Worcester Magazine
COP TALK: I wonder if anyone in authority in Worcester has ever regretted saying something more than Worcester Police Chief Steven M. Sargent probably regrets saying, “In my 35 years I have not observed racism in the department. We would not allow it. It has been practically a sport for armchair investigators, bloggers and journalists to turn up incidents and allegations of police brutality and institutional racism with the department, much of which has been chronicled in this column. So it probably shouldn t be surprising that the biggest social media buzz of the past few days has been Brad Petrishen s article for the Telegram & Gazette, “Despite chief s claim, Worcester investigated racist police incidents,” which highlights six investigations of racial complaints in the past decade, as detailed in documents provided after a public records request by the newspaper. As has been the hallmark of the ongoing public dialog between the Worcester Police Departm