more than 1,400. 

Attributing the decrease in crime and increase in arrests to “a host of reasons,” Police Chief Joe Vigil at the Police Oversight Commission meeting on Monday named additional staffing, building relationships and using outside resources as some of those reasons. 

In that same period, the city recorded two homicides. Over the same months in 2024, the city saw nine, according to department data. 

Robberies, burglaries, thefts and auto thefts have all decreased by more than 20% compared to the same time last year. Arson also decreased by 18%. 

Aggravated assault, alongside rapes, increased by 37%, according to Vigil. 

Vigil said there’s been “a spike” in recorded rapes in which the victims were drugged and those where contact originates on dating sites. 

The city recorded 22 rapes through the end of June, according to previously released data. By the end of July, that number rose to 30. 

Twenty-five of those crimes took place through June, according to revised data on the department’s site. 

Commissioner Devin Williams asked if it was possible to put out a public advisory to warn of the increase related to drugging — “similar to date rape,” according to Vigil — and dating sites. 

“Just take all the precautions you can when you’re out on a date with someone you don’t know,” Williams said. 

The number of recorded rape cases through mid-year is the most since 2022. 

Arrests of adults also increased by 64% compared to last year. The arrests are not necessarily connected to reported crimes this year because they could be related to non-APD cases, according to Vigil. 

Arrests of juveniles decreased by 20%, dropping from 56 in 2024 to 45. 

But while calls for service from the community have increased so far this year, response from the Angelo Quinto Community Response Team has decreased. 

At the end of June, City Council members voted to reduce the team’s 24-hour operating hours to 12 hours per day as part of its budget reduction process. 

Chair Porshe Taylor asked if the decrease in response was related to the reduction in hours. 

“Once we get through the calendar year, we’ll be able to look at a month-by-month comparison and be able to confirm that’s what happened,” said Vigil, who noted he preferred to wait for a full year of data to make comparisons. “But the early suggestion is because they went from 24/7 to 12/7.” 

Before the reduction in service, the AQCRT already recorded the reduction in response to calls of more than 1,400 through mid-June, according to a presentation made to the commission in June. 

The team responded to an average of 446 calls each month, not including partial data from June. In mid-June, the team had responded to 201 calls.