Worcester lays groundwork for fight against systemic racism in city government

Photo | Grant Welker Worcester City Hall

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Worcester City Manager Edward Augustus has initiated a multi-prong plan taking aim at systemic racism as it manifests in City Hall, Worcester Public Schools, the Worcester Police Department and other public offices, releasing a string of executive orders and recommendations outlined in a letter to City Council ahead of Tuesday night’s meeting.

An executive order signed on Friday included six policy goals with deadlines ranging between July and January. They include:

Ordering the City, beginning with the police human resources and department of health and human services departments, to submit proposals from a third-party organization with expertise in conducting a racial equity audit to evaluate policies, procedures and culture, which will provide recommendations to disrupt systems of racism and inquiety in any form, due July;
Ordering the City’s executive office of diversity and inclusion and human resources to collaborate on training/professional development opportunities to prepare staff for racial equity work, due July;
Ordering the City to undergo an internal review of demographic and operational data collection and evaluation relative to advancing racial equity, due September;
Ordering a commitment to change business as usual within the City with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion and applying a racial equity lense throughout all departments with all stakeholders, due January;
Ordering the City to incorporate racial equity goals and objectives into its annual departmental development plan, including timelines, accountability designations and performance measures, as well as inclusive outreach and public engagement, due January;
Ordering the City to increase its commitment to fostering a City Hall reflective of its community, including implementing diversity recruiting action plans in all departments, due January.

“We are at a critical point in our history, where we will be judged not just by what we say, but by what we do to address and stop racism,” Augustus said in a letter to City Council dated Feb. 23.

Augustus included in his letter a series of recommendations, many internal, such as implementing a city-wide racial equity audit, and establishing a Division of Investigations, established within Augustus’ office, which will be tasked with conducting city-wide internal investigations based on employee and resident complaints.

He called for removing school resource officers from Worcester schools by the end of the calendar year, coinciding with the implementation of a yet-to-be developed new safety plan for the school network.

Other recommendations included banning facial recognition technology as well as banning any city official from obtaining facial recognition data or information from a third party, further engaging the community in conversations about a body camera program, and creating a process wherein social workers or other licensed specialists are deployed during mental health incident calls to police.

Augustus recommended creating a public dashboard to track use of force complaints and other related data as they pertain to the Worcester Police Department, to be displaced on the city’s website.

"The work to eradicate institutional racism is not easily accomplished. As such, these proposed reforms and structural changes do not represent the end of our efforts, but rather the continuation of our commitment to effect real change,” Augustus said.