CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - The city’s inspector general said the city continues to dole out hundreds of millions of dollars in police-related settlements, yet has not set up a way to learn any lessons from them.
A new city inspector general’s report said the New York, Los Angeles and Seattle Police Departments have effective risk management programs when it comes to payouts for things like police excessive force lawsuits and false arrests. Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said those departments have systems in place to learn from their mistakes. She said Chicago does not, and, from 2017 through 2020, the city paid police-related settlements of $250 million.
The inspector general’s report pointed out, for example, that Portland, Oregon reviewed lawsuits and identified several cases involving excessive force claims from blows to the head from one specific police station. Portland targeted that station for retraining and closer supervision.
Her report indicates the problem is that the city has shortcomings in how data is collected about those cases, what watches do the allegations happen and which units are involved, for instance. The report said that makes it virtually impossible to learn lessons from them.
During the period covered, the city paid out $76 million in excessive force lawsuits and $10 million in false arrest payouts alone.
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