NYPD Adds $121 Million In Settlements To Its $11.2 Billion Tab
New York's Finest continue to set the sort of records New York residents would rather the NYPD didn't. The NYPD is not too big to fail. But it's apparently too big to curtail.
In 2019, it capped off a spectacular two-year run in which it racked up over a half-billion in lawsuit settlements. That's on top of what it was charging residents to do the sort of job that results in more than $250 million in settlements per year. Of course, the NYPD is the only cop shop in town, so to speak. So, it can get away with charging a premium for subpar service.
And oh what truly lousy service it is! Prosecutors around the city spent most of the last couple years dismissing hundreds of cases tainted by more than a dozen dirty cops. The worst of the bunch - narcotics detective Joseph Franco - was responsible for most of those. Franco was facing 26 criminal charges ranging from perjury to official misconduct, but managed to walk away from all of those after prosecutors did what prosecutors do best: withhold evidence from criminal defendants.
The numbers are in for this year. And while they may look like a significant improvement over the NYPD's astounding 2018-2019 run, they're actually worse than they were last year.
The city shelled out more than $121 million in police misconduct lawsuit settlements in 2022 - the highest amount meted out to NYPD abuse victims in at least five years, the Legal Aid Society said Thursday.
The payouts were $34 million more than the $87 million in settlements made in 2021, according to a five year look-back conducted by Legal Aid.
And last year's number could be even higher, the group said. The Legal Aid Society's analysis didn't count money paid out by the City Comptroller's office prior to the lawsuits ending up in court, according to Maggie Hadley, legal fellow with the agency's Criminal Defense Practice's Special Litigation Unit.
$121 million is some serious money. But it's all a matter of perspective. Given that the city will end up spending nearly $11.2 billion to fund the NYPD this year, another $121 million isn't that much more to ask from city residents. I mean... comparatively.
It's not just the obscene amount of unnecessary spending. It's what it was spent on.
Last year's larger settlements included a $12 million payout involving two officers sued for leaving a young city resident paralyzed.
In May, a second $12 million settlement check was made out to Pablo Fernandez, who was wrongfully convicted in 1996 for a homicide that he did not commit. He served more than two decades in prison before his release, and the charges were dismissed.
Those two instances are truly horrifying. The smaller amounts are linked to less horrendous forms of power abuse, but it's still the abuse of power. It costs real money to pay back people who have been wronged by NYPD officers. And yet, good money is thrown after bad year after year. That's on top of annual budget increases the NYPD has come to expect, even if its level of service remains just as terrible as ever.
Next year's total will be worse. The fiscal turkeys will be coming home to roost as the city pays off the hundreds of defendants wrongfully arrested, detained, or convicted due to years of misconduct by officers the NYPD chose to ignore. The NYPD has the luxury of ignoring the rot in its ranks. Lawsuit settlements may be reflected on its budget sheets, but no one employed by the NYPD is ever held directly financially responsible for the rights violations they've committed.
As long as the NYPD gets to play with other people's money, it will never get better. And if the city is unwilling to tie at least some of its budget to effective discipline, it will continue to be nothing more than an enabler for the worst officers the NYPD employs.