Police lawsuits cost Detroit $32 million / LJWorld.com

Archive for Saturday, August 5, 2000

The Detroit Free Press

August 5, 2000

DETROIT — Lawsuits against Detroit police have cost the city more than $32 million in the last three years, with 78 percent of that money paid in cases involving a small number of officers who were sued multiple times, a City Council analysis shows.

The analysis, released this week, found that 261 officers were named in more than one suit. Of those, 107 were sued in three or more cases. The study, done by the council's research and analysis division, refers to those officers as repeaters. The department has about 4,100 officers.

"We knew there were repeaters, and now we have the statistics," council member Maryann Mahaffey said. "The question becomes: What are we going to do about it?

"Obviously we are paying out huge sums, and we shouldn't be. In the meantime, people are being hurt."

Council member Sheila Cockrel said: "We need a way to deal with these repeaters. These bad actors need to be isolated."

Detroit Police Chief Benny Napoleon said that being named in a suit, or in multiple suits, does not automatically make an officer a rogue cop. Payouts may reflect legal strategy rather than bad police work, Napoleon said.

"Lawsuits can be filed by anyone who has a filing fee," he said. "The legal decision to settle is based upon a legal strategy by our law department. We have no real say-so in the decision to settle or not settle a lawsuit ...We live in a highly litigious society, and there are lawyers who make their living off of suing the police department."

The repeaters accounted for 63 percent of the cases settled by the council, the study found. The 107 repeaters with three or more cases accounted for nearly half -- about 48 percent -- of all the cases settled.

In all, according to the study, the 261 repeaters were involved in cases costing more than $25 million from 1997-99.

The preliminary study does not break down the settlements by type of suits -- such as civil rights violations, car accidents, injured prisoners or wrongful shootings -- nor does it identify specific incidents or officers.

The $32-million figure includes judgments, mediations and arbitrations.