New York Police Department (NYPD) misconduct lawsuits have cost the city more than $540 million the last six years, according to an analysis of government data released Thursday.
Since 2018, the lawsuits have totaled $548,047,141, including $114,586,723 for 2023 alone, according to The Legal Aid Society. The real total payouts for police misconduct is almost certainly higher, since the data does not include matters that were settled with the comptroller’s office before formal litigation, according to the organization.
With few exceptions, the number of disposed lawsuits each year has decreased but the median payout has continued to grow. In 2018, there were 1,579 settlements, for a median payout of $10,500. By 2023, there were 801 lawsuits settled, at a median payout of $25,000.
Jennvine Wong, a staff attorney with the Cop Accountability Project at The Legal Aid Society, said the total amount of funds from the payouts was “staggering” and said it reveals a system that fails to hold officers accountable.
It’s unfortunate that they forget the context of the 60s-80s. The government and Robert Moses bulldozed entire ass communities to build freeways through NYC, and then displaced those folks into the projects. There’s a lot more detail to it and other factors (like redlining) than that, but it should hardly come as a shock that destroying the wealth of entire communities really didn’t work out great a couple decades down the line.