Antioch’s leaders signed a settlement Friday with residents who had filed lawsuits claiming years of abuse at the hands of dozens of city police officers, setting the stage for further reforms at one of the Bay Area’s most troubled police agencies.

The city’s agreement adds another layer of oversight to the scandal-plagued Antioch Police Department, an agency roiled by the public revelation in 2023 of racist and homophobic texts among officers who cheered on violence against the very people they were sworn to protect. Several officers have since pled guilty or been convicted in a slew of federal cases — the most recent of which led to a prison sentence of seven-plus years for an officer convicted of conspiring to violate people’s rights.

The five-year accord signals “a profound opportunity” to guard against similar abuses in the future, said John Burris, a lead attorney for the Antioch residents. It also serves as an extension of another agreement struck in January with the U.S. Department of Justice, in which the city agreed to hire a consultant and work with a police oversight commission to monitor use-of-force incidents and misconduct allegations, while also monitoring hiring and promotion practices.

Burris said the latest settlement also offers a layer of protection in the event President Donald Trump scraps that federal oversight — a lingering concern, given Trump’s choice to end similar federal arrangements in other cities beset by high-profile police abuse cases, including Minneapolis and Louisville. Antioch’s federal agreement, outlined in a 25-page Memorandum of Understanding announced in January, called for the oversight to last three years, with an option to extend it for another two.

“We wanted to make sure that we have an agreement in place that’s enforceable by us, and not dependent upon any kind of government to enforce,” Burris said. “We see what Trump’s DOJ has done.”

Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Burris, Antioch’s city manager, Bessie Marie Scott, and the city’s police chief, Joe Vigil, vowed to regain residents’ trust. The police department will “remain committed to ongoing community engagement and to strengthening transparency and accountability,” the police chief said.

“Today reflects the culmination of a long-demanding process,” said Scott, adding that “Antioch deserves a government that listens, adjusts and delivers.”

Friday’s announcement capped a string of settlements reached by Antioch with 23 people over the last two-plus years; nearly four dozen Antioch police officers were accused of abuse. The total of those payouts — which varied for each person — totaled $4.6 million, Burris said.

Many of the alleged abuses were privately celebrated by the officers themselves in group text chats, which made repeated use of offensive racial taunts and described officers hunting for Black residents to shoot or maim with their police dogs. In April 2023, an initial complaint filed by Burris’ firm said the texts offered “certified proof of the depth of many Antioch Police Department Officers’ bigotry, racism, willingness to falsify evidence, and their celebration of their own uses of unconstitutional force.”

The latest settlement significantly increases the amount of data collected on Antioch officers, including the racial demographics of those they’re pulling over and the officers’ reasons for doing so. The agreement also requires the creation of a computerized early intervention system, which aims to use data collected by the department to identify and respond to “potentially problematic behaviors” by its officers, such as “racial profiling, unlawful detentions and arrests and improper enforcement of traffic laws and laws relating to controlled substances,” the settlement said.

The police department also is creating a division that will employ analysts and conduct regular, random audits of officers’ body-worn camera footage and traffic stops — all of which will be shared with the federal monitor and the city manager and attorney, the settlement said. And it must conduct a community survey to gauge residents’ experiences and perceptions of the agency.

Several community leaders reacted with relief Friday to the announcement, framing it as a chance for hope and healing in a community long terrorized by its police force.

“Hope has been restored,” said Alicia Lacey-Oha, who sits on the Antioch Police Oversight Commission. “We see that we are going forward and that the healing process has begun. It’s going to take some time, but … the hearing process will come into fruition.”

Burris and another attorney, Jim Chanin, led the charge in a similar lawsuit filed about 20 years ago against the city of Oakland on behalf of 119 plaintiffs — mostly Black West Oakland residents — who claimed they were brutalized and framed by Oakland officers known as the Riders. The scandal led to federal court oversight of the Oakland Police Department that continues to this day.

A key difference from the Antioch settlement agreement and the consent decrees recently struck with other law enforcement agencies — such as accords overseeing the Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County and the now-shuttered Dublin federal women’s prison — is that it does not require the same close judicial oversight demanded elsewhere. That was a wrinkle that City Manager Bessie Marie Scott said she worked to leave out of the agreement.

On Friday, Burris stressed that his team can still file court motions if it finds that Antioch is failing to follow through on its promises. Yet he also repeatedly expressed optimism that Antioch city leaders appeared to be taking the issue seriously, and “we don’t have that resistance here” that existed in Oakland some 20 years ago.

Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.