WORCESTER — The city has paid more than $250,000 to an outside lawyer representing it in the U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights investigation into the Police Department, records show.

The City of Worcester paid more than $200,000 to a lawyer who pushed back on the Department of Justice's findings in its investigation of the Worcester Police Department.

The so-called pattern or practice probe into the Worcester police, announced in December, has yet to result in such a binding court agreement. Changes at the U.S. Attorney's Office It was not immediately clear Thursday whether the Justice Department would cease all follow-up on the Worcester report.