26 Mar Antioch Police Wants AI to Answer Some Calls, But Not Yet

Antioch Mayor Pro Tem Don Freitas, second from left, said the Police Oversight Commission needs to be part of conversations about the possibility of the Police Department using AI. (Screenshot captured by Samantha Kennedy / The CC Pulse)

By Samantha Kennedy

Antioch police dispatchers won’t be aided by artificial intelligence just yet.

A controversial proposal to use AI to help police dispatchers with non-emergency calls was pushed back Tuesday at the request of the Antioch Police Department to provide a more comprehensive report in response to concerns.

The Antioch Police Department asked to enter into an up to $248,400 two-year agreement with Prepared, a subsidiary of Axon, for dispatchers that APD says are understaffed.

According to a report from Lt. Michael Mellone, the system would help reduce call hold times and support dispatchers as a “co-pilot” during emergency calls. APD dispatchers are facing an approximately 24% vacancy rate, said Mellone.

But the risks outweighed the benefits for some residents, according to reporting from other organizations ahead of the meeting. Some told NBC Bay Area that they wanted dispatchers to be a real person.

Mayor Pro Tem Don Freitas was the only council member who spoke on the item before it was moved to a future meeting. Freitas said he wanted the Police Oversight Commission to be included in conversations about the potential of using the system.

“This is controversial. APOC has an oversight responsibility, and I think this is one of those items because the general public has concern,” said Freitas.

At a November 2025 meeting, oversight commissioners were assured by Lt. Bill Whitaker that the department did not yet have plans to expand its AI use at the time. Whitaker said a policy had been drafted on the police’s use, but Police Chief Joe Vigil signaled the technology wasn’t something they were pursuing yet.

Former Commissioner Lisa Elekwachi asked at that meeting that commissioners and the public be informed about any AI. use before it happens.

“Because it is coming fast,” Elekwachi said then.

By February 2026, The (Brentwood) Press reported that APD was preparing to test Axon’s Draft One technology to help create police reports with generative AI. The technology, which has raised concerns with some privacy experts, was first tested in Contra Costa County by the Pittsburg Police Department.

Jaden Baird, Antioch’s public information officer, said then that an internal AI council had been convened to create ethics and transparency standards.

The Prepared system itself is already being used by Bay Area law enforcement agencies in Richmond and Alameda County, according to Mellone. APD already contracts with Axon for several services like its body cameras, so using the Prepared system would allow for easy integration, Mellone added.

Mellone also acknowledged the concerns about AI in his report, “including potential bias and prior negative experiences.”

“The Department will implement the system with local configuration controls, clear escalation rules, and supervisory monitoring to ensure the system improves service delivery without creating barriers to access,” he wrote.

Freitas said that he also had concerns with the possible length of the contract because of how quickly the technology is changing.

“I don’t know why we would want to commit ourselves to a possibility of a five-year contract,” said Freitas.

The East County cities of Oakley and Pittsburg have faced pushback to AI coming into the community. Most recently, Oakley residents successfully asked the City Council to remove a potential data center from a project development.

Antioch is already using the technology in some of its other city business. At the March 10 City Council meeting, officials received a code enforcement update that included a presentation using a voiceover and several clips created with AI.

And the city’s official social media pages promoted the reopening of the Contra Loma Estates Park by using AI-generated images that “may not reflect the actual event.”