Worcester city leaders’ oath of office is to serve and protect the WPD.
Worcester values its police force over the welfare of its residents.
I didn’t say “some residents” because this hierarchical value system adversely impacts all residents, whether or not they are aware of it.
Take 2009, for example. The country was in the throes of a 19-month Great Recession triggered by the 2007 subprime mortgage crises.
The impact on state and local funding was devastating. The state cut $1.4 billion from its budget in October 2008 and another $1 billion in January 2009.
Among the cuts in state funding was an 80% reduction in the Quinn Bill, an education incentive program that raises the salaries of police officers with college degrees by 10—25%. The state at the time funded 50% of the program, with local municipalities picking up the other half.
Most municipalities decided to maintain their 50% obligation, but Worcester opted to preserve the full Quinn Bill benefits by picking up the funding cut by the state.
A short-tenured police officer with a bachelor’s degree got about $11,856 Quinn Bill bonus in addition to a $59,283 base salary at the time.
An officer with the same salary and a master’s got about a $15,000 bonus.
About 77 percent of the 435-officer Worcester Police Department were receiving Quinn Bill bonuses that year.
That decision to fully fund the Quinn Bill was not the first-time city leaders chose to place the police department over the welfare of its residents. It was, however, one of the most blatant examples of them viewing the WPD as untouchable.
In contrast, here is also what happened in 2009:
The city slashed 308 municipal positions; closed its nine neighborhood pools; eliminated its Health and Human Services Office; gutted the public health department, and cut funding to the public schools by $4.2 million.
It consolidated services provided by the HHS office, to include Human Rights and the Office of Disabilities and Veteran Services, and ran them through the city manager’s office.
The Worcester Public Library, which lost eight librarians and two other staff positions, began shuttering its doors on Sundays and Mondays.
The $4.2 million cut in school funding that year came on top of a gradual reduction in local aid support for the school system following the passage of the Education Reform Act of 1993.
The law was meant to boost school spending, particularly in urban school districts, but the city saw it’s passage as an opportunity to reduce its school spending obligations.
The city, for example, began placing the millions of dollars in Medicaid reimbursement funds generated by the school system in its general fund.
Previously the money had been split 50/50 with the school department.
Since 1993, the city has also shifted school nurse salaries and health insurance and retirement funding for school personnel from the municipal budget to the school budget.
The city’s pilfering of school funds didn’t come because the school department was swimming in money.
Worcester closed eight schools between 2002 and 2009. During that same period, the city eliminated 668 school positions. It also eliminated extended day programs at 10 elementary schools and reduced preschool from full-day to half-day programs.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the city has now responded to calls to defund the WPD by increasing the department’s budget, even while the school system is laying off teachers.
City leader’s abject subservience to the police would be a bit more palatable if they demanded a modicum of accountability from the department over the years. They have not.
In 2018, City Manager Ed. Augustus tried to assure us he was instituting a a measure of accountability when he finalized a contract with the police union that called for a six-month, body-worn, camera pilot program.
It was all smoke and mirrors.
In getting the pilot program, the city hiked the hourly rate for police details to $34.38 and affirmed its commitment to raise police salaries by 2% each fiscal year.
More significantly, when the state cut the Quinn Bill program in 2009, it barred officers hired after July 1, 2009, from participating in the program.
In the 2018 police contract, however, the city agreed to give additional longevity increases–ranging from about 2—4 percent– to all officers not receiving Quinn Bill incentives. It also provided those officers with educational incentives of $400–$800.
Meanwhile, although 20 officers participated in the body-camera program, the contract required every police officer to be paid a $250 lump sum payment.
As for the pilot program?
Well, the city deemed it too expensive to implement after the six-month trial period.
“We have been trying to do a lot of what these folks are advocating for,” Mr. Augustus reportedly said about his commitment to police accountability.
Who thinks the city manager is only hoodwinking us again?
My hand is up.