Worcester Police Racial Equity Audit Published After 3 Years

WORCESTER, MA — After nearly three years in the works, an independent racial equity audit of Worcester police is recommending dozens of policy changes to fix issues around diversifying the police force, reducing racial disparities in arrests and the department's use of Civil Service.

The report, produced by the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) research firm, will be delivered to City Council on Tuesday, with City Manager Eric Batista asking councilors to approve new legislation as part of findings in the audit. Former city manager Ed Augustus ordered the audit in 2021 following large protests around the murder of George Floyd.

At the top of the report, CNA found that Black and Hispanic residents are overrepresented in arrests proportional to their populations in Worcester. Those two groups are 2 times and 2.2 times more likely to be arrested than whites, respectively.

The number of arrests in Worcester has decreased in recent years, but the audit found that young people are being arrested more often, and those racial disparities are especially stark among juveniles under 18.

"Black youth accounted for 28.9 percent of juvenile arrests, while Hispanic youth accounted for 48.8 percent and white youth account for 18.1 percent of juvenile arrests," the audit found.

According to Worcester Public Schools data, Black students comprise about 16.6 percent of the school-age population, Hispanics 43.3 percent and whites 29.1 percent.

At the same time, a survey conducted by CNA found that Black and Hispanic residents gave Worcester police high marks. Forty percent of Black people surveyed and 47 percent of Hispanics said the department has a "very good" relationship with their communities.

Former police chief Steven Sargent's comment in 2021 that he had never seen any racism in the department made it into the report. Members of the public interviewed by CNA researchers said the department should publicly recognize that policing practices had led to disproportionate treatment of non-whites.

The audit found that white officers are by far the majority in the department, and are overrepresented even compared to the white population in Worcester. It's just the opposite proportionality for Black, Hispanic and Asian officers compared to their populations in Worcester. However, the department has diversified slightly in recent years, with the share of Hispanic officers rising from 10.1 percent of the force to 13.1 percent between 2015 and 2022; and the share of Black officers rose during that same period from 4.7 to 4.9 percent.

Sgt. Derrick Leto, the department's chief diversity officer, died one year ago. He was hailed as having boosted the department's recruiting among underrepresented groups; he also founded the department's cadet and explorers programs. The department still has two officers dedicated to DEI efforts.

The audit criticized the department for not having "a clear plan" to improve diversity, equity and inclusion. The audit recommended the department create one, and include members of the community in the planning process.

CNA also recommended the department considering leaving Civil Service system — a recommendation that the Worcester Committee on Diversity and Inclusion made in 2021. In a memo to councilors, Batista acknowledged that the Civil Service tests for promotions favor white candidates, but did not indicate the city will be leaving the system anytime soon — something that communities like Framingham, Marlborough, Grafton and Webster have all done.

Batista does want councilors to approve removing only the police chief and deputy police chief positions from Civil Service, which would allow the city manager to hire those positions, similar to leaders of other city departments.

Batista said the department has already made changes based on recommendations in the report — there were more than 34 in total — and that the department "looks forward to getting underway" with others.

“This audit is just one step of many that the city is taking to improve the quality of services the department delivers and improve the culture within the department,” Batista said in his assessment of the audit.