IRVINE : Officer of Year Saw City Grow

Richard Worcester was selected as the Irvine Police Department’s Officer of the Year this week--18 years after he became one of the city’s first cops.

During his years on the force, Worcester has watched the community transform itself from a patchwork of housing tracts separated by wide swaths of farmland to a thriving city of sleek office towers and meticulously planned residential “villages.”

He has also seen the nature of policing in the city change. When he was hired as one of Irvine’s first officers, police were often called on to coax livestock off roads.

Now the department is dealing with a myriad of contemporary law enforcement problems, from gang activity to high-tech, white-collar crime.

Worcester, 40, has changed with the times. He has worked more than half a dozen jobs during his years on the force.

Worcester currently is a senior motorcycle officer in the traffic bureau and is a longtime member of the Special Operations Unit. He has previously served as a detective, traffic investigator and juvenile crimes investigator.

Dealing with youths has been a special interest. He is the adviser for the Irvine Police Explorers program and frequently speaks to classes about traffic and driver safety.

“He’s very professional and very enthusiastic about his job,” said Lt. Sam Allevato, who has worked with Worcester for nearly 18 years. “He is very caring toward others and is especially good at giving instruction to children and young adults.”

Worcester came to the department at age 22, just after graduating from Cal State Long Beach. His first assignment was to control traffic during the opening of Woodbridge village. The task included dealing with the dozens of people who camped out next to the development in hope of buying Woodbridge homes.

“In the early days, there was just one restaurant in the whole city that was open 24 hours a day,” Worcester remembered. “When we worked the night shift, we’d eat our dinners and breakfasts there.”

After several years in the patrol bureau, Worcester eventually moved to the traffic division, where he said he takes his greatest pleasure in teaching students about safety.

“I enjoy that assignment very much. It’s really constructive and positive,” he said. “A lot of people who get into police work can’t wait to get the bad guy. After you’ve done that for a while, you look for new activities and challenges. I’ve always had an interest in education.”

Worcester lives in Irvine with his wife and two sons, ages 12 and 9. Now at the “midpoint” in his career, he predicts that law enforcement agencies will come under increasing scrutiny in the years to come.

“I think that in the second half of my career, we’ll see the police being constantly evaluated by the public, much more than in the first half of my career,” he said. “The challenge is to exist under that kind of a watchful eye.”