The city paid out nearly $206 million to settle lawsuits alleging police misconduct last year — the highest annual total in recent years, according to a new analysis by the Legal Aid Society.
Since 2018, taxpayers have covered $756 million in settlements tied to NYPD misconduct claims, in what critics say is a failure to address systemic issues within the department.
The analysis comes as Gov. Hochul, Mayor Adams and law enforcement officials push to roll back New York’s discovery law, which the Legal Aid Society says has exposed police misconduct and helped prevent wrongful convictions, but prosecutors say has caused more crime and recidivism.
“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, policy director for criminal law reform at the Legal Aid Society.
Payouts for alleged police misconduct have grown dramatically over the past several years. In 2023, the city paid over $116 million in settlements — nearly $90 million less than in 2024. In 2021, the total was just under $90 million, according to the Legal Aid Society.
These figures, however, do not include cases settled before lawsuits were officially filed, meaning the actual bill for taxpayers could be even higher.
According to a police spokesman, the settlements stem from wrongful convictions dating back over two decades, with many of these cases involving not just snafus on law enforcement’s part, but also instances of prosecutorial misconduct.
In one massive settlement in 2024, Norberto Peets received $14.75 million from the city after spending 26 years in prison for attempted murder and criminal possession of a weapon charges.
According to the Innocence Project, Peets was arrested for an unrelated robbery a week after the shooting, during which an officer involved in the investigation mistakenly identified him as the gunman from the earlier incident. The robbery charge against him was eventually dropped.
Peets was convicted in 1996 and exonerated in 2022, after DNA testing eliminated him as the shooter.
Another case, James Davis v. City of New York, resulted in an $8.5 million settlement in August 2024. Davis spent 17 years behind bars for a 2004 shooting, after NYPD detectives allegedly ignored and withheld key eyewitness testimony that pointed to another suspect, according to the Legal Aid Society.
With Thomas Tracy