The Antioch Police Department has recently fired another officer, but this is not related to the department’s text messaging scandal.
It’s connected to how the officer handled a traffic stop last year.
Police Chief Steven Ford said that in mid-April, officer Matthew Nutt was fired from the police department for a traffic stop in July of 2022.
After the chief reviewed bodycam footage of the stop, he placed officer Nutt on leave. After a months-long internal investigation, the department decided to release the officer from the department two weeks ago.
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“Well this is just very frustrating as you can imagine,” said Mayor Lamar Thorpe.
He said he first learned about officer Nutt’s firing through news reports.
The police chief said the mayor is not privy to personnel decisions at the police department, but Thorpe wants better communication between agencies considering the current fallout from a racist text messaging scandal involving dozens of its officers.
“We are in a crisis, and we have to make sure that leaders understand where we're at. And when you keep information from us, that's not right because we have to make decisions as a result of information we receive, whether people like it or not,” said Thorpe.
With a shortage in officers, the mayor said the city will soon be launching a crisis response team for non-violent crimes to address issues around the city that have been handled in the past by officers.
“When you look at our calls for service, I mean the great majority of calls for service have really nothing to do with a violent crime, so the new crisis response team will be able to take lot of load off the police department,” said Thorpe.
Wth the department down to 34 officers patrolling the entire city, it’s a cause for concern for residents.
“Well crime is on the rise and there's long response time for the police to check anything out,” said Rich of Antioch.
NBC Bay Area reached out to the Antioch Police Officers Association for a comment on Nutt's firing but have yet to hear back.
