Worcester, Massachusetts Police Face Allegations of Misconduct and Bias in DOJ Report

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has accused the Worcester, Massachusetts, Police Department of employing excessive force, engaging in sexual misconduct, and practicing “disproportionate policing of Black and Hispanic individuals” in a 43-page report released on December 9.

The report indicates that a two-year DOJ investigation revealed that Worcester police “unjustly deploy Tasers, utilize police dogs, and strike individuals in the head.”

It also claimed that Worcester officers frequently escalate minor incidents unnecessarily, particularly during encounters with individuals experiencing mental health crises.

Undercover officers are charged with sexual misconduct, including misleading, coercing, or intimidating women into sex with threats of criminal repercussions.

DOJ prosecutors acknowledged that most Worcester police officers serve with honor and integrity. However, during a webinar summarizing the report on Monday night, they indicated their investigation uncovered significant issues.

“Our extensive investigation showed that the Worcester Police Department employs excessive force and has permitted undercover officers to engage in sexual activities with women believed to be involved in the commercial sex trade,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division stated in a press release on Monday.

The report pointed to deficiencies in leadership, accountability, reliable data collection, and training related to these issues.

“WPD’s inadequate policies, training, supervision, investigations, and discipline facilitated these unlawful patterns and practices,” the report indicates.

Although the report did not explicitly attribute racism as a cause of the issues, one U.S. attorney mentioned during the webinar that race seemed to play a role in certain cases.

The report highlights that Worcester’s demographics include 51.8 percent white, 12.8 percent black, 24.6 percent Hispanic, 6.8 percent Asian, and 0.4 percent Native American. It also noted that Black and Hispanic individuals are more likely to face arrest during traffic stops and for nonviolent misdemeanors.

“The analysis revealed that Black individuals are at least two times more likely to be arrested for minor offenses compared to white individuals, while Hispanic individuals are between 1.84 and 2.04 times more likely to be arrested than white individuals,” Greg Dorchak, an assistant U.S. attorney, stated in the webinar.

Dorchak pointed out that Worcester police do not collect demographic data on traffic stops, arrests, and other interactions, making it difficult to ascertain the exact influence of race in the findings. He mentioned that improved data collection is one of the recommendations identified in the report.

Officials from the Worcester city and police department did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication. An attorney from Boston, who was hired as external counsel for the city, also did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for an interview.

The DOJ initiated its investigation on November 15, 2022. The Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Section and the Civil Rights Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts conducted the investigation, as noted in the press release announcing the report.

Investigators reviewed hundreds of incident reports and thousands of documents, including department policies, training materials, police reports, videos, and internal affairs files. They also performed statistical analyses on WPD data covering the period from January 2017 to November 2022.

In its findings, the DOJ acknowledged the changes implemented by the city and WPD and recommended further actions necessary to address the identified issues. Suggested reforms include establishing a Policy Review Committee to gather public feedback on policing and the department-wide adoption of body-worn cameras for officers in February 2023.

In addition to recommendations for better data collection and use-of-force training, the report emphasized the need for Worcester police to develop policies that hold offending officers accountable, facilitate reporting of misbehavior, take civilian complaints seriously, and conduct thorough investigations of those complaints.

Joshua Levy, U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, expressed that the report lays the groundwork for improving the police department, urging the public, law enforcement officers, social service agencies, and others to reach out to his office and the DOJ with their concerns.

“We stand ready to build upon this foundation,” Levy stated on Monday night.