The hidden cost of police misconduct
Today on Post Reports, we explore the hidden cost of police misconduct. Cities around the country spent more than $1.5 billion between 2010 and 2020 to settle claims involving thousands of officers repeatedly accused of misconduct \u2013 and often left taxpayers in the dark.
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A warning to listeners: Today\u2019s episode of Post Reports includes a story about police violence that may be disturbing to some people, especially animal lovers.
When we hear about lawsuits against police departments, it\u2019s often in cases involving fatal police shootings, like Breonna Taylor\u2019s or George Floyd\u2019s, that result in multimillion-dollar settlements.
\u201cThose cases, they make the headlines, they make the news,\u201d says Washington Post reporter Keith Alexander. \u201cBut there are other cases where officers are the subject of numerous lawsuits \u2014 10, 12, 13 \u2014 for much smaller offenses, but they're happening repeatedly.\u201d
In a new investigation from The Post, Keith and fellow reporters tallied nearly 40,000 payments made by 25 major cities and counties around the country to settle repeat allegations of misconduct involving thousands of officers. What they found was the hidden cost of police misconduct: the staggering amount that\u2019s been paid over the past decade and the way that taxpayers are often kept in the dark.
Steven Rich and Hannah Thacker contributed to this report. If you want to learn more about how The Post reported on the hidden billion-dollar cost of repeated police misconduct, check out this video.