Taxpayers Foot The Bill For Nearly $1Billion In Payouts Over NYC Police Abuse

Chris | InformationLiberation
Oct. 16, 2010

Taxpayers are subsidizing police brutality by the NYC Police to the tune of nearly $1 billion dollars over the past decade.

The Associated Press reports:

The fiancee and friends of an unarmed man killed in a 50-bullet police shooting on his wedding day said they wanted justice. The legal system gave them money — more than $7 million.

The city did what it has done time and time again: pay.

Nearly $1 billion has been paid over the past decade to resolve claims against the nation's largest police department, according to an investigation by The Associated Press. The total spending outstrips that of other U.S. cities, though some smaller cities and departments also shell out tens of millions of dollars a year in payouts.

Taxpayers foot the bill — New York officials say the payments cost less than insurance would, and officers themselves don't usually bear personal responsibility.

The $964 million in payouts covers everything from brutality cases to patrol-car wrecks to stationhouse accidents, and it includes settlements and trial awards. Some police officers have been sued again and again — including one officer at least seven times on excessive force and brutality claims. Some law firms have made it their primary business to sue the city.

Because police are insulated from the direct repercussions of their actions, they can pretty much do whatever the hell they want because the state will come to their defense and use taxpayer money to defend them.

If they lose the case, the taxpayer pays to settle it. No liability, no problem.

It's a classic case of moral hazard and could be easily solved by making the police personally liable for their actions. Instead of police acting like lawless criminals, they'd likely be more careful before slamming a stranger's head into a wall if they we're held personally liable and had to pay to defend themselves in court like any other pleb.

Instead, the report says they're moving to insulate police even further from their abuses through passing a bill that would "make it impossible to pay out dubious claims." The report seems to insinuate by "dubious" they mean cases in which the police admit no wrongdoing and merely settle for convenience.

You can pretty much guess whatever they do it won't address the actual problem, their lawless lack of personal liability.
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Chris runs the website InformationLiberation.com. You can read more of his commentary here.