Payouts from the NYPD in settlements and judgments soared during the last fiscal year, according to a report from Comptroller William Thompson detailing the city's payouts. Overall, the city paid $567.9 million as a result of lawsuits, an increase of about 2% over the previous time period. But the NYPD's payouts increased 11% percent, to $102.8 during fiscal year 2008, which ended September 30th. Of that amount, $35.2 million was paid in settlements over charges of improper police action, up 40% over the previous year.
Thompson's report also shows that the number of claims filed against the NYPD has climbed 22% since 1999 (the year of Amadou Diallo's death), hitting an all-time high of 6,274 last year. Donna Lieberman of the NYCLU tells the Daily News, "These are remarkable increases. They raise serious questions as to whether the NYPD is out of control." She says the NYPD's aggressive stop-and-frisk practices—associated with racial profiling—are to blame. But an NYPD source counters that many claims are just over property damages, like when a squad car damages another vehicle.
In a statement, Thompson suggested that future settlement money should be deducted from each city agency's budget: "I have long advocated that agencies be held fiscally accountable for their own claims. Tying claims to an agency’s budget would go a long way to mitigating claims settlement and judgment costs." And the News also notes that the largest NYPD settlement from last year was $1.25 million for the false rape arrest of Marshall Nuñez. (DNA proved the learning-disabled man was innocent.) His lawyer tells the News, "I only wish it was bigger. I think there are a lot more innocent people in jail than we think and a lot more confessions that are not as willful as we think."
