Overall violent crime down in Antioch

Report says aggravated assaults still dominate category, but police chief is pleased with trend

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