Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
Justice Department investigation finds Worcester police officers sexually assaulted suspected sex workers
The DOJ also reported that department uses excessive force and disproportionately polices Black and Hispanic people.
A two-year federal investigation into the Worcester Police Department found the department committed multiple civil rights violations, including sexually assaulting women and escalating minor incidents with force.
The Justice Department, which launched a civil investigation into the department in 2022, said it dug into Worcester police data from 2017 to 2022 and interviewed community members, officers, and city employees.
The investigation did not name any individual officers serving the second largest city in Massachusetts, but noted that the department failed to supervise officers and enforce policies.
“WPD’s inadequate policies, training, supervision, investigations, and discipline fostered these unlawful patterns or practices,” the DOJ allege.
Advertisement:
“We spent a lot of time in the Worcester community,” U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said during an online webinar about the investigation Monday night. “In total, our team spoke to about 150 different community members and local organizations including many residents who experienced misconduct by the Worcester police. … we thank you all for sharing with us.”
Brian T. Kelly, a lawyer representing the city and the department, said in a statement to The Boston Globe that the report was “an unfair, inaccurate, and biased report which unfairly smears the entire Worcester police force.”
“Instead of identifying individual officers who could — and should — be prosecuted if these serious allegations were true, DOJ has prepared a report by civil lawyers with no prosecutorial experience which makes incredibly broad allegations but fails to identify a single corrupt officer,” Kelly said, according to the Globe. “The report is riddled with factual inaccuracies and ignores information provided by the city which debunks many of the anonymous claims.”
Advertisement:
Deputy U.S. Attorney Mary Murrane clarified the difference between their investigation and one that would result in criminal charges at the webinar Monday.
“This was a civil pattern or practice investigation, and that is different and separate from criminal investigations,” Murrane said. “This investigation was not examining the behavior of any one particular officer or looking at potential criminal penalties, but instead was looking at the department as a whole.”
Worcester police and the City of Worcester did not reply to a request for comment.
WPD members unreasonably tase, hit during minor incidents, feds found
The Justice Department’s findings included that the department “engages in a pattern or practice of using excessive force.” The DOJ said members of the department unreasonably stunned people with tasers and struck people on the head or face, particularly those who had behavioral health disabilities or were in crisis.
Officers allowed their police dogs to bite, particularly when people being detained are already under control, the DOJ said.
The investigation reviewed 87 taser incidents from 2018 through 2022 and found that department members tase people who don’t immediately comply with officers’ demands but aren’t actively resisting or posing a threat.
In one example, a Worcester teen was tased twice while slowly walking backwards with his hands up, despite the teen not matching the description of the original call regarding a group of “kids causing mischief.”
Advertisement:
Worcester police officers also hit multiple people before attempting any other measures. Officers punched and pepper sprayed a shoplifter repeatedly, and officers also escalated a welfare check of an unarmed man “exhibiting mental health-related symptoms” by punching him multiple times in the face, prosecutors found.
Their use of force overall was also not adequately supervised, the investigation found.
“This investigation uncovered several officer narratives that were inconsistent with other documentation describing the same use of force, yet no supervisor reconciled these inconsistencies or otherwise inquired about them,” the 43-page report said.
Officers allegedly engaged in sexual contact while undercover, paid for sex while working
Some officers “sexually assaulted women under threat of arrest and engaged in other problematic sexual conduct,” the report said.
The department allegedly allowed officers to engage in sexual contact with women suspected of being sex workers, which had no legitimate law enforcement purpose, the DOJ said.
“Despite being on notice of these issues, WPD failed to establish the policies, training, and supervision needed to ensure officers are not violating women’s constitutional rights, instead allowing a problematic culture and unlawful conduct to continue unchecked,” the report said. “
The DOJ interviewed members of WPD’s Vice Unit, which handles sex- and drug-related crimes, as well as women who allegedly had personal experiences with officer sexual misconduct. Many of the instances involved an officer touching or asking to be touched before arresting the woman.
Advertisement:
The investigation found that officers have allegedly sexually assaulted women and demanded sex acts in exchange for police assistance, the DOJ said. In one instance, an officer allegedly identified himself, flashed his gun and showed a woman a bag of drugs before threatening to arrest her if she did not perform oral sex.
“He gave her $40 and remarked that she was lucky to receive any money at all,” the report said. “According to the woman, on at least two additional occasions the same officer picked her up in different rental cars and forced her to perform oral sex.”
The report also said officers paid women for sex outside of their official capacity, revealing “a culture at WPD where officers can freely engage in illegal acts with women – without consequence.”
The report found that the department’s investigations into sexual assault are lacking, and while not unconstitutional, gender bias may interfere with its handling of those investigations.
Enforcement disproportionately affects Hispanic and Black people
The investigation found that Hispanic and Black adults and youth were more likely to face a traffic stop ending with an arrest, written warning, citation, or criminal complaint from Worcester police. Those groups were also more likely to be arrested for minor misdemeanors and treated with excessive force.
“Currently, Worcester does not have a policy requiring officers to document all stops, nor does it track the reason for staff and Worcester also almost never documents whether a search was conducted,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Dorchak said Monday night.
Advertisement:
The report said that those racial disparities don’t necessarily reflect unlawful discrimination, but the data “plainly show a disproportionate effect on people of color.”
Prosecutors laid out remedies to improve the department, including new and revised policies, training, and supervision practices.
“While the findings announced in today’s report are serious and sobering, today we start a new chapter,” Levy said. “We look forward to working with the City of Worcester and the new leadership of the Worcester Police Department to implement reforms that will prevent these kinds of incidents from reoccurring.”
Reactions from mayor, city manager, councilors
Worcester City Manager Eric Batista said in a statement Tuesday that many of the recommendations in the report have either been implemented or are in progress.
“We have already begun improving our data collection and demographic analytics, and a significant amount of data, including Use of Force incidents and Bureau of Professional Standards investigations, is currently accessible on our open data portal Informing Worcester,” Batista said.
He plans to present a Civilian Review Board proposal to the City Council, he said.
“In the meantime, the members of the Worcester Police Department, who overwhelmingly serve our community with integrity and compassion, will continue their ongoing community outreach to build relationships and trust while continuing to refine and improve Department policies,” his statement read.
Etel Haxhiaj, a Worcester city councilor, said she was “frustrated” by the outside counsel Kelly and his comments on the investigation.
“I am sick over how he was allowed to undermine and dismiss this report. This is not how we move in a direction of accountability,” Haxhiaj wrote on X. “Let me make clear. He doesn’t speak for me. I don’t know why he’s allowed to speak for the City, the City Manager or the Interim Chief of Police.”
Advertisement:
Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette that “while I question some of the statements made, I can only fully process the report with the investigative materials from the DOJ.”
“I want to ensure that this process shows compassion and empathy to those who have been impacted, including members of the BIPOC community and survivors of the commercial sex trade,” Petty wrote, according to the T&G.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com