Antioch Police Chief shares ways his department engages with the community, fulfills 21st Century Policing principles

By Allen Payton

Ahead of the symposium in Antioch on community-police relations and 21st Century Policing, planned for this Saturday night, Antioch Police Chief Allan Cantando released a list of ways the Antioch Police Department engages with the community. (See symposium article, here)

“Please understand that this is the community engagement we have been doing for years, which just so happens to align with President Obama’s 21st Century Policing program,” Cantando stated. “We are engaged with our community because this is the best way to work in partnership and make our city a wonderful place to live.”

Following are the ways the department engages with the Antioch community. It is not necessarily a comprehensive list:

  • Coffee with the Cops
  • Pizza with the Police
  • Volunteers In Police Services (VIPS) program
  • Neighborhood Watch / Business Watch
  • Police Explorer program
  • Citizens Police Academy
  • National Night Out
  • Police Activities League (PAL)
  • Hispanic (ESL – English as a Second Language) Coffee with the Cops at Holy Rosary Church
  • Antioch Police Activities League
  • Programs with the Junior Giants
  • College Preparedness classes
  • Etiquette classes
  • After-School Skate
  • After-School Bowling
  • Field trips to sporting events for our youth
  • Life After High School program to prepare kids for college
  • Youth Leadership Program
  • Annual charity golf tournament
  • After-School Basketball program (in-progress)
  • Legos and the Law program
  • Social media outreach (Facebook / Twitter/youtube)
  • PD Smartphone App to provide information to our citizens
  • Crimereports.com that allows citizens to view crime in our city
  • Running Man Video
  • Visits to faith based organizations
  • “Panther Tails” program where H.S. students run with our shelter animals
  • Halloween Candy giveaway
  • Holiday Food and Gift giveaway
  • Visits and presentations at schools
  • “Read Across America” program in our schools
  • Rotary “Empowerment Program” focused at girls in high school
  • “We’re looking out for you” program where waste disposal drivers  and postal carriers are trained to look for and report crime
  • Monthly neighborhood clean-ups
  • “Tip-a- Cop” events for Special Olympics
  • “Torch Run” for Special Olympics
  • Police Department Open House
  • Quarterly presentations to City Council regarding crime and departmental updates
  • On-going and pro-active dialog with NAACP and LULAC regarding community

While neither Cantando nor Captain Tammany Brooks, who learned about 21st Century Policing while attending the FBI National Academy in Washington, D.C., will be able to attend the symposium, they’re working with the organizers to schedule a future meeting regarding the issue. The discussion during Saturday’s forum will be about matters in general and not specific to Antioch, organizers have said.

The symposium, entitled Building Bridges & Tearing Down Barriers, hosted by the Antioch Community Team will be held from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 24, at the Delta Bay Church of Christ located at 913 Sunset Drive in Antioch.


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