New York City Budget and Governance

A new analysis by The Legal Aid Society finds New York City paid more than $117 million in 2025 to settle 1,044 police misconduct lawsuits, bringing total payouts since 2019 to about $796 million even as the city faces a $5.4 billion budget shortfall. The 2025 settlements include $24.1 million to two men, Eric Smokes and David Warren, who each spent over 20 years in prison after wrongful 1986 robbery convictions, $5.75 million to a man who says NYPD officers blinded him in one eye with a stun gun, and $3.9 million to Steven Lopez, a sixth man swept up with the so‑called Central Park Five. It was the fourth straight year the tab topped $100 million, with 2025’s total nearly double the $62.1 million paid in 2020 and following a $206.4 million peak in 2024. Legal Aid argues the data show “chronic” failures of accountability inside the NYPD, while the department counters that many payouts stem from decades‑old cases and “tell you nothing about the state of policing today,” saying Commissioner Jessica Tisch has tightened compliance and revised risk‑creating policies. The settlements are paid from a separate citywide claims budget rather than directly from the NYPD’s $6.4 billion operating budget, insulating the department from the financial consequences even as the mayor proposes only about $22 million in police cuts amid broader austerity.