Worcester Police Policy Explained

Courtesy Bill Coleman

What’s Up With Worcester Police

In August 2016 Mayor Joseph Petty said that there was no need for City Council to have public hearings on Worcester Police policies as Chief Steven Sargent was already meeting the public at crime watch and other organizations. One of these meeting was on September 26, 2016 at the YWCA where the NAACP hosted the Chief.

During the meeting there was some discussion about the crime watch meetings and other police events being hard to find. Even the Chief could say exactly where on social media we should look.

Another problem with attending the crime watch meetings is that they are not necessarily public meetings. There was a little dust up at the YWCA. A man claiming to be head of operations called the police when people holding signs for the NAACP meeting were told that they could not hold there. Chief Sargent came over and defused the situation.

The first thing we learned from the Chief is that City Council makes the decisions on the type of police policy. Chief Sargent said he could not respond on the issues of “Broken Windows” and “Stop and Frisk”. The policy for Worcester is “Community Policing”. There is evidence, the so called arrest sweeps and quality of life” that at least a modified form of Broken Windows is a de facto policy.

The issue of body cameras was raised.  Police Chief said that there were constitutional issue being reviewed by the Legal Department. He gave no timeline on this issue, although the ACLU has established guidelines for the use of body cameras for the Boston police are using.

In regards to transparency Chief Sargent said that there is being set up a Civilian Academy in which police procedures would be discussed. The Academy is expected to start in February 2017.

Dirt Bike policy was clarified to some extent.  A legal dirt bike on the street gets as citation and likely will be confiscated. The Chief said that these bikes are returned to their owners. A stolen dirt bike rider will be arrested.

There was no clarification of when legal dirt bikes are confiscated from private property.

Affirmative Action was discussed. The Chief said that more Latinos are accepting police positions than are African Americans. He said his department is working to ensure 25 percent of applicants are minorities.  What he did not say was that almost all successful applicant are former military who have preferential treatment over other applicants.

 Some push back came over the issue of school to jail pipeline and the use of uniformed police in Worcester Schools. There are 9 officers assigned to Worcester Schools. Seven officers are in the High Schools and two officers are assign to split duty in the Middle Schools.

The push back came in the form of four teachers, two of who are still teaching.

One teacher asked about the drug screening that is going on at Burncoat Middle School. The Chief said he was not aware of the program. The program was initiated by Governor Baker via the recent Opioid Bill passed last January.

Another teacher indicated that an implicit racism in having uniformed police in schools. The background to this is the inability to have an honest discussion of the police killings in places like Tulsa, Baltimore, or Ferguson. On the surface there is cordiality, but the real issue of race and power are hidden away.   

I have to say the Chief Sargent is personable, knowledgeable, and seeming long winded. He told us stories of the old days when he was mentored by Loman Rutherford, a Black officer. I did not hear much from him that was exceptional.

Events and time will tell if Chief Sargent will make a difference or will be restricted by the material conditions and facts of his job.