City taxpayers doled out nearly $206 million to settle NYPD police misconduct lawsuits last year — the most in any year since 2018, according to a new report.
An analysis by the Legal Aid Society also said that the Big Apple has paid out more than $750 million since 2018 to close out thousands of allegedly police misconduct claims, and possibly “substantially” more because some matters were settled by the comptroller’s office before lawsuits were filed.
“The staggering payout totals for 2024 prove that the City would rather spend tens of millions in taxpayer dollars each year than take decisive action to dismantle the culture of impunity within the NYPD that allows this gross misconduct to persist,” said Amanda Jack, the society’s policy director with criminal reform.
The report also chided Gov. Kathy Hochul, Mayor Eric Adams, the NYPD and prosecutors who have pushed to tweak the state’s evidence-sharing requirements, known as discovery.
The move, proposed by Hochul and backed by all five New York City district attorneys, would set a limit to the amount of time defense lawyers are allowed to request that a case be thrown out over discovery violations to reduce the number of defendants released on technicalities.
The Legal Aid Society said such a measure would only increase the number of wrongful convictions.
“Our analysis, based on city data, comes amid attempts by elected officials and law enforcement to completely gut New York’s widely successful discovery reform, which helps guard against wrongful convictions and prolonged detention while exposing police misconduct,” Jack said. “If they succeed, injustices will surge, and taxpayers will ultimately bear the financial cost.”
Meanwhile, the NYPD said the society’s lawsuit settlement stats are misleading.
The $206 million figure includes settlement of cases based on prosecutorial misconduct and wrongful convictions, not just police actions, and as many as half are cases filed at least 20 years ago, police said.
In all, nearly 64% of the cases settled in 2024 were for prosecutorial misconduct, the department said.
