Worcester police officers were allowed to engage in sex with suspected prostitutes, report finds
WORCESTER – The police department in Worcester, Massachusetts, allowed officers to engage in sexual contact with women suspected of being involved in the commercial sex trade, according to a report the U.S. Justice Department released Monday following a two year investigation.
Worcester police deny the allegations, calling the investigation biased.
Worcester Police Department report
The 41-page report also found that the police department used excessive force, including the unjustified uses of tasers and police dogs and strikes to the head.
The findings raised concerns that the department engages in racially discriminatory policing, according to Justice Department officials. Worcester, the state's second-largest city with a population of about 207,000, is located 50 miles west of Boston.
"Excessive force and sexual misconduct at the hands of officers who took an oath to serve and protect deeply diminishes the public's trust in its sworn officers," U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy for the District of Massachusetts said in a written statement.
"The actions by certain officers who engaged in this conduct are not a reflection of the many hard working and ethical officers at the WPD who did not engage in such misconduct," he said.
Police call report "unfair"
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said the department looks "forward to working with city officials to institute reforms that build on their own preliminary efforts but that will fully bring an end to these unlawful and unconstitutional practices."
Brian T. Kelly, a lawyer representing the police department, said police and city officials have cooperated with the federal investigation. He called the report "unfair, inaccurate and biased."
"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 in a written statement.
"The report is riddled with factual inaccuracies and ignores information provided by the city which debunks many of the anonymous claims," he added.
Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty said in a statement he takes the report's findings "very seriously."
"While I question some of the statements made, I can only fully process the report with the investigative materials from the DOJ," Petty said. "I intend to request the City Manager report back with recommendations for next steps within the next 30 days as they receive and process the investigative reports from the DOJ."
Hotline to report Worcester police misconduct
Worcester City Manager Eric Batista reacted to the report on Tuesday afternoon, calling the findings "shocking and unacceptable."
"It is unfathomable to me that any officer of the law - any employee of the City of Worcester - could or would act in such an unlawful, egregious, and immoral manner," he said in a statement.
Batista listed steps the city is taking in response to the report. He said Worcester's Executive Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion will lead trainings on behavior, implicit bias and related topics.
The city is also establishing a hotline "for members of the public to report any alleged misconduct by police officers." Batista said hotline reports will be investigated "independently and without bias."
Police accused of excessive force
The report found that Worcester police officers "rapidly escalated minor incidents by using more force than necessary" including during encounters with people who have behavioral health disabilities or are in crisis — a violation of the Fourth Amendment.
The report also includes what investigations describe as "concerns about some credible reports that officers have sexually assaulted women under threat of arrest and engaged in other sexual misconduct; and concerns that WPD lacks adequate policies and practices to respond to and investigate sexual assaults by officers and others."
Engaging in sexual contact while undercover as part of official investigations violates the 14th Amendment's due process clause, according to the report.
Audra Doody, the Co-Executive Director of Safe Exit Initiative, a non-profit which helps individuals escape the sex trade, reacted to the report.
"When you're in trouble, who do you call? You're supposed to be able to call the cops," Doody said. "We don't want the cops involved because of fear of a dog getting released on you, getting tased, getting called all sorts of names, getting sexually assaulted while you're handcuffed."
Doody says police treatment of prostituted individuals has improve since 2022 but more has to be done to heal. "Getting the city manager and mayor to acknowledge the harm that was done," she said.
Worcester Police Department recommendations
The report makes a series of recommendations from improving training on the use of force, requiring officers to report misconduct, mandate the use of body-worn cameras and require supervisors to review footage to monitor officer performance.
The report also calls on the police department to provide training about permissible investigative techniques to enforce laws about buying and selling sex, including a complete prohibition on engaging in sexual contact for law enforcement purposes.
The Justice Department opened the investigation on Nov. 15, 2022.
