NYPD lawsuit settlements for officer misconduct have forced the city to burn large sums of money this year, according to the Legal Aid Society.
Between Jan. 1 and July 30, the society reported on Aug. 12, the city has paid out an eye-watering $82,168,417 in police misconduct settlements. These payouts have already surpassed the total payouts for calendar years 2018, 2019 and 2020. If this trend continues, the Legal Aid Society projects total payouts for the year could exceed a staggering $140 million.
“The NYPD has already cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars this year to foot the costs of alleged misconduct, and at this rate, total payouts for 2024 could balloon to over $140 million, the highest in years,” said Jennvine Wong, supervising attorney with the Cop Accountability Project at The Legal Aid Society. “The ‘no rules, no consequence’ culture that thrives within the NYPD not only undermines public safety but diverts precious taxpayer dollars away from critical services that New Yorkers depend upon. Most glaring, we can surmise that based on the NYPD refusal to discipline their own, many of the members of service named in these lawsuits are still on the job, earning their full salary, carrying a gun, wearing a badge, and policing our neighborhoods.”
The Legal Aid Society added that the total payouts in 2020 reached $62,111,492 for 932 lawsuits, something 2024 has already surpassed with only 416 suits. In 2023, the total amount reached $115,639,983 with 814 lawsuits, something the Legal Aid Society could be beaten before 2025.
Meanwhile, the NYPD pushed back against these numbers, charging that the amount of lawsuits filed against the department have decreased since previous years.
“Since FY13 to the present, we’ve seen a significant decrease in all lawsuits filed against the NYPD. As it specifically relates to police action, there has been a decrease of more than 60%. This data is reflective of the good policing done by our officers and the Department’s ongoing efforts to enhance existing policy and training to improve overall services to our community,” an NYPD spokesperson said in a statement.
The Legal Aid Society responded to that rebuttal by noting specific police misconduct incidents that led to hefty payouts.
In one instance, the social justice law firm says that on April 26, 2022, Evan Alejandro and John Santamaria were stopped by police in the Bronx who, allegedly without probable cause or reasonable suspicion, searched and assaulted the pair.
Their representatives say Alejandro and Santamaria suffered injuries to their head, neck, back, body, and limbs and were prosecuted for various crimes. On Jan. 20, 2023, all charges against them were dropped in their favor. A settlement was reached one year later, and they received a payout to the tune of $215,000.
Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry stated that the Big Apple often settles lawsuits, charging it is for reasons unrelated to cops named in the suits.
“The city frequently decides to settle lawsuits for reasons that have little to do with the conduct of the individual police officers named in the suit. Often, police officers don’t know the case is being settled and have no opportunity to fight the case and clear their reputation, especially when there are dozens of other cops named in the suit. Legal Aid knows this, but they have never let the truth stand in the way of their anti-police, pro-criminal crusade,” Hendry said.
