ANTIOCH – So far in 2025, the city has seen a reduction in major crime categories such as homicides, according to data recently released by the Antioch Police Department.
From January to June of 2024, Antioch had already recorded seven homicides. During the same time period this year, there have only been two.
While there have been notable declines in other major categories when compared to the first six months of 2024, crimes such as rape and aggravated assaults saw a sharp spike of 53% and 41% respectively in the first half of 2025.
For the first six months of 2024, Antioch had 15 reported rape cases, but that number rose to 23 for the same period this year, according to police. Similarly, for aggravated assault, the department recorded 334 cases compared to 237 cases in the same period last year.
The Antioch Police Department said the improvements in lowering some major crime rates reflected the “impact of proactive policing, through investigations and strong community support.”
Police Chief Joe Vigil said remains cautious, noting that he would like to see data on how the year wraps up.
“It’s easy to look at the first six months and say, ‘hey, we’ve had some reductions in some areas and an increase in others,’” Vigil told this news organization. “Let’s make sure it’s not just a spike or an anomaly and they even out.”
Vigil said some reductions were due to the department’s hiring and recruiting initiatives, which enabled it to have more police officers patrolling the streets.
“It also gives us the ability to put more detectives so they can investigate and look at more crimes and close more cases,” said Vigil. “I think it’s also the amount of work we are doing in the community, so they feel safe and trust us to come forward to share details about the crimes that they are seeing, knowing that they can work with us.”
He also credited the department’s partnership with the Angelo Quinto Community Response Team, Antioch’s first non-police mobile crisis response group.
He said the community response team has been a support system for the police department, helping to mitigate certain calls for service and some potential crimes.
The Antioch Police Department has faced difficulties over the years, including scandals involving racism and alleged criminals within it. Those scandals led to a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice to increase police oversight.
The police department also faced low staffing numbers and had an interim police chief for about a year. Vigil, who has been the acting police chief since January, took over permanently in April.
Along with a drop in homicides, the city has also seen a nearly 50% decline in reported robberies. Last year, 117 robberies were recorded during the first six months, compared to 66 during the same period this year.
Similarly, there was a 41% drop in burglaries, with 157 reported incidents, compared to 267.
For theft and auto theft, Antioch recorded a 38% and 35% drop. Last year, there were 925 thefts reported, compared to 572 this year. Similarly, there were 852 auto thefts reported for the first six months of 2024, but it decreased to 558 this year.
The only crime category that remained the same for the first half of both years was arson, with eight cases on the books, according to police.
However, a comparison with statistics for the same corresponding period from 2019 to 2022 showed that arson reports have gradually decreased.
For the first half of 2019, there were 31 cases of arson, but that number dropped to 23 the following year. In 2021 and 2022, there were 21 and 13 cases, respectively, reported for the first six months of the year.