New York City will spend more than $117 million on lawsuits resolved last year accusing the NYPD of misconduct, a new analysis from the nonprofit Legal Aid Society finds.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the third-highest yearly total since at least 2018, when the city started publishing NYPD payout data<\/a> as part of a local law<\/a> that tracks civil actions against the police department, according to a Gothamist review of a dataset compiled by Legal Aid. In 2024, the amount topped $200 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n The high payout amount reflects a \u201cculture of impunity\u201d within the police department, said Jennvine Wong, supervising attorney with Legal Aid\u2019s Cop Accountability Unit.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of these kinds of things cost the taxpayer money,\u201d she said. \u201cThe NYPD has not done enough to prevent that.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the NYPD said many of the incidents at the center of the lawsuits happened more than 20 years ago and don\u2019t reflect the current state of policing. The spokesperson also said Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch has taken significant steps to increase accountability and update policies that could create a greater risk of litigation, including regular meetings to review compliance issues like use of force and new restrictions on vehicle pursuits.<\/p>\n Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry said in a statement that lawsuit payments \u201care no reflection on how police officers are performing their duties.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe city routinely settles lawsuits in cases where police officers have done nothing wrong, rather than fighting them in court,\u201d he said. \u201cPolice officers are often not informed of these settlements and have no opportunity to clear their name.\u201d<\/p>\n Wong said it\u2019s difficult to pinpoint all the factors driving last year\u2019s high payout amounts, including because the incidents of alleged misconduct span many years. But she said one trend that appeared in several lawsuits is allegations that police failed to provide medical care to people in custody.<\/p>\n Of the more than 1,000 lawsuits resolved last year, 17 cost taxpayers more than a $1 million apiece, city data shows. The two highest payouts went to Eric Smokes and David Warren, who settled for $13 million and about $11 million, respectively, after a Manhattan judge overturned their convictions<\/a> for the killing of a French tourist near Times Square during the 1987 New Year\u2019s festivities.<\/p>\n Smokes and Warren alleged in their lawsuits that George Delgrosso, a \u201ccorrupt detective\u201d leading the investigation, framed them and coerced witnesses to lie, along with other detectives and prosecutors. Smokes and Warren were both arrested as teens and spent more than two decades in prison, according to their lawsuits.<\/p>\n Delgrosso died in 2024. The Manhattan district attorney\u2019s office declined to comment on the Smokes and Warren settlement. A spokesperson for the New York City Law Department deferred comment to the NYPD, which said it works closely with district attorneys to get them the materials they need for reviews of potentially wrongful convictions.<\/p>\n Reversed convictions accounted for more than a third of the payout dollars \u2014 or about $42 million \u2014 in 2025, according to a police department spokesperson.<\/p>\n The $117 million total only accounts for a portion of money the city spends on allegations of NYPD misconduct. The city comptroller\u2019s office also settles many cases before formal lawsuits are filed.<\/p>\n The office released a report last September that found claims against police<\/a> accounted for the largest share of tort claims against the city between July 2024 and June 2025. The comptroller\u2019s office recommended the NYPD be required to pay part of the legal settlement costs through its own budget to incentivize prevention and accountability.<\/p>\n City Hall spokesperson Sam Raskin said Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s administration is reviewing pending lawsuits across agencies to identify policies and practices driving payout costs.<\/p>\n \u201cThe mayor and police commissioner share a clear goal: accountability and fiscal responsibility,\u201d Raskin said in a statement. \u201cEvery dollar spent on misconduct settlements is a dollar that can\u2019t go to housing, education, parks, or the services that truly make New Yorkers safer.\u201d<\/p>\n Here are some of the other most expensive payouts from last year.<\/p>\n Kenneth Bacote v. City of New York, et al.: $5,750,000<\/p>\n The city agreed to pay Bacote nearly $6 million for a police assault that caused blindness in his left eye, court records show.<\/p>\n On June 2, 2020, police approached Bacote at the Kingsborough Houses in Crown Heights and attacked him, according to a lawsuit he filed in state court. Officers threw him to the ground, beat him and dragged his body before yanking his limbs into handcuffs and shackles, the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n Bacote lost sight in his left eye after an officer shot it with a Taser. Bacote accused police of using excessive force during an improper arrest.<\/p>\n Taron Parkinson et al. v. City of New York et al.: $5,215,000<\/p>\n Parkinson and eight other plaintiffs accused former NYPD detectives Kevin Desormeau and Sasha Cordoba of engaging in a pattern of misconduct and falsely charging them with crimes they did not commit.<\/p>\n The group was wrongly incarcerated for more than seven-and-a-half years, collectively, because of Desormeau\u2019s and Cordoba\u2019s misconduct, according to a federal lawsuit filed in 2022.<\/p>\n