Worcester police numbers: Hate crime investigations, officer use of force incidents

WORCESTER — Police recorded 17 hate crime incidents in a one-year period starting July 2022.

Police used force in 313 cases during the 2022 calendar year, resulting in 13 allegations of unnecessary use of force.

Those numbers were presented Monday when the police held its annual meeting with the city's Human Rights Commission.

Capt. Matthew D'Andrea said nine people were arrested and charged based on the 17 hate crime incidents between July 1, 2022, and June 30 of this year. D'Andrea told the commission he would try to update the commission on the status of those nine cases when he returns for a meeting Aug. 7.

Two of the 17 hate crime incidents were investigated by Worcester Polytechnic Institute, one by Worcester State University and three by University of Massachusetts police officers.

Arrest, use of force data for Worcester police

Police also shared the annual report from the Police Department's Bureau of Professional Standards for 2022.

D'Andrea said there were 2,597 arrests in the city last year, meaning the 13 unnecessary force allegations represented 0.5% of arrest encounters and just over 4% of the arrests in which force was used.

D'Andrea said police responded to 128,813 incidents in 2022, leading to 43 complaints of any nature. The captain said that translated to .03% of incidents resulting in a complaint.

Of those making complaints, 13 were white, seven Hispanic or Latino, eight Black and 11 unknown.

Of the 43 complaints, about five were sustained.

There were 96 dispositions in the Bureau of Professional Standards related to complaints. Twelve were sustained, where sufficient evidence was found to prove the allegations. The majority of the complaints, 49, led to an exoneration, where the events described did occur but were deemed lawful and justified. An additional 16 complaints were deemed unfounded, where the events alleged were ruled to not have occurred.

Most of the remaining dispositions fell into other categories where the investigation could not lead to a ruling on the veracity of the claims.

When asked about the diversity of the members of the Bureau of Professional Standards, D'Andrea said the captain in charge of the unit and two additional members are Black and two are white; one is a woman.

Death of former diversity officer Derrick Leto

In addition to the complaint statistics, the police were also asked about the recruitment of diversity officers following the off-duty death of former diversity officer Sgt. Derrick Leto in May.

Sgt. Angel Miranda and a patrol officer have been assigned as full-time diversity officers, D'Andrea said. The police also hope its cadet program can improve diversity in the ranks. In 2023, four of five full-time cadets are minorities and all are on the list to be prospective police officers.

Equip officers with city cellphones?

Commissioner Guillermo Creamer Jr. stated his belief that officers, or at least every police vehicle, should be issued city cellphones with access to language or communication tools to help with interactions with people who speak languages other than English.

"Our officers are not equipped essentially to deal with folks who do not speak English as a first language and the use of a cellphone is required," Creamer said.

Police Lt. David Doherty said city-issued cellphones would likely raise questions of cost and could count as a change in working conditions for the city's two police unions.

The commission approved motions to request an analysis of the cost of equipping every police vehicle with a phone and to verify whether existing technology available to officers allows them to use language apps.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Hate crime investigations, use of force complaints in Worcester