31: Retired Police Sgt Steve Aiello Talks Antioch Police Department

Contra Costa News

On this episode, we recap what has been going on with the Antioch Police Department and City of Antioch. I am joined by former Antioch Police Sergeant Steve Aiello and Ken Turnage to highlight history and provide more context of what has gone on.

We talk staffing levels, why police officers are leaving, the negative impact the Antioch City Council has had – specifically Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe, Tamisha Torres-Walker and Monica Wilson on staffing levels. How hard it is for Antioch Police to hire.

We discuss how a Share Order was off limits involving Mayor Hernandez-Thorpe and others with text messages but text messages involving Antioch Police and Pittsburg Police was okay. We get into why the media has gone hard after Antioch Police but left Pittsburg Police alone even though they have had more officers fired. We also talk context, of how the way police text messages were released were not all of the messages but a small sampling and in some cases edited—only 25 pages of 200+ have been released. At least Pittsburg was smart to let the process play out, Antioch Mayor wanted to hold press conference after press conference and now historically wrong.

We also question why police body camera footage from Tamisha Torres-Walker house has never been released and the legal games playing out—Aiello says it should be released. We get into importance of body camera’s in police department and impacts it has. Should never have taken Councilmember Mike Barbanica 6x to make the request.

Finally, why is no one in the media discussing the grand jury report? Totally bizarre media protects elected officials when they should be reporting on them.