Comptroller Stringer: NYC Pays Out Record Amount In Fiscal Year 2014 To Settle Claims Against NYPD
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - City Comptroller Scott Stringer says the city paid a record $216 million to settle claims against the NYPD in fiscal year 2014.
That's a record for a single agency.
"And that means one thing: the claims are too damn high," Stringer told WCBS 880's Rich Lamb.
It also represents a large increase from the $138 million paid out in 2013.
WEB EXTRA: Read the complete report (.pdf)
The settlements covered the last six months of the Bloomberg administration and the first six months of the de Blasio administration.
Overall, the city paid out $496 million in settlements and judgments in 2013, and $550.3 million in 2014, according to the report.
Stinger is urging commissioners to take responsibility for claims against their agencies and is working with them to push the numbers down, Lamb reported.
The report says that despite the increase in settlement amounts against the NYPD over 2013 and 2014, the preliminary data shows the number of claims against the NYPD in 2015 has dropped by 11 percent.
That's the first time claims against the NYPD have dropped by double digits in a decade, according to the comptroller's office.