Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe will bring his program of police reforms for another round before the City Council Tuesday night after the first discussion resulted in a marathon meeting nearly eight hours long packed with hundreds of public comments.
Following a delayed public revelation of the in-custody death of Angelo Quinto in December and another in-custody death last month, Thorpe unveiled a police reform program that he brought before the council in a special meeting late last month.
The mayor offered reform proposals to the council on mental health crisis response, officer training, demilitarization of police, bodycams and dashcams, independent review of complaints, hiring and screening, and public notification for major incidents.
The council this week will consider a report from the county's health department on mental health response approaches; a proposed $1.4 million contract with Axon Enterprise Inc. for police bodycams, dashcams and software; another software contract with Peregrine Technologies to manage police data systems and hiring a new police record technician.
In last year's election, Thorpe ousted incumbent Mayor Sean Wright and Mayor Pro Tem Joy Motts lost to Tamisha Torres-Walker. The vote count delivered an African-American majority on the City Council and a definite progressive swing to local politics.
In originally launching the discussion on the proposals, Thorpe emphasized the importance of bringing more "transparency" to police practices.
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