ANTIOCH – After less than a year on the job, Antioch police Chief Steven Ford says he is leaving the scandal-plagued department.
Ford announced in a written statement Wednesday night that his last day on the job will be Aug. 11. He called it a retirement.
“I am proud of what we have accomplished and firmly believe the groundwork has been laid for organizational success,” said Ford, who was named permanent chief last November following a seven-month stint as interim chief.
“I know our work to align us with the [tenets] of procedural justice and constitutional policing will keep this department headed in the right direction,” he continued. “I sincerely hope our engagement with the community will continue and flourish.”
Ford’s decision to retire comes amid an FBI investigation into wrongdoing by more than a dozen current and former Antioch and Pittsburg officers. The alleged crimes range from possible violent civil right violations and assaults to fraudulent schemes to acquire pay bumps, to drug trafficking, obstruction of justice and weapons violations.
Ford, a former San Francisco police command member, arrived as interim chief in Antioch in April 2022. A month earlier, the FBI served search warrants and seized the phones of several Antioch police officers, setting off a series of scandals.
Last fall, he began efforts to reform the department’s use-of-force tracking, particularly surrounding police dog bites, after this news organization reported on questionable cases that APD appeared to never have investigated.
Then, in April of this year, hundreds of racist, homophobic and sexist texts sent among his police officers, dating back to before he joined APD, were made public. The number of officers named in the texts climbed to more than 40 — or nearly half the police force — and included detectives, gang and SWAT unit members.
Officers in the texts had made light of using violence against Black and Latino residents, and that scandal led to more cops who weren’t already under FBI investigation and on leave being put on leave. In the latest batch of texts, which this news organization reported on Saturday, members of Ford’s own department referred to him using an emoji of a gorilla.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta recently opened a civil rights investigation into the department, saying the APD was “already on our radar” based on an alarming rate of force that officers have used against residents.
Ford is expected to be called to testify at a Friday hearing, where defense attorneys have planned to question officers about racism and alleged crimes within the department. At least five officers may be unavailable to take the stand because they are out on injury leave, according to sworn declarations Ford has filed.
Over recent months, Ford also has clashed with Mayor Lamar Thorpe, both publicly and privately, over whether City Hall or the police department should be in charge of telling the public about police matters, although the pair were aligned on reforming the police department.
Reached by phone Wednesday evening, Thorpe said he had just returned from an American Public Transportation Association conference in Birmingham when Acting City Manager Kwame Reed notified him of Ford’s retirement. The mayor said he had not yet had a chance to talk with the chief.
Ford is leaving at a time when Antioch has lost its city manager, assistant city manager and other key positions in the city attorney, public works and community development departments.
“I’m never caught off guard by staffing changes, though, because that’s just part of life,” Thorpe said. “I mean we are going to have changes and we’ll just have to deal with them as they come.”
Thorpe, who has called for the firing of any officer named in the racist text message reports, added: “We have the facts that have been found by the FBI, reviewed by the district attorney’s office and reviewed by a superior court judge. I don’t know what other kinds of facts we need.”