By Adam Bass
masslive.com
WORCESTER, Mass. — Though Worcester experienced a 40-year-low in homicides and a five-year low in violent and property crimes in 2025, the city’s police department is currently down 58 officers, according to Police Chief Paul Saucier.
Saucier told the city council about the officer shortage on Tuesday during the council’s meeting. The shortage is due to retirements, officers on long-term disability leave and officers deployed through the military, according to Saucier. Additionally, the shortage could increase as 50 to 60 officers are up for retirement with benefits in November, according to Saucier.
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According to the Department of Justice, Worcester has around 400 sworn police officers. If the 50 to 60 officers up for retirement leave the department this year and the shortage of 58 officers does not get filled, the department could see a nearly 30% shortage in officers.
The chief expressed concern over the reduced officer numbers. He told councilors that if more were to leave, traffic enforcement — an area councilors say needs to be improved — could be stifled.
Saucier added that if numbers were to continue dropping, investigative units, such as the crime gun intelligence unit, will see a reduction in staff. The gun unit was created in 2024 to find and seize guns used in shootings.
“We have to put those officers in uniform,” Saucier said. “So a lot of the follow-up, like the gun unit, that would go away. We would not have the time to go out.”
The chief said that despite the department going “everywhere” to recruit new officers, the recruitment process has been challenging.
It takes two years for recruits to graduate the police academy and get required field training before they can go out into the field, according to Saucier.
The city has an incoming class of 25 recruits, according to Saucier.
“Hopefully 22 graduate,” he said.
A possible solution is to hire more officers through the state’s civil service database, as the officers on the list are already academy trained, according to Saucier.
Another solution is to increase the eligibility age for recruits who are eligible to take exams from 32 to 39. Councilor-at-Large and Public Safety Subcommittee Chair Kathleen Toomey said the city filed a home rule petition to the state legislature change the age but no action has been taken yet.
“This is a real crisis,” said Toomey. “We really need to step up and get this all pulled together so we can give him the tools to do things like make sure our community is not overrun with people who are speeding.”
From 2024 to 2025, there was a 4% drop in traffic crashes. In 2024, the city implemented a 25 mile per hour speed limit in order to reduce the number of traffic accidents and fatalities.
Nevertheless, the councilors told Saucier that they felt speeding was still an issue, with District 1 Councilor Tony Economou calling the problem “rampant.”
“Something that I get asked upon multiple times, and if it’s something that needs to change here, that needs to be brought here to the City Council , to the manager, would be speed enforcement,” Economou said.
District 3 Councilor John Fresolo also said speeding was an issue in his district but acknowledged that the shortage of officers makes traffic enforcement difficult.
“When you have the tools you need and you deserve, you get the job done,” Fresolo said.
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