A report released by the New York City comptroller’s office has found that the number of personal injury and other tort claims filed annually against the New York Police Department (NYPD) rose to a new high one year ago to 9,448 claims.
The claims ranged from alleged civil rights violations to other police misconduct, and injuries or property damage from accidents involving police vehicles.
The city paid $495 million in fiscal year 2013 and $550 million in fiscal year 2014 in tort settlements and claims for the department.
Comptroller Scott Stringer said that the report, which was a preliminary review of data from the most recent fiscal year, ended June 30, was too recent for the report, which showed overall, a “very meaningful” decline of 11 percent in such claims, which represented the first double-digit reduction in more than two decades.
Stringer started an initiative last year called ClaimStat that provided the NYPD with a way to identify troubling patterns in claims.
“We now deliver claims against the NYPD to the commissioner’s office in real time,” Stringer told the New York Times. He said that the system allows the NYPD to “look at where the trouble spots are.”
While Stringer said he could not explain the decrease in tort claims against police, some of the reasons could be attributable to the NYPD’s new risk assessment unit, new training for officers, and an unprecedented partnership between his office and the police department.
At Morgan Levine Dolan, we help individuals bring legal claims in a wide range of personal injury-related and police misconduct cases. We have recovered millions of dollars for our injured clients.
If a loved one has been injured from police misconduct or a police-related incident, please contact Jared Levine of Morgan Levine Dolan at 212-461-499 today.
