New York Police Division (NYPD) Sgt. David Grieco has been named as a defendant in 48 filed civil lawsuits totalling greater than one million {dollars} in payouts since 2013. But there’s no report of division disciplinary motion in opposition to the police veteran on the NYPD’s web site. Lately launched findings by the Authorized Help Society level to Grieco, who at present works in chief crime management methods, as by far the most-named member of the division in civil lawsuits at present lively within the NYPD.
5 different service members employed by the NYPD—all at present detectives—had been additionally named in additional than 20 lawsuits every, based on the findings. One other listing delineated the very best named lawsuit complete payout per lively officer, totalling $68,757,251 between the ten names listed.
All of the findings stem from knowledge between 2013 and this previous July 28.
Jennvine Wong, a workers lawyer with the Cop Accountability Challenge on the Authorized Help Society, stated such lawsuits and payouts are supposed to deter police misconduct and encourage accountability. No less than, that’s the concept.
“The overwhelming majority of them are settled, so there’s no discovering of wrongdoing or legal responsibility in opposition to the officers themselves,” stated Wong. “In New York, these funds don’t come out of the NYPD funds, and the person officers are normally indemnified—that implies that the town taxpayers are those who’re really paying the judgments in opposition to them. It doesn’t come out of the NYPD funds, it doesn’t come out of the person officer’s pocket.”
She added that many of those circumstances are what attorneys name “straight damages claims”—whereas they’re largely about wrongdoing, they don’t essentially mandate departmental motion. However settlement agreements can spring from such litigation, together with the town’s latest overhaul of protest responses after latest settlements over police misconduct within the 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
The Authorized Help Society stated the sums are a conservative complete for the payouts as a result of the information used solely accounts for formal litigation and never settlements made earlier than authorized proceedings. The NYC Comptroller’s Workplace, which handles such funds, instructed the AmNews an correct evaluation was not available readily available by press time. However there’s purpose to consider the full payouts are considerably larger than the recognized quantity.
Such a report is bookended by the Authorized Help Society’s earlier report of round $50 million in police misconduct payouts made on this yr’s first half and the general public protection group’s “Your Rights, Your Energy” marketing campaign pushing again in opposition to the rising variety of police stops.
The NYPD responded by pointing to settlements for age-old wrongful conviction circumstances as a “substantial portion of the payouts in 2023.” It additionally argued the lawsuits don’t replicate present practices and insurance policies.
“The NYPD rigorously analyzes allegations in civil lawsuits in opposition to particular person officers in addition to traits in litigation in opposition to the Division,” added the police spokesperson by electronic mail.
Whereas there aren’t any knowledge factors immediately analyzing the affect for Black and brown communities, Wong pointed to officers like Grieco, who previously served in East New York’s seventy fifth Precinct and continues to stay with the division, as a priority.
“A precept [of] ‘damaged home windows policing’ [is] that low-level offenses are indicators of an individual’s criminality down the road, however they’re not making use of it to their very own unhealthy actors themselves who preserve racking up civilian complaints many times,” stated Wong. “What now we have to consider right here is once we discuss impacted communities—in case you are somebody who comes from considered one of these precincts that a variety of these officers are in and have unhealthy [or] troublesome interactions with them [and] you…see they’re not solely staying on the pressure however they’re getting promoted, what sort of confidence does that instill concerning the disciplinary system and the way it’s working?
“The concept [of settlements] is meant to discourage police misconduct, however except the town is definitely doing one thing about disciplining these officers, the message that they’re sending is that it’s the price of doing enterprise.”
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member and writes about public security for the Amsterdam Information. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps preserve him writing tales like this one; please think about making a tax-deductible reward of any quantity at the moment by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.
