Police department allowed officers to engage in sexual misconduct with prostitutes: feds

The police department in Worcester, Massachusetts, allowed officers to engage in sexual misconduct with women believed to be in the commercial sex trade, Justice Department investigators said in a report, according to WBUR.

Investigators found that police officers "'rapidly escalated minor incidents by using more force than necessary' including during encounters with people who have behavioral health disabilities or are in crisis — a violation of the Fourth Amendment," according to the report Monday. "The report also includes what investigations describe as 'concerns about some credible reports that officers have sexually assaulted women under threat of arrest and engaged in other sexual misconduct; and concerns that WPD lacks adequate policies and practices to respond to and investigate sexual assaults by officers and others.'"

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“Excessive force and sexual misconduct at the hands of officers who took an oath to serve and protect deeply diminishes the public’s trust in its sworn officers," said acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy, of the District of Massachusetts. “The actions by certain officers who engaged in this conduct are not a reflection of the many hard working and ethical officers at the WPD who did not engage in such misconduct."

Brian T. Kelley, the police department's lawyer, sharply criticized the report, saying, “Instead of identifying individual officers who could — and should — be prosecuted if these serious allegations were true, DOJ has prepared a report by civil lawyers with no prosecutorial experience which makes incredibly broad allegations but fails to identify a single corrupt officer.”

Nonetheless, there have been several incidents in the past where police in various parts of the country have been implicated in sexual misconduct.

In 2022, Brian Harris, a local constable chief in Harris County, Texas, was busted in an undercover prostitution operation. And in 2014, a Baltimore police officer, Charles Hagee, was arrested on allegations of soliciting prostitution services from a 14-year-old girl online.