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Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n March 4, 2013<\/span><\/em> \u00a0| \u00a0<\/p>\n Like this article?<\/p>\n Join our email list:<\/p>\n When it comes to interactions between regular citizens and police on the street, the police hold all the cards. They can, and often do, act however they want. One of the few meaningful mechanisms for restitution if you are a victim of police misconduct is to sue for damages. The costs of these lawsuits and payouts add up, and bad police behavior takes a toll not only on our civil liberties, but also on a city’s budget.<\/p>\n It’s worth mentioning that lawsuits against the police rarely\u00a0result<\/a> in million-dollar payouts for victims, are difficult to win, and represent only a fairly small slice of total reports of police misconduct. Also, the reported costs of settlements and judgments to victims often exclude fees paid to attorneys representing the city, so in many cases the real numbers are higher.<\/p>\n This list doesn’t include every example of police misconduct or every study about how much it costs, but below are some recent instances of reports that detail just how much money police misconduct costs taxpayers. The point here isn’t to argue that people shouldn’t sue cops. They should, if they have a good case. The cops should simply give people fewer reasons to sue them.<\/p>\n 1. Chicago<\/strong><\/p>\n Lieutenant Jon Burge is in many ways the posterchild for police brutality. He oversaw a torture regime at the Chicago Police Department from 1973-1991 that included 64 other cops directly and an untold number of police who were aware of what was going on. According to a recent report, over 100 African Americans were allegedly tortured under his watch.<\/p>\n As the Chicago Reader reported\u00a0in 2003,<\/a> charges against Burge and his crew included \u201celectric shock, suffocation, burnings, attacks on the genitals, severe beating, and mock executions.\u201d<\/p>\n Burge was eventually prosecuted by the US attorney and sentenced<\/a> to four and a half years for perjury, though according to the report the Cook County State Attorney never prosecuted any officers for torture or for covering it up. The \u201cblue code of silence\u201d plays a large role in perpetuating corruption.<\/p>\n The report,<\/a> by the University of Illinois at Chicago, claims that corruption and abuse of power are rampant problems in the Chicago Police Department. The authors looked at CPD corruption dating back to 1960, and conclude that \u201c[t]oleration of corruption, or at least resigned acceptance, appears to be the order of the day for at least the past 50 years.\u201d<\/p>\n Top Chicago officials have allowed (or created) a culture of impunity for officers. A separate study the authors cite claims only \u201c19 of 10,149 (or less than 2%) civilian complaints of excessive force, illegal searches, racial abuse, sexual abuse and false arrests between 2002 and 2004 led to police suspensions of a week or more.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the last decade, police misconduct lawsuits against the city and out-of-court settlements \u201chave cost taxpayers several hundreds of millions of dollars at a time when all levels of government have to cut services and raise taxes,\u201d according to the University of Illinois report. Defending cops against litigation has cost Chicago more than $82.5 million since 2003, and \u201cJon Burge cases have cost local taxpayers more than $53 million since 1998.\u201d<\/p>\n 2. New York<\/strong><\/p>\n According to a 2012 report<\/a> \u00a0from NYC’s Comptroller’s office, the city paid out $185.6 million in claims for fiscal year 2011. That’s a 35% increase over the previous year, which came in at $137.3 million in settled claims. Fiscal year 2011 saw \u201can historical high of 8,882 claims filed\u201d against the NYPD, with a 55% rise in claims against the NYPD over the past five years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Bad police behavior runs roughshod over civil liberties, and costs cities millions of dollars in payouts to those who successfully sue.<\/p>\n Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n March 4, 2013<\/span><\/em> | <\/p>\n Like this article?<\/p>\n Join our email list:<\/p>\n When it comes to interactions between regular citizens and police on the street, the police hold all the cards. They can, and often do, act however they want. One of the few meaningful mechanisms for restitution if you are a victim of police misconduct is to sue for damages. The costs of these lawsuits and payouts add up, and bad police behavior takes a toll not only on our civil liberties, but also on a city’s budget.<\/p>\n It’s worth mentioning that lawsuits against the police rarely result<\/a> in million-dollar payouts for victims, are difficult to win, and represent only a fairly small slice of total reports of police misconduct. Also, the reported costs of settlements and judgments to victims often exclude fees paid to attorneys representing the city, so in many cases the real numbers are higher.<\/p>\n This list doesn’t include every example of police misconduct or every study about how much it costs, but below are some recent instances of reports that detail just how much money police misconduct costs taxpayers. The point here isn’t to argue that people shouldn’t sue cops. They should, if they have a good case. The cops should simply give people fewer reasons to sue them.<\/p>\n 1. Chicago<\/strong><\/p>\n Lieutenant Jon Burge is in many ways the posterchild for police brutality. He oversaw a torture regime at the Chicago Police Department from 1973-1991 that included 64 other cops directly and an untold number of police who were aware of what was going on. According to a recent report, over 100 African Americans were allegedly tortured under his watch.<\/p>\n As the Chicago Reader reported in 2003,<\/a> charges against Burge and his crew included “electric shock, suffocation, burnings, attacks on the genitals, severe beating, and mock executions.”<\/p>\n Burge was eventually prosecuted by the US attorney and sentenced<\/a> to four and a half years for perjury, though according to the report the Cook County State Attorney never prosecuted any officers for torture or for covering it up. The “blue code of silence” plays a large role in perpetuating corruption.<\/p>\nStay up to date with the latest headlines via email.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\nStay up to date with the latest headlines via email.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n