Considered one of California’s most violent cities a decade ago, Antioch continues to see decreases in violent crimes, recent data shows.

Serious crimes, such as homicides, rape, aggravated assaults, burglary, theft and arson, are down by about 2,000 in the past 10 years, data shows, interim Antioch Police Chief Steve Ford said during a recent Antioch City Council meeting.

“This is something that as an organization we’re very proud of,” he said. “And I believe it speaks to the outcomes of practicing community policing approaches and strategies.”

A continuing challenge has been aggravated assaults, which dominate Anitoch’s violent crime and rose from 343 attacks in 2019 to 507 in 2021. So far this year, through May, though, aggravated assaults are at 193, down 13.5%, compared with the same time period in 2021.

Even so, Ford, who joined the department in April, cautioned that everything must be taken in context, noting that a new data reporting system is now in effect.

In December 2021, Antioch Police Department transitioned from the Uniform Crime Reporting Program to the National Incident-Based Reporting System, which provides more context in its method of statistic reporting.

The change allows multiple crime types to be associated with one incident, and certain crimes are now categorized differently. Robbery, for example, was counted as a “person crime” before and is now listed as a property crime, the police chief explained.

Comparing the first five months of this year to last year, burglaries decreased from 139 to 109, down 21.6%; thefts, 548 to 404, down 19%. However, homicides went from 1 to 5 for a 400% jump, robberies from 34 to 54 for 58.8%, and rapes from 5 to 24 for 580%.

Some statistics, such as rapes, appear inflated, but the police chief said that could be attributed in part to the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions in 2021, when people were back in contact with each other and there was more reporting of sexual assaults.

However, Leslie May, a mental health therapist with Community Violence Prevention, formerly the Rape Crisis Center, said rapes worsened during the pandemic as more people stayed home and most rapes are done by family members.

“It’s getting worse — and those are the reported numbers,” she said. “When they finally opened up in 2021 (as pandemic restrictions lifted), then more people started reporting, but there’s still a lot of people we don’t know about because they don’t report (assaults) because they are still living in the house with the perpetrator.”

Data through May of this year shows 848 property crimes (not including arson) and 244 person crimes, such as aggravated assault, rape and homicide. The highest category was thefts at 44% of all crime so far this year, according to Ford.

Even so, Ford pointed out that the overall crime index is down 8.14% from January through May compared with the previous year.

For the past three years, homicides have consistently made up about 2% of violent crimes, Ford said. Aggravated assaults, though, have continued to grow, making up 70% of violent crimes so far in 2022, but only 18% of crimes overall this year, according to the data.

That spike now includes gun-related crimes under the new reporting system the city is using, the chief pointed out. Aggravated assaults with a firearm have climbed from 59 in 2018 to 241 in 2021, he said.

That said, Ford noted that the department has a “strong record of firearms recoveries” this year, having retrieved 69 guns, 26 of which were privately made firearms.

“The most revealing trend is the proliferation of privately made firearms, also known as ghost guns,” he said. “These guns are extremely dangerous because they’re hard to track due to there being no identifiable markings or serial numbers.”

Ford noted Antioch police are “in the midst of a very purposeful approach” to decreasing gun and street violence by being proactive and stopping it before it happens, including taking guns off the streets, interacting more with residents and engaging with youth, such as a recent basketball game with police.

Ford said his personal goal is to rid Antioch of all gun-related homicides. To that end, Antioch police are holding community forums to engage residents, exchange information, and identify solutions and strategies around violent crime.

Police are also using proactive strategies, collaborating with other agencies, monitoring social media, making traffic stops and issuing citations to prevent dangerous sideshows — including one that was planned Memorial Day weekend — from occurring. So far this year, there have been 40 calls regarding sideshow activity, resulting in four arrests and 10 cars impounded, according to the report.

Another strategy is the forthcoming care team that will answer low-level mental health-related calls, freeing officers to address other calls, Ford said.

And when it comes to use of force, the police chief pointed out that in 2022, of 649 arrests made, only four resulted in uses of force. In 2021, less than 1% of arrests resulted in use of force, he said.

“I think the data speaks directly to de-escalation strategies, and a more thoughtful approach to how we’re doing business that we believe will contribute to improve community relations, and certainly mitigate unnecessary liability to the organization and the city as a whole,” Ford said.

As for staffing, the chief said the department has 24 sworn officers on leave, including eight on administrative leave and 16 off on work injuries.

The police chief is hoping for more improvements overall when staff levels climb. Staffing is at 103 officers with 115 allotted and 13 vacancies, but Ford said that the city could see seven to 10 more officers within a few weeks as some return from medical leave and new hires come aboard.

Councilwoman Tamisha Torres-Walker, who has been working with anti-violence groups, including Operation Ceasefire and Reimagine Antioch, said in an interview that she was encouraged that the city was paying attention to efforts to reduce violence.

“I think as we continue to get new data, the city can focus its resources, policing services where they’re actually needed, and then allow some of these other organizations and initiatives to help some of the more vulnerable folks with mental health and substance dependency issues,” she said.

“The part I am most encouraged about is the community engagement piece,” she added. “I think community engagement was the at the top because the stronger the relationships are with the community, the more you can do.”