Over the past five years, Chicago taxpayers have forked over nearly $400 million to resolve lawsuits stemming from officer misconduct, according to a new analysis of city data. While around 1,300 police officers were named in the lawsuits, just 200 were responsible for more than 40 percent of the total cost.
This week, Chicago PBS station WTTW released the results of an extensive analysis of Chicago police misconduct lawsuits. The investigation, which covered payouts from 2019 to 2023, found that city taxpayers footed the bill for $384.2 million in settlements, damages, lawyer fees, and other payouts. Repeat offenders—200 of them—were named in lawsuits that made up $164.3 million of the cost. In total, the city paid to resolve 539 lawsuits over the period studied.
WTTW's analysis also found that a single officer, Sgt. Jerald Williams, was responsible for a staggering $1.4 million in lawsuit payouts, including $850,000 awarded to a victim whom Williams "slammed…to the pavement" after being stopped for drinking in 2019.
The city should have known that Williams was a liability. According to WTTW, he's had 22 misconduct complaints filed against him throughout his career. Police department officials had recommended his suspension several times for using unnecessary force.
Despite the serious—and expensive—misconduct allegation against Williams, he was promoted and given a raise just a year after the suit that named him was resolved, according to WTTW.
WTTW's report noted that, in 2017, the Department of Justice released the results of an investigation that found reasonable cause to believe the Chicago Police Department "engages in a pattern or practice of using force, including deadly force, in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution." The department even recommended that the city "review settlements and judgments on a broader scale to spot for trends, identify officers most frequently sued, and determine ways to reduce both the cost of the cases and the underlying officer misconduct."
This latest analysis of city data indicates that Chicago officials didn't heed this warning. Instead, unaccountable, overly aggressive police officers are not just posing a danger to the communities they're supposed to protect, but they're draining city budgets, too.
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