City set to pay nearly $5 million to settle 2015 class-action lawsuit over police "stop-and-frisk" tactics
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago taxpayers will pay nearly $5 million to settle a 2015 lawsuit accusing the city of violating people's civil rights when officers used so-called "stop-and-frisk" tactics to enforce anti-gang and anti-drug loitering ordinances.
The vast majority of that money will go to pay legal fees for the attorneys who filed the lawsuit, after city attorneys were able to successfully avoid having to pay damages for as many as 2.5 million such stops made since 2013, and instead will pay a combined $112,500 in damages to five specific plaintiffs.
City attorneys told aldermen at a City Council Finance Committee meeting on Monday that a class action lawsuit filed in 2015 sought damages for police officers' use of protective pat-downs, commonly referred to as "stop-and-frisk," while enforcing the city's anti-gang and anti-drug loitering ordinances.
The lawsuit claimed those tactics were unconstitutional and discriminatory, and originally sought to force the city to pay damages to anyone stopped in such cases since 2013, covering more than 2.5 million stops.
Deputy Corporation Counsel Jennifer Bagby told the Finance Committee that city attorneys were able to narrow the original lawsuit down from 35 named plaintiffs to only 5, none of whom had any criminal history; and prevented the lawsuit from being able to obtain financial damages on behalf of every person subjected to stop-and-frisk for a loitering violation since 2013.
Even with that legal victory, Bagby said the city could have been on the hook for $10 million in damages if the five remaining plaintiffs were to go to trial, due to the hefty cost of attorneys' fees since the lawsuit was filed.
Instead, the city will now pay out a total of $4,987,500 to settle the lawsuit - $112,500 in damages to be split between the five plaintiffs, and $4,875,000 in fees for their attorneys.
In addition to the financial terms, the settlement will require the city to add pedestrian investigatory stops to the existing federal consent decree mandating CPD reforms, to make sure that all such stops are conducted and documented in a constitutional manner. That will mean the department will make changes to its policies for such stops, including monitoring, review, training, and community engagement related to pedestrian investigative stops.
The Finance Committee backed the proposed settlement by an 18-2 vote on Monday, setting up a vote by the full City Council on Wednesday.
The settlement won't stop police from enforcing the city's loitering ordinances or using protective pat-downs known as "stop-and-frisk," but will only ensure that police issue a dispersal order before making any stops or arrests for loitering violations.
As part of a separate settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union in 2015, police officers already have been required to provide more detailed information on "contact cards" they already were required to fill out whenever they stop someone on the street for questioning.
That settlement with the ACLU required officers stopping anyone for questioning to document if they conducted a pat down; what, if anything, was found; and if the person was arrested, issued a warning or citation, or if no action was taken. The contact cards also must include the name and badge number of the officer, the race and gender of the person stopped, the reasons for the stop, and the reason for a pat down.