03 Mar APD Chief, Consultant Say Antioch Is Making Progress on Public Safety

Antioch Police Chief Joe Vigil, at lectern, told City Council on Feb. 24 that property crimes were down, but crimes against people were largely up, though he indicated the latter could be due to an increase in reporting. (Screenshot captured by Samantha Kennedy / The CC Pulse)

By Samantha Kennedy

Despite a number of high-profile incidents garnering regional coverage and the police officers’ union taking its contract frustrations public, data presented to the City Council on Feb. 24 shows that some progress is being made on public safety in Antioch.

The two separate presentations from Police Chief Joe Vigil and Manjit Sappal, the consultant tasked with monitoring the city’s U.S. Department of Justice agreement, showed wins in compliance and overall efforts around public safety. Plus, the long-awaited Sycamore Corridor police substation is expected to go online almost a year after its approval.

“I want to make sure that this is sustainable,” council member Tamisha Torres-Walker said about some being “cautiously optimistic” on the agreement’s progress. “So no matter who is in a leadership position, this is the standard of policing in Antioch moving forward.”

Of the 11 requirements that Sappal said APD needs to complete, each one is at partial or substantial compliance. That includes compliance with data collection, policies related to language access and community engagement, and complaints of misconduct.

APD has to be in compliance with the requirements for 12 consecutive months for the agreement to end, according to Sappal. That could happen as soon as next year, he added.

“So far, we’re on the path to success,” said Sappal.

Residents Frank Sterling Jr. and Robert Collins said they were thankful for how they were seeing APD move forward. Sterling received a payout for a claim against APD of unlawful arrest and excessive force, and Collins is the stepfather of Angelo Quinto, who died after police restrained him.

“I don’t want to just stand up here when I have a complaint. I want to also thank you when I think it’s moving in the right direction,” Collins told the City Council.

Progress is being made in the field too.

After homicides and other gun violence made headlines near last year’s end that have followed the city into the first months of this year, Vigil said that crime stats in 2025 mirrored those of other cities.

Property crimes, which include robbery, theft and auto theft, all decreased compared with 2024. But crimes against a person — homicide, rape and others — mostly increased, according to the data. Although, homicide specifically was down. Vigil similarly reported an overall decrease in crime but increase in rapes at a September meeting of the Antioch Police Oversight Commission.

While a review of police crime data shows that Antioch recorded its lowest homicide count since 2011, rape and aggravated assaults increased by double-digits. The number of reported rapes — 45, data from Vigil shows — is the highest the city has seen since 2019, according to historical police data.

“We are having a spike in family domestic violence and sexual assault activities,” said Vigil of the increases. “We’re also seeing a little bit of a spike because now there’s more advocacy out for victims of certain crimes, and they’re being encouraged to come forward and contact the police.”

Richmond, a city of similar population size, had over 130 rapes last year in comparison, Richmond Police Department data shows.

But the Antioch Police Officers Association, which has been working without a contract since September, has been critical of how the city has handled staffing shortages in APD. The union said this month that recruitment is hampered by a lack of a contract and lower pay than surrounding law enforcement agencies.

“City Council wants to pretend that everything is fine. But this is not a problem you can pretend away,” the POA wrote on social media last month.

Vigil said during his presentation to the council that recruitment is “still doing fantastic.”

APD has five recruits in the police academy currently, and another six recruits are tentatively scheduled to start in April, according to Vigil.

That’s in addition to the 85 people in sworn positions already employed by APD, of which more than half are patrol officers. The department is budgeted for 105 sworn positions and prefers 54 of them to be patrol officers, said Vigil.

Sycamore substation to open soon

The Sycamore Corridor, where much of the city’s gun violence is situated, is expected to see a police substation open later this month.

Vigil said the substation is tentatively scheduled to open March 11.

The substation is an effort to increase police visibility in the area. Police and community organizations will be able to use the substation.

A report from the Hope and Heal Fund, which was also presented to council members in January, found that 44% of gun violence incidents from 2014 to 2024 happened in the north-central and central parts of the city.

“From our standpoint, Antioch doesn’t have a gun violence problem. There is a particular two square mile radius that has consistently, for the last 10 years, suffered the vast majority of gun violence,” Refujio Rodriguez of Hope and Heal said at the Jan. 27 meeting.

Since 2026 began, the city’s only homicide happened on Sycamore Drive, according to APD. And various other violent incidents, including an 11-year-old being shot in the head and a stabbing at a local hotel, are within the two-mile radius that Rodriguez said had suffered most of the city’s gun violence.