WORCESTER, Mass. - The Worcester Police Department is conducting an internal investigation involving more than two dozen officers who allegedly bypassed mandatory online training videos.

The Municipal Police Training Committee and the Worcester Police Department said this matter is still being reviewed, but interim Chief Paul Saucier confirmed 27 Worcester officers are being investigated. The department said they essentially fast forwarded through mandatory training videos.

The MPTC alerted several police departments on Friday about officers they flagged for finishing training which should have taken hours on their platform Acadis “in just a matter of minutes.”

“You're required to do that as part of your training and your certification," Saucier said. "And these officers now will have to do it in-person at the Boylston Academy to complete their assignments.”

Saucier said this is part of the 40-hours of in-service training every officer in the state must complete annually; usually half is online, and half is in person.

In a statement to Spectrum News, the MPTC said the number of agencies and officers impacted remains under review, but the agency “remains deeply committed to ensuring academic integrity and the highest standards of professionalism in law enforcement training”.

“We're required to do training for a reason. So, any time, it all comes down to ethics. We need to be ethical," Saucier said. "We need to have a standard above that which is in the normal population because we are enforcing laws. So, we need to be above everyone else.”

Saucier said, once his department’s investigation is complete, appropriate discipline will be administered if needed.

The MPTC has suspended online training while the matter is reviewed and addressed.