Police misconduct payouts top $100 million for fourth straight year

The city paid out over $117 million in police misconduct cases in 2025. AP file photo by John Minchillo

By Jacob Kaye

Taron Parkinson was 18 years old when he was arrested by NYPD officers Kevin Desormeau and Sasha Cordoba, who said they found a gun in Parkinson’s car in Queens.

While there was a gun, it wasn’t his. The cops had planted it, setting off a nightmare that cost Parkinson seven years of his life. Parkinson’s conviction was overturned in 2021. He sued the city the next year, and settled the case in 2025.

The cops’ misconduct cost New York City taxpayers $5.2 million.

Parkinson’s lawsuit was one of over 1,000 NYPD misconduct suits disposed of in New York City courts last year, the most since 2019. All together, the cases cost taxpayers over $117 million, according to a new analysis released by the Legal Aid Society on Monday.

Though the total cost to the city was less than it was in 2024, when a record $206 million was paid out to police misconduct victims, 2025 marked the fourth year running where misconduct payouts topped $100 million. The suits cost the city $115 million in 2023 and $135 million in 2022. In 2019, around $71 million was paid out to NYPD misconduct victims.

The final figure for 2025 may end up being larger – the total does not account for cases settled by the city comptroller’s office before the cases could make it to litigation.

The payouts made in 2025 range from a little over $200 to over $13 million, which was awarded to Eric Smokes, who served over 20 years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of killing a French tourist in Times Square in 1987.

Smokes, who was 16 at the time, and his friend, David Warren, were identified to police by someone with a lengthy rap sheet. Despite having an alibi and there being no physical evidence connecting them to the scene, they were arrested, convicted and sentenced to serve 25 years to life in prison.

Warren also settled his NYPD misconduct case last year, winning an $11.1 million judgment, the second largest payout of 2025.

While many of the largest payouts were made to plaintiffs who experienced police misconduct decades ago, a number of payouts were made to more recent victims of bad policing.

Among them was Shakim McKnight, who was awarded $250,000 in October after officers slammed him to the ground, piled on top of him and arrested him for documenting them in Manhattan in May 2023. While the disorderly conduct charges filed against him were later dropped, he was left with fractures to eye socket and wrist, and injuries to his neck, back and ankle.

Jennvine Wong, the supervising attorney with the Cop Accountability Project at The Legal Aid Society, said that the expensive payouts are proof of a lack of accountability for police officers who commit misconduct.

“There's still a culture of impunity,” Wong told the Eagle. “And that's a problem.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for the NYPD said that the payouts “tell you nothing about the state of policing today,” claiming that around a third of the total were for wrongful conviction cases, many of which occurred more than 20 years ago.

“Under Commissioner [Jessica] Tisch, the NYPD has taken significant steps to increase accountability, compliance, and change outdated policies that might create greater risk,” the spokesperson said.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch have vowed to make a number of reforms to the police department, which advocates say will help the city cut back on its ballooning misconduct claims. AP file photo by Yuki Iwamura

The NYPD said the payouts say more about the work district attorneys’ offices have been doing to investigate past misconduct, which the department said it was supportive of.

“The NYPD also works closely with the district attorney’s offices and their conviction review units to get them the materials they need to review these cases and ultimately secure these payouts,” they said.

But misconduct has not been entirely rooted out.

A 2025 report from then-Comptroller Brad Lander found that excessive or unnecessary use of force complaints made to the Civilian Complaint Review Board increased 49 percent between 2022 and 2023.

Excessive force claims were the most common complaints made to the CCRB in Fiscal Year 2025, the report found. The result was over $113 million in settlement payments, according to the comptroller.

“The [NYPD] needs to root out this misconduct if they're going to bring down the liability that it brings the city and if they're going to save taxpayers any money,” Wong said.

Wong said the payouts do little to help the city, which is currently facing an approximate $5 billion budget gap. Though Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who released his preliminary budget in February, axed an Adams administration plan to increase the NYPD’s headcount by 5,000 officers, he proposed keeping the NYPD’s funding flat for the coming fiscal year.

Mamdani and his NYPD commissioner, Jessica Tisch, have both pitched a number of reforms to the NYPD that advocates say would cut back on misconduct if enacted.

“If this is true, it's time for them to show their mettle,” Wong said.

The Legal Aid attorney called for the city to pass legislation that would increase accountability for officers who engage in misconduct and for the mayor to strengthen the power of the CCRB. She also urged the city to fully staff the investigative office of the NYPD.

Her recommendations are similar to those that have been made by watchdogs and oversight agencies a number of times over the past several years but have yet to be implemented.

“These costs compound when there is no meaningful accountability,” Wong said.