WORCESTER, Mass. — Dozens of people gathered in Worcester Wednesday night to hear from the Department of Justice after it released a concerning report last week on the Worcester Police Department.
“There are a number of very, very good police officers, but systemically we need to make changes,” said Sue Swanson, a Worcester resident.
The DOJ laid out its findings to the community Wednesday night.
“The pattern of practice of unlawful conduct that we found compromises Worcester’s ability to provide public safety service safely, constitutionally and effectively,” said Megan Marks, Deputy Chief at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.
Marks says they conducted about 150 interviews and gathered evidence over the last two years to find systemic issues within the police department.
The DOJ says most officers do good work, but the problems they found can’t be ignored.
“We did issue this report because the patterns or practices we found are serious and they result in real harm,” said Marks.
Representatives from the DOJ said the biggest concerns were the use of “excessive force” by officers, with examples of racial discrimination.
Plus, they found a pattern of sexual misconduct with women working in the commercial sex trade.
“The sexual allegations, that’s very troubling, it’s really troubling, this report is really bad,” said Fred Taylor, president of Worcester’s NAACP.
The crowd at the YWCA Wednesday was able to break off into groups to ask the DOJ questions and offer suggestions on how to move forward.
The DOJ says the goal now is to implement reforms within the police department.
“They say no one hates a bad cop more than a good cop, I would just say that if one of your peers is doing something wrong and you know they’re doing something wrong, you should do something to respond to that,” said Taylor. “And if you’re letting that slide, you’re kind of telling them it’s okay to do that.”
The DOJ says this was a civil investigation, and any criminal investigations that could come out of this would be separate.
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