(RightWing.org) – New data shows that, in the last six years, New York City taxpayers have paid more than half a billion dollars to settle misconduct cases against the city’s police force. Payouts are skyrocketing despite a smaller number of cases being settled. With the city’s public services steadily being overwhelmed by illegal immigration, compensation for old mistakes is a painful burden right now.
On February 29, the Legal Aid Society released an analysis of the New York Police Department’s misconduct settlements from 2018 to 2023. Shockingly, the total came to more than $500 million — and just one detective was responsible for more than a fifth of it. A city legal spokesman says an increase in reversed convictions is driving the rise in payouts, but the Legal Aid Society’s figures don’t completely support that.
According to the Society, the number of lawsuits settled every year is falling. However, the size of each settlement has increased dramatically. In 2018 the average payout was $10,500, but in 2023 that shot up to $25,000. Last year the city paid out more than $115 million. That’s slightly down from 2022, when 971 lawsuits cost New York $135 million.
Most of the settlements relate to people who were convicted of offenses but then had their convictions reversed by a court. Many of them date back to the 1990s when the city cracked down on crime and there was an emphasis on gaining convictions.
Last year, the New York Times reported that a single NYPD detective had cost the city’s taxpayers $110 million in settlements. Detective Louis Scarcella was known as “the closer” in the 1980s and ’90s for his effectiveness in getting convictions — but it later turned out he’d done it by coercion and creating false statements. He was single-handedly responsible for well over 20% of NYC’s total police compensation payments over the past six years.
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