With Worcester Police Budget At All-Time High, Councilors Ask For More

WORCESTER, MA — Worcester police interim Chief Paul Saucier appeared before city councilors Tuesday for a budget hearing in a year when the department is seeking its largest year-over-year increase in more than a decade.

The proposed police fiscal 2025 budget of $60.5 million is about $5 million higher than the current fiscal 2024 budget. The 2025 police budget is the biggest total since 2009, and the year-over-year increase is the highest of any year dating back to 2009, according to budget documents.

About $4.4 million of that increase is due to salary increases, with about $3.6 million in increases just for regular officers, whose union inked a new contract in 2024. Other cost drivers include electricity, vehicle maintenance and equipment leases.

During Tuesday's budget hearing, several councilors asked what could be done about the reduced number of police officers working in Worcester. The department hit a high of 376 officers in 2020, but will be down to a projected 352 in fiscal 2025. That figure is below average dating back to 2009, according to previous budgets, but is not the lowest. Between 2009 and 2010, the number of police dropped from 352 to 317. The department saw a rare budget cut in 2010 of about $3.3 million. The department's total staffing will be about 535 positions in fiscal 2025 — including civilian employees and positions like the chief — which is above the average of 527 dating back to 2009.

At-Large Councilor Donna Colorio asked for a report on how much it would cost to expand ShotSpotter, the controversial gunshot detection system that covers about 8 square miles of the city's east side.

ShotSpotter will cost the city about $573,000 in fiscal 2025, the same as in fiscal 2024. That figure also includes Resource Router (previously called ShotSpotter Connect), a software tool that uses AI to direct officers to patrol parts of the city that are seeing spikes in major crimes like homicide, robbery and assault.

The department's use of technology was the subject of a series of questions from At-Large Councilor Khrystian King. He quizzed Saucier about the number of confirmed shooting incidents versus false alarms picked up by ShotSpotter. Saucier said there were over 500 reports of gunfire in Worcester last year, and of those, 116 were confirmed by evidence like shell casings or a victim. Seventy of those shootings were inside Worcester's ShotSpotter zone, Saucier said.

Saucier defended ShotSpotter against criticisms that it's an expensive technology that wastes resources. An ACLU of Massachusetts analysis of ShotSpotter in Boston found the tool led police to "dead ends" 70 percent of the time. Cities like Chicago, Atlanta and Seattle have either stopped using the technology or backed away from purchasing it.

Multiple times during the hearing, Saucier held up his cell phone to a microphone to play sounds of gunfire he said were recorded by ShotSpotter in Worcester. He said other cities may not find a use for the technology, but said it led police to about 40 shooting scenes where no one called police about gunfire.

"It sounds like you’re in the Middle East, [but] you’re here," he said at one point, playing audio from his phone that sounded like automatic gunfire. "Police need to know where that’s coming from to combat gun violence."

The police department budget has increased in every fiscal year since 2009 except 2010, 2011 and 2012. Since 2014, the budget has grown by $17.3 million. The increase between fiscal 2024 and 2025 will be 9.5 percent.

Tuesday's hearing stood in contrast to last week, when councilors reviewed the Worcester Public Schools budget. The district is facing a $22 million projected deficit in fiscal 2025, which may mean teacher and staff layoffs. The district received a 5.1 percent increase in funding from the city compared to fiscal 2024, or $23.8 million. The Educational Association of Worcester teachers' union has asked the council to increase the budget to be in line with funding obligations under state law. King forwarded an order to City Manager Eric Batista to find "a way in which the city can better ensure compliance with net school spending" before the fiscal 2025 budget process closes.

The police budget was approved unanimously by the councilors during Tuesday's hearing. The full city council still have to approve the full budget for fiscal 2025, which starts July 1.