ANTIOCHTwo years after the FBI began investigating the Antioch Police Department — which would eventually embroil it in a widespread racist-text scandal — the city has put in place another safeguard to protect against the kinds of abuses that led to criminal charges against 10 current and former Antioch cops.
The Antioch City Council appointed seven residents to serve on an independent oversight commission this week, one of several police reforms Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe first introduced in February 2021. But at the time, the council voted to appoint itself as an interim independent oversight committee, with a goal of possibly forming a civilian commission later on.
At the urging of residents, approval for a civilian board came a year later, shortly after the FBI and the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office announced its investigation into the department and Pittsburg police, which eventually ended in charges ranging from cheating on college tests to earn pay bumps, accepting bribes to make tickets go away, and distribution and use of steroids.
The most serious and disturbing charges — civil rights violations to “injure, oppress, threaten and intimidate citizens of Antioch” — were filed against two current and one former officer for siccing dogs and using less lethal bullets on residents. One officer allegedly kept the sponge bullets as “trophies” placed on his mantle. Separately, the probe uncovered racist texts sent or received by nearly half of the Antioch police force.
“Everybody here advocated for this, and we pushed it when other people refused to act, were paralyzed to act and didn’t want to act,” Mayor Pro-Tem Tamisha Torres-Walker said. “We acted, this council.”
Torres-Walker, who served on a similar commission in another city, reiterated that the community “has been devastated by what we have seen in policing.”
“There has not been any oversight,” she said. “There has not been any accountability. And that hasn’t happened at the level of the council or a city manager. We have made history tonight (with appointing a civilian commission), but history means nothing if we don’t make progress, and my belief is we will make progress.”
Many other Bay Area cities have formed similar police commissions, including Oakland — along with then-Mayor Libby Schaaf, the commission fired the OPD police chief in 2020 — and San Francisco, which set a policy on how police can stop and search suspects. But because Antioch is a general law city, the city’s commission will not have the same type of power that those charter cities have.
The purpose of the Antioch commission is “to strengthen trust, transparency, accountability, and police-community relations in the city of Antioch by ensuring that the Antioch Police Department’s policies, practices, and customs meet or exceed national standards of constitutional policing,” according to a staff report.
The commission can advise the council, city manager and chief of police on policy matters concerning public safety, encourage open communication between the police and residents, and review and recommend policies, procedures and programs.
Hernandez-Thorpe said a city ordinance created guidelines for selection of the seven commission members who would come from each of the city’s four districts, as well as three at-large representatives — one from the faith-based community, the school district and the business sector. Each council member, as well as youth under 18, were involved in interviewing candidates and narrowing down the list, he said.
However, no one from the Antioch Unified School District or business community applied, the mayor said.
“I would really love to see someone from our school community participate, and a business leader,” he said of future commissions.
During public comments at Tuesday’s council meeting, nearly all residents commenting recommended the candidates, but former Councilman Ralph Hernandez had some reservations.
“I think this is premature, your selection is premature,” Hernandez said, suggesting some candidates might already have “a predisposition against the police.”
But Councilwoman Lori Ogorchock, who spoke to all the candidates, said that she didn’t believe they will come in with predisposed notions of making changes before hearing all the facts.
“I think you will have an open mind, you will listen to the public, and you will do the public’s work, just as this council does,” she said. “I hope and pray — and I believe in my heart — that’s how this commission is going to act.”
One-year term nominees approved Tuesday include Devin Williams and Alicia Dianne Lacey-Oha. Two-year term commissioners will be Porsche Taylor and Leslie May, while three-year terms went to Mahogany Spears, Treva Hadden and Harry Thurston. They were all approved on a 3-0 vote, with councilmembers Mike Barbanica and Monica Wilson absent.
Before swearing in the new commissioners — which was repeated at a second ceremony Wednesday — Hernandez-Thorpe reiterated that the council sets the policies, while the city manager holds the police accountable and provides oversight, something he said hasn’t been done in the past:
“And so tonight represents this government taking hold of its city and its instruments and making sure that every department in the city represents the values of our community. We’re not going back.”