New Yorkers had a lot of issues with the NYPD last year. According to a report released by the city, 9,448 claims dealing with everything from civil rights violations to injury to property damage to police misconduct were filed between July 1, 2012, and July 30, 2014.
The city shelled out $216.9 million to cover claims against the NYPD, the New York Timesreports, which is the record high for any city agency that year. It's also 16 percent ($30.6 million) higher than the previous record, which was for 2011.
The most prominent of these settlements was with the family of Eric Garner, who was killed by police in 2014; the city paid $5.9 million for a wrongful-death claim filed by Garner's estate. Several other claims were filed for wrongful convictions, many of which occurred 20 or more years ago. Still more payouts — $19.7 million — were related to demonstrations like the 2004 Republican National Convention and Occupy Wall Street.
Apparently the data from the most recent fiscal year, which ended June 30, showed an 11 percent decline in claims. Although that doesn't sound like much, it represents "the first double-digit reduction in more than two decades." Perhaps unsurprisingly, the NYPD declined to comment on the report.
This chart shows the dollar value of settlements from 2005 to 2014. Notice the orange line:
