The hidden billion- dollar cost of repeated police misconduct

[iemanja]

The investigation for the first time identifies the officers behind the payments. Data were assembled from public records filed with the financial and police departments in each city or county and excluded payments less than $1,000. Court records were gathered for the claims that led to federal or local lawsuits. The total amounts further confirm the broad costs associated with police misconduct, as reported last year by FiveThirtyEight and the Marshall Project.

The Post found that more than 1,200 officers in the departments surveyed had been the subject of at least five payments. More than 200 had 10 or more.

The repetition is the hidden cost of alleged misconduct: Officers whose conduct was at issue in more than one payment accounted for more than $1.5 billion, or nearly half of the money spent by the departments to resolve allegations, The Post found. In some cities, officers repeatedly named in misconduct claims accounted for an even larger share. For example, in Chicago, officers who were subject to more than one paid claim accounted for more than $380 million of the nearly $528 million in payments.

. . .

Despite the repetition and cost, few cities or counties track claims by the names of the officers involved — meaning that officials may be unaware of officers whose alleged misconduct is repeatedly costing taxpayers. In 2020, the 25 departments employed 103,000 officers combined, records show.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/police-misconduct-repeated-settlements/?itid=hp_special-topic-1

[Pas-de-Calais]

1. That is truly disgusting

[leftstreet]

2. DURec

[SunSeeker]

3. K & R for exposure.

[AZLD4Candidate]

4. Until officers are personally libel for their misconduct and abuse

This will never end.

Governments have plenty of money for police, jails, prisons, trials, and wars. . .and since the police aren't personally affected and move from department to department when the heat is too high on them, things will never change.

You can thank Law and Order Republicans and blue dogs for this, since Law and Order means "how can we make life in poor and minority neighbors even worse with over policing practices and harsh, brutal sentencing guidelines?"

[multigraincracker]

6. Tax payers can vote for mayors,

sheriffs and governors that are responsible. Vote for those that have a plan to reduce your taxes by cleaning up departments that are corrupt or tolerate bad cops. Make it an issue in elections.

[A HERETIC I AM]

8. Best of luck with that.

Many large departments have contracts that make any change almost impossible to implement, and many police departments have the prosecutors and judiciary by the balls.

Plus, the right wing just ADORES authoritarianism, so until such time as Gerrymandering is done away with and true election reform is made, what you suggest stands virtually no chance in large portions of the country.

[multigraincracker]

9. One issue those right wingers jump on is taxes.

It's easy to hold sheriffs responsible as they are directly voted on. State and city cops are less direct, but there is a tie to someone elected. So, use it as an issue.

Training and department policies are cheaper than million dollar pay outs.

[A HERETIC I AM]

10. Again, right wingers just love those asshole types of Sheriffs.

Witness the dickhead in Sheriff in Polk County, FL. Search for "Sheriff Grady Judd" he's an ass of the highest order, yet they absolutely love him in Polk County because he advocates people should own guns and shoot first and ask questions later.

So it's not easy in many cases to hold out of control sheriffs accountable.

"Training and department policies are cheaper than million dollar pay outs."

Perhaps, but there are a lot of other factors at play. Corrupt and violent police departments keep the jails full, and with the privatization of jails and prisons, there is a LOT of vested interest in keeping things exactly as they are.

We do need to change a lot of things about policing in this country, of that there is no doubt, and I admire your confidence in the possibilities. I just don't share your optimism that it can be done easily, if at all.

[multigraincracker]

11. I saw it work in a rural republican county in Michigan.

They had a corrupt old sheriff and he lost to an African American Democrat with a Phd in law enforcement. He cleaned it up and got rid of a bunch of bad deputies. He went on to get re-elected.

[A HERETIC I AM]

12. One shining example in a sea of darkness

It's happened near me as well. Google "Hampton Florida corruption" or "Waldo Florida Corruption".

The state actually came in and sorted those assholes out, so I know, even here in red northern Florida, good things can happen, but the little towns aren't the only ones I'm concerned about.

