City OKs rule for police use of military-style equipment

Antioch has updated its regulations on how police acquire or purchase military-style equipment.

Under the new rules, police will have to obtain the City Council's approval before acquiring or buying anything considered military equipment under state guidelines.

The ordinance was adopted with no discussion on a 3-1-1 vote, with Mayor Pro Tem Mike Barbanica dissenting and Lori Ogorchock absent.

In his introduction of the ordinance, Antioch Police Capt. Anthony Morefield said the purpose of the policy is to provide guidelines for the approval, acquisition and reporting requirements of militarystyle equipment.

The new regulations stem from Assembly Bill 481, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed on Sept. 30, along with six other police reform laws. Under the law, authored by Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, law enforcement agencies must establish policies and obtain approvals from their governing bodies for military equipment.

“AB 481 was enacted to increase transparency and accountability and oversight surrounding the use and acquisition of military equipment by state and local law enforcement,” Morefield said.

“Military equipment,” as defined in AB 481, however, does not necessarily refer to equipment the military uses or has used as military-style equipment is also commercially sold. Examples of “military equipment” includes such items as military-style drones or robots, armored vehicles, rubber bullet launchers and diversionary devices such as flash bangs, according to the staff report.

The Antioch City Council first considered the police department's use of military equipment in March 2021, when it declared the city would not accept any more surplus military equipment. But the council agreed to let the department keep using the equipment it already has, including a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected light tactical vehicle, originally produced to help troops survive explosives set off in

Iraq and Afghanistan.

The new policy approved at the council's May 10 meeting also requires the police department to prepare annual reports with lists of its military equipment, uses, costs and any complaints of such use.

Antioch, which has a population of 115,291, has a current inventory of military surplus equipment that includes one MAXXPRO mine-resistant ambush-protected armored vehicle to aid in rescuing people and one command-and-control truck. It also has 25 drones it uses in major collision investigations, missing person searches, crime scene documentation, SWAT and tactical work, natural disaster management and other emergencies.

The department also has military-style specialized firearms and ammunition, including 47 AR15s, four commando shortbarrel rifles, five bolt-action rifles and five UMP submachine guns, 15 projectile launch platforms, 75 plastic and foams projectiles, 110 hard plastic projectiles, two shotguns retrofitted for deploying gas, shotguns, four gaslaunching canisters, 50 launch cartridges, 94 flashbang diversionary devices, nine flashbang devises, 40 smoke grenades and 115 smoke canisters.