On Friday, the Department of Justice declared that it had concluded an investigation into discriminatory policing at the Antioch Police Department in California, where racist texts purportedly exchanged by officers provoked outrage and backlash.
According to a statement from the Justice Department, the city and the police have decided to engage a consultant to examine its policies, officer training, and use-of-force events and make recommendations for reforms.
According to the statement, the parties agreed to a framework for federal monitoring, to provide its oversight body a more robust accountability function, and to gather data on the department’s interactions for a period of five years.
In Friday’s announcement, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division stated, “The Antioch Police Department sends a strong message that the discrimination and misconduct that prompted this investigation will not be tolerated by partnering with the Justice Department to implement policing reform.
As it continues to collaborate with a separate California Department of Justice investigation into discriminatory policing, the Antioch Police Department said Friday that it supports the arrangement.
According to the police department’s statement, failures happened and the activities that led to this investigation were inappropriate. To make sure that officers maintain honesty and equity while dealing with wrongdoing in a timely and efficient manner, we will put in place and improve extensive policies, procedures, training courses, community involvement projects, and supervision systems.
According to the Justice Department, racist texts purportedly exchanged by officers between late 2019 and early 2022 served as the impetus for the investigation. These texts included racist and homophobic epithets, as well as one suggestion that the city’s mayor, who is Black and in his fifth year as Antioch’s top leader, be subjected to a less lethal weapon.
After it and the FBI looked into the racist texts, the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office produced a 2023 report that claimed the texts included boasts about hitting defendants and fabricating evidence.
It stated that the Justice Department’s own inquiry in June 2023 was motivated by the DA’s office report.
A request for comment was not immediately answered by the Antioch Police Officers Association, which represents rank-and-file, sworn employees in city contract discussions.
According to U.S. Census Bureau data, Antioch, a city of about 117,000 people located about 50 miles northeast of San Francisco, is around 1/5 Black, more than 2/3 non-white, and more than 1/3 Hispanic or Latino.
Outrage arose and civil rights lawsuits were launched after a local judge ordered the release of the DA’s office report.
After the texts were made public in 2023, a case of arson and mutilation against two individuals was dismissed in relation to the finding of Mykaella Sharlman’s (25), charred body.Prosecutors said that a jury’s examination would expose the prosecution’s dependence on police implicated in the scam.
“The Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office no longer has confidence in the integrity of this prosecution,” the office stated in a 2023 statement.
Sister Nicole Eason stated that Sharlman’s family was prepared to take the case to civil court and that the cops’ messages shouldn’t have had such an impact. In order to settle the case, prosecutors stated that they were looking for alternatives to depending on the unnamed cops.It doesn’t seem like any legal lawsuits have been brought in Contra Costa County about Sharlman’s passing.
In April 2023, four individuals who claim that Antioch police officers violated their civil rights and a fifth whose father was shot dead by policemen filed a federal lawsuit against the city. According to court documents, a few parties have paid their claims, but the civil action remained still pending.
Three cops were charged by a federal grand jury with plotting to harm, oppress, threaten, and intimidate residents, eight officers were placed on administrative leave, and one of the three resigned as a result of the texting report.At the time of the indictment in 2023, attempts to contact the three failed.
In 2023, attorney Michael Rains, who defended several of the officers named in the study, stated that there were not many cops participating in the texting.
“Suggestions in many media accounts that inappropriate text messaging was widespread … was simply not the case,” he stated at the time.
A request for comment on the Justice Department’s resolution Friday evening was not immediately answered by Rains.
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