[iemanja]

15. I expect that's easier in a small town

than in a large, city police force. I know in Minneapolis we've had police chief after police chief saying they were going to clean up the police force. They don't last long, but the brutality and corruption endure.

[iemanja]

13. and police unions

In Minneapolis, the union is a major issue.

In the last election, we had an amendment to change the city charter that mandated a certain number of police, but that got cast as "defunding the police," which it wasn't. The measure went down.

[quakerboy]

5. Its cool. Its not like we had things to do with those tax dollars, right?

Might be interesting to see a breakdown on how much this costs each of us.

[A HERETIC I AM]

7. I'll just dust this off and post it again;

In the Securities Industry there exists what is known as a "U4" which is the "Uniform Application for Securities Industry Registration or Transfer". That form and the database into which the information is entered follows a Stock Broker throughout his/her career, recording every single complaint against the broker or the firm that is filed by a client and must be updated with each complaint filed and every time a broker is hired by another firm. The database is also, and this is the really important part, accessible and searchable by the public. FOR ANY WRONGDOING OF ANY KIND! As long as that wrongdoing is reported by the offended party. So if a broker blatantly rips off your Aunt Polly, or even suggests or tries to steer her toward investing in something unsuitable for her, and Polly doesn't say a word about it to Dewey, Cheatham and Howe, Securities Brokers, it doesn't go on the U4. Infractions need to be reported for the system to work, and for the most part, they are.

This country needs something along those lines for cops. If each and every oath taking police officer in the country also had something like a U4 that was publicly searchable, that followed him from department to department, that was updated on a weekly, monthly or as needed basis, it might just lead to more accountability. Something like a cop sleeping on the job, captured on film, or reckless driving, or as in this case, physical abuse of a "suspect", particularly resulting in injury or death, or violation of, or utter ignorance of, as in many cases, civil or other rights, or ...you get the point - ALL of it can and should go on that cops "U4" or whatever it would be called. Provided any complaint is indeed legitimate.

We DESPERATELY need this sort of thing in this country. The Securities industry learned long ago that trust in it's institutions and dealings was important, if not critical to their ongoing operation, and while they haven't always been successful in keeping that trust, for the most part the Brokerage Industry is well regulated. Of course, regulations and oversight are only as effective as the enforcing entity, whoever that should be.

There is no way in hell a police department should be allowed to investigate itself for wrongdoing, and this is particularly evident the smaller the department. The biggest threat to the safety of individuals when encountering police in otherwise innocuous situations seems to be simply not giving them the information they want you to give them, even though you are under no legal obligation to do it.

The police in this country are simply out of control, and if you don't acquiesce to every demand for obedience, you are immediately suspect and ultimately subject to intimidation and threat of bodily harm in the very least, and arrest and incarceration or even death at the most. Often for nothing more than "Contempt of Cop".

ALL police should be required immediately and without hesitation to answer the question "What is your Name and Badge Number?" and failure to do so should result in disciplinary action, up to and including loss of job. Once a citizen improperly questioned or harassed by a cop has attained that information, an immediate call to their supervisor with a complaint should instantly result in an entry on the officers U4 or equivalent.

Fuck these assholes, and fuck them again.

WE NEED A POLICE EQUIVALENT OF A U4 SYSTEM IN THIS COUNTRY!!

Posted here;

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213487269#post13

One other thing I want to add;

Individual cops or at the minimum, Police Departments, should be required to carry insurance for these types of settlements. The more the officer offends and settlements are made, the higher his premiums are, so a cop who refuses to change his or her ways will find he or the department can no longer afford to be keep that person as a cop.

This information should also follow a cop, so that the next department he applies to will have to pay the same or higher rates in order to insure him.

[iemanja]

14. Good post!

And you make a strong argument for police to carry individual insurance. I actually voted against that in a city referendum because I thought it would free the police department of liability and hence accountability. But your argument makes sense.