WORCESTER, Mass. — Tempers flared Tuesday night as the Worcester City Council for the first time addressed a scathing Department of Justice report that said officers of the Worcester Police Department engage in “outrageous government conduct,” including “excessive force” and “sexual misconduct.”
Public comment on the DOJ’s recently released 41-page report lasted more than two hours at Worcester City Hall as police officers denounced the federal findings, while advocates for women demanded an apology.
The findings raised concerns that the department allowed officers to engage in sexual contact with women suspected of being involved in the commercial sex trade. It also described “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.”
Officers who addressed the meeting claimed the report has done damage to all city police officers because it lacks specifics and transparency.
“In this room, I sit here as many have come to this mic, and called me ‘rapist,’ called me a ‘criminal’ in front of my 8-year-old son, in front of my wife,” one Worcester police officer said.
Satji Patel, the coordinator for the nonprofit organization Project Priceless, asked the police department to issue a public apology “for the abuses committed against women” who officers “left to die on the streets.”
In addition to detailed instances of misconduct against women, the report found that Worcester police officers “rapidly escalated minor incidents by using more force than necessary.”
The report also found that the police department used excessive force, including the unjustified use of tasers and police dogs and strikes to the head, in addition to engaging in racially discriminatory policing.
Worcester leaders are slated to meet with the DOJ on Wednesday to get more specifics about the report, including which officers are accused of misconduct.
The meeting at the YWCA at 1 Salem Street begins at 6 p.m. and is open to the public.
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