Worcester NAACP, Police Oversight Coalition Call for Toomey to Step Aside From Public Safety Panel; Councilor Recuses Herself Pending Investigation
WORCESTER, MA — The Worcester branch of the NAACP is asking Mayor Joseph Petty to press City Councilor Kate Toomey to step back from her role overseeing the Public Safety Committee while the Worcester Police Department investigates its own response to a crash Toomey was involved in earlier this month.
In a letter dated September 14, NAACP Worcester Branch President Fred Taylor Sr. told Petty that Toomey’s continued involvement in council discussions about police oversight, while an internal investigation into her own case remains open, “undermined public trust in the process.” Taylor wrote that the council chair “should be held to the highest standard” and asked Petty to “support this call and urge Councilor Toomey to temporarily step back from her leadership role on the Public Safety Committee while this matter is investigated.”
The request follows a crash on Sept. 2, when Toomey struck a parked vehicle around midnight, according to police reports cited by GBH News. Both vehicles were towed, and no injuries were reported. Officers who responded did not cite or charge Toomey.
According to Taylor’s letter, officers who arrived at the scene encountered several things that he argued should have prompted further investigation. He wrote that Toomey was unable to write her name, took several minutes to locate her license, tried to hand officers something other than her license, and asked them to contact the police chief. No field sobriety test was administered.
Body camera footage obtained separately by GBH News largely lines up with that account. According to GBH’s reporting, Toomey told one officer she was driving home from a restaurant, and when asked about the collision, said “she had an issue.” She told another officer she was driving down the street and “that’s all I remember.”
The Civilian Review Board Coalition, a group that includes the Worcester NAACP and the city’s Human Rights Commission, released its own statement making similar claims and going further, arguing the footage suggests Toomey may have been intoxicated. The coalition also alleged that Toomey tried to use her position during the stop by asking officers to reach a specific police sergeant, Anthony Petrone, who has supported her past campaigns. Taylor’s letter to the mayor did not include that specific allegation.
Toomey’s attorney, Michael Wilcox, disputed that characterization. He told GBH News that Toomey never identified herself as a city councilor to responding officers, and that police did not administer a sobriety test because there was no odor of alcohol or other evidence of alcohol use. “The police do not administer field sobriety tests to everybody who’s stopped for a motor vehicle violation or for an accident,” Wilcox said, adding that he believes it is appropriate for police to conduct their review but that nothing that night was “suspicious or improper.”
The Worcester Police Department has said it opened an internal investigation the same day as the crash. A department spokesperson said the review is meant to confirm “that no preferential treatment was provided and that all departmental policies were followed.”
That investigation, along with Toomey’s role, did not become public until Sept. 12, ten days after the crash, when the Worcester Telegram & Gazette began asking questions about it. Taylor’s letter and the coalition’s statement both raised concerns about that gap. The coalition said in its statement that the department’s decision to disclose the investigation only after a newspaper inquiry is “evidence of a system with no external accountability,” adding, “When police departments investigate themselves, they do it only after something forces their hand.”
Ellen Shemitz, a member of the coalition, framed the concern in similar terms. “This is about differential treatment,” Shemitz said. “I have no idea whether the city councilwoman was or was not inebriated. But I also don’t know why the police did not apparently investigate the matter as it would have with a resident who didn’t share the same public visibility as the councilwoman does.”
Taylor’s letter noted that the crash occurred just days before the City Council took up a proposal for a civilian review board of the police department, an idea the council ultimately voted down, with Toomey among those opposed. Advocates had pushed for the board following a 2024 U.S. Department of Justice investigation that found Worcester police officers used excessive force and disproportionately targeted Black and Latino residents. Taylor’s letter argued that Toomey, as chair of the committee that would have handled that proposal, should have recused herself from those discussions given her own pending case.
On Tuesday, Toomey released a statement saying she was not impaired at the time of the crash but that she would step down temporarily from the Public Safety Committee and recuse herself from all matters involving the police department while the internal investigation continues. “I’m doing this out of an abundance of caution and to ensure that the work of our Committee and the integrity of the Worcester Police Department remain above reproach,” Toomey said.
It is not clear whether Toomey’s move fully satisfies what the NAACP and the coalition are asking for, or whether Mayor Petty has responded directly to Taylor’s letter. Neither the mayor’s office nor the NAACP had issued further public comment on that specific point as of this writing.
No timeline has been announced for when the police department’s internal investigation will conclude.
🔎 W.U.W. Verification Box
- Project / Topic: Calls for Councilor Kate Toomey to step down as chair of the Worcester City Council’s Public Safety Committee following a Sept. 2 crash and the police department’s response to it.
- Current Status: The Worcester Police Department has an open internal investigation into officers’ handling of the crash. Toomey has voluntarily stepped down from the Public Safety Committee and recused herself from police-related matters while that investigation continues. No charges have been filed against her.
- Key Dates or Decisions: The crash occurred around midnight on Sept. 2. The investigation and Toomey’s involvement became public Sept. 12. The NAACP Worcester Branch sent its letter to Mayor Petty on Sept. 14. Toomey announced her recusal on Sept. 15 (Tuesday).
- Estimated Cost: Not applicable to this story; no cost figures were identified in the available source material.
- Timeline: The Worcester Police Department has not announced when its internal investigation will conclude.
- Immediate Next Steps: The internal police investigation continues. It is not yet known whether Mayor Petty will issue a formal response to the NAACP’s letter or whether the Civilian Review Board Coalition’s request for an independent (rather than internal) investigation will be granted.
- Primary Sources: A letter from NAACP Worcester Branch President Fred Taylor Sr. to Mayor Joseph Petty dated Sept. 14, 2026; reporting by GBH News (Sam Turken); a public statement from the Civilian Review Board Coalition; and statements from Toomey and her attorney, Michael Wilcox.
- What We Do Not Yet Know: Whether Toomey was impaired at the time of the crash remains disputed; her attorney has denied it and no sobriety test was administered. It is also not known whether Mayor Petty has responded directly to the NAACP’s request, or when the police department’s internal review will be complete.
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