Antioch Reforms Police Following Racist Texts Scandal

Antioch, Calif.—A Northern California city reached a settlement to reform its police department following findings that officers shared racist and sexist text messages, used excessive force, and falsified records. The agreement aims to overhaul training, establish governance to handle complaints, and create a mechanism to flag problem officers, the city said Friday.

Under the terms announced Friday, Antioch will bolster police training programs, establish an independent review board to handle complaints, and implement a warning system to identify officers whose conduct requires closer scrutiny, the settlement notes. The deal resolves a civil rights lawsuit filed in 2023 on behalf of residents who said they were targeted by Antioch police officers. Earlier this year, 23 people who were part of the suit reached a $4.6 million settlement with the city for monetary damages, Burris said. The late-stage agreement aligns with work already underway, Burris added.

"This agreement allows the Antioch Police Department to start with a clean slate and oversee officers’ conduct and make sure they are compliant with new standards," said John Burris, who filed the complaint in federal court on behalf of residents who said they were targeted. City Manager Bessie Marie Scott said the settlement reinforces work already underway and "ensures sustainable transparency measures and updates core policies to modernize how APD continues to provide constitutional policing services to the residents of Antioch."

Federal authorities had launched a broad investigation in March 2022 into police officers in Antioch and nearby Pittsburg, examining a range of offenses. As part of the inquiry, prosecutors released racist and obscenity-laden text messages shared by about 45 Antioch police officers that shocked the community. In the messages, officers referred to some suspects as “gorillas,” and joked about harming people who appeared to have surrendered or were asleep by using a police dog or a 40 mm “less-lethal” launcher, according to a federal indictment against three former Antioch officers.

Morteza Amiri, a former Antioch K-9 officer, Eric Rombough and Devon Christopher Wenger were charged in the case with conspiring between February 2019 and March 2022 to injure, oppress, threaten and intimidate residents of Antioch and to falsify reports in seeking pay increases for a university degree obtained with outside help. Wenger was sentenced earlier this month to seven years and six months in federal prison for conspiring to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate residents of Antioch using unreasonable force, conspiring to distribute anabolic steroids, and obstructing justice. Amiri, the former K-9 handler, was sentenced in June to seven years in prison for maiming someone with his dog, falsifying reports on that case and participating in the scheme to obtain a pay raise. Rombough pleaded guilty and became a government witness; he is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 13.

Antioch, a city of about 115,000 residents located roughly 45 miles east of San Francisco, has diversified significantly in the last three decades. The reform effort follows litigation and federal investigations that highlighted deep concerns about policing practices in Antioch and neighboring communities.