Officer union chief raps civilian oversight, says other recommendations worth considering

WORCESTER — The head of the police union that represents the city’s captains, lieutenants and sergeants told the Telegram & Gazette it opposes one of the major recommendations of the recently released police equity audit — a citizen review board — and welcomes some of the other findings.

“When I look at this equity audit, I don’t view it as that damning to our police department,” Sgt. Richard Cipro, head of International Brotherhood of Police Officers Local 504, said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

Cipro told the T&G he agreed with comments Interim Police Chief Paul B. Saucier made at City Council Tuesday and, when asked, said he would personally support Saucier being made the permanent chief.

Saucier said Tuesday that there have been historical police practices “that have been negative to communities of color,” and said that “as the current leader of this department, the Worcester Police Department is committed to identifying any of those and rectifying them."

Cipro said all people have biases, and that bias has always been present in the criminal justice system.

“Have there been biases and prejudices in the criminal justices toward communities of color? Absolutely,” Cipro said, pointing to the crack epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s in which penalties were severely unequal for that form of the drug as opposed to powder cocaine.

“Those laws put into place absolutely impacted communities of color,” he said but, while enforced by police, the laws were not put in place by police.

“Now we’re (society) learning that was all screwed up, and it’s being rectified now,” he said.

Cipro drew a distinction between bias and overt racism.

“To say that we’re a racist organization is not true,” he said. “Could there be inherent biases in some of our policies on certain things? Absolutely.”

'Always improve'

Cipro said he believes the department should look at policies to see if bias can be better mitigated or addressed.

“As an agency, we can always improve,” he said.

While the audit found notable discrepancies in the rate of arrests of Black and Hispanic people compared to white people, Cipro noted that auditors didn’t find increases in the disparity when it came to arrests officers had more discretion over.

The researchers wrote the finding means “disparities have remained relatively stable even when officers have greater latitude in their decision to make an arrest, indicating that the root causes of these disparities might be multifaceted and extend beyond the realm of officer discretion.”

Cipro also noted that researchers found that, in motor vehicle citations, disparities decreased for people of color in situations where officers had more discretion.

The union that represents rank-and-file police officers Monday released a statement sharply criticizing the audit.

Cipro said while he agreed with that union that the audit was not as thorough as it could have been on some points, he didn’t see it as painting the department in an extremely negative light.

Cipro said the findings regarding disparities in arrests do appear concerning at first glance, but he believes further probing of underlying context would show the disparities are not driven by officer bias.

Auditors wrote the city didn’t collect enough demographic information to allow them to fully probe issues of racial equity — findings Saucier said Tuesday had much to do with technological restraints.

Cipro said the department could do a better job capturing demographic data if the city invested in better technology. Paper still rules the day in many processes, he said, while dispatch and other software systems need to be upgraded.

Cipro: PD needs more

“What I’d say to the city is this: You’ve ignored the police department for many years, (not) giving us the capital equipment we need,” he said.

Cipro said he would support using technology to capture more demographic data, and, as the auditors suggest, would not oppose releasing more demographic data online for the public to see.

“I have no problem being transparent,” he said. “I truly believe the more information we can give, the more it will disprove what people think of us.”

Cipro disputed the audit’s findings that the department doesn’t collect enough data surrounding use of force, saying it handed over 10,000 pages worth of information to the Department of Justice, which is conducting a separate civil probe of the department.

He said the auditors weren’t able to get all the information they needed because they didn’t have proper clearances, and that some of the information wasn’t easily accessible because of the department’s computer systems.

Cipro also disagreed with auditors' recommendation that the city consider a civilian review board.

Cipro said he believes the department’s internal affairs division does a good job, and doesn’t think civilians are qualified to provide oversight.

The process is an expensive one, he said, adding that he believes the Human Rights Commission is serving the function of civilian oversight.

Cipro said while the auditors theorized a decrease in complaints could be because the community doesn’t believe the internal affairs process is legitimate, he believes the decrease could be a result of the department adding body cameras.

Cipro said there’s been situations where people have withdrawn complaints quickly after being shown or told about body camera footage — situations he said could account for references in the audit to an increase in complaints being “resolved at intake.”

Cipro: Too much bashing

Cipro said while he believes the city can do more to diversify the force, he also believes some in the community who “bash” the police aren’t helping in that arena.

“We have to involve the community more, and we recognize that,” he said. But, he added, expected community input sessions on the audit “shouldn’t be another police-bashing session.”

Cipro said many of the same people who criticize a lack of diversity on the force could help police recruit more people of color, but instead their comments make it less likely for police to have success in that area.

Regarding civil service, Cipro said his union believes in the historical protections it has offered for officers, but does agree with moving away from the multiple-choice-only promotional exams that courts have found often have disparately negative results for candidates of color.

Cipro said he believed civil service does have alternate options for cities to explore regarding promotional exams, and would welcome that.

Regarding findings of an audit police survey that officers didn’t value diversity, equity and inclusion training as highly as other trainings, such as use-of-force trainings, Cipro said he believes the DEI training could be improved.

Cipro agreed with recommendations in the audit that more situational-based training could be more engaging. He said he believes the officer sentiment regarding DEI training had to do with the delivery and perhaps the term used on the survey rather than the subject matter.

Cipro said he believes the survey was generally representative of officer sentiment, though he said he disagreed with the many officers who said they believed the department’s internal affairs process was tainted by favoritism.

Cipro agreed with auditors’ findings regarding officer wellness and mental health. The city, he agreed, needs to do a better job of ensuring its officers have access to resources following traumatic events, as well as destigmatizing the topic.

“I’ve lost many a friend to suicide,” said Cipro, who has long served in the Army National Guard and been deployed. “I’m not ashamed to say I’ve sought help myself.”

Cipro said he hopes the city will take up that issue. He credited Councilor-At-Large Khrystian E. King, who has faced heavy criticism from police amid his attempts at oversight, for mentioning the issue in the past.

City police unions have been critical of King and other councilors, including when some pushed police reforms in the wake of the 2020 Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.

The audit released last week came in the wake of the 2020 push for reform from King, several other councilors and community groups, including Black Families Together.

Facebook posts on a Local 504 union page have been criticized by many in the city as offensive in the past, and auditors mentioned concerns about police Facebook posts in their report.

“The impact of such posts has been acknowledged throughout the community, emphasizing the pressing need for the WPD to address these instances and uphold a standard of communication that aligns with inclusivity and respect,” auditors wrote.

Asked about the topic, Cipro said the union page, which has since been made private, was used as a way to respond to posts critical of police that department members felt were offensive or unfair.

Cipro said some people were applauding vandalism on Worcester police cars and posting other content critical of police that officers found offensive.

“We needed to defend ourselves,” he said, acknowledging that some of the posts on the page were offensive.

“Some of the stuff was uncalled for, and we removed it,” he said, adding he does not personally use the private page much these days.

“Things have come down. Things are coming back to the middle,” he said regarding the tenor of public debate regarding police.

Racial equity audit by Michael Elfland

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worceter PD union chief raps civilian oversight