The Justice Department said Monday that a two-year civil investigation of the Worcester Police Department found a series of rule violations, including that officers had sexual contact with women suspected of prostitution while working undercover, and rapidly escalated minor incidents by using unnecessary force against people who were in a mental health crisis.
Clarke and Levy said the Justice Department looks forward to working with the city of Worcester and the Police Department leadership to implement reforms and bring an end to unlawful practices. Attorney Brian T. Kelly, who represents the city of Worcester and the Police Department, issued a scathing rebuke of the findings in a statement Monday, before the report was released, saying city officials had fully cooperated with the investigation.
She said she and other advocates spent years persuading victimized sex workers in Worcester to speak with federal investigators, and is gratified to see the report released. But that public accounting is not enough, she said. She hopes the Justice Department will go further, either suing the city or pressuring them into signing a consent decree to reform the Police Department.
We urge local officials to work together with the DOJ to adopt and implement reforms to address the egregious misconduct described in the report. Rossman also called on local and state officials to investigate misconduct detailed in the report, noting that such misconduct may undermine the integrity of numerous cases involving the officers.
The announcement marked the second Justice Department investigation of a Massachusetts law enforcement agency under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of In , the Justice Department investigated Springfield police, and resolved that review with a court-enforced consent decree in that forced that department to undertake a number of reforms , such as revised training on use-of-force.
