Local Station Finds Chicagoans Were on the Hook for $107.5 Million in Police Misconduct Lawsuits in 2024

Taxpayers will continue to be hurt twice by misconduct until individual police officers are held accountable.

Chicago taxpayers reportedly spent at least $107.5 million in 2024 to resolve police misconduct lawsuits—a problem that will be difficult to solve unless the city is able to identify and hold misbehaving police officers accountable.

An analysis from WTTW News found 122 police misconduct lawsuits involving the Chicago Police Department (CPD) were resolved in 2024. The most expensive area of police misconduct in Chicago continues to be associated with wrongful convictions, making up 42 percent of the total taxpayers have spent on police misconduct lawsuit verdicts and settlements since 2019.

In 2024, $45.2 million went toward resolving wrongful conviction. Almost half of that was paid to Eddie Bolden, who spent 22 years incarcerated for two wrongful murder convictions in 1996. In 2014, an appellate judge ordered a new trial after finding that Bolden's initial trial lawyer had been ineffective, and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office ultimately dropped the charges. Bolden subsequently sued, alleging CPD detectives ignored witnesses who could have verified his alibi during the time of the murders. In October 2021, a jury awarded him $25.2 million, but this was reduced to $20 million in 2024 after an appeal.

The largest payment for a single police misconduct incident that Chicago made last year went to Nathen Jones. The 15-year-old was left unable to walk, speak, or feed himself after Officer Jhonathan Perez engaged in an unauthorized police pursuit of the car Jones was a passenger in for rolling through a stop sign. In 2024, Chicago's City Council Finance Committee approved a settlement for $45 million—enough to cover the estimated cost of Jones' medical care for the rest of his life. Taxpayers will cover $20 million while the remaining $25 million will be paid by Chicago's insurance company.

Although payouts for problematic police behavior may often be warranted, the mounting cost to taxpayers is significant. Chicago's 2024 budget only accounted for $82 million of taxpayer dollars to cover the cost of police misconduct lawsuits. Therefore, taxpayers will now bear the brunt of an additional $25.5 million. This all comes shortly after the city instituted a $165 million tax hike for Chicagoans to help cover a $982.4 million budget deficit.

Taxpayers are hurt twice by the bad actions of police: first by dysfunctional policing and second by increased taxes to fund reforms and lawsuit resolutions. The increased costs have yet to yield a brighter future as Chicago officials have failed to take policing reforms sufficiently seriously. In the nearly six years since a federal court order mandated CPD changes, only 9 percent have been put in place.

One glaringly obvious reform officials continue to delay is the adoption of a system to flag CPD officers who have received multiple police misconduct allegations. The University of Chicago Crime Lab created a system to do just that, but several years after its completion, the CPD has yet to implement the system citywide. Other analyses have concluded that a small minority of repeat offenders is responsible for nearly half of police misconduct lawsuit costs. But until Chicago officials are willing to hold problematic CPD officers accountable, costs will continue to rise and Chicagoans will be footing the bill.

Comments

[Use the Schwartz]

The Good Guise.

One good apple spoils in the bunch.

[Uncle Jay]

1. I wonder how many Chicago cops were fired for "misconduct?"

2. The taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for the cops' or any other public employee's misconduct. That should come from the guilty party or parties.

3. It's Chicago.
So, you know the taxpayers will always foot the bill.

[holmegm]

Huh.

I wonder if we could figure out who runs these urban police departments, and vote them out ...

[Liberty_Belle]

I wonder if we can figure out who keeps voting against police reforms in congress and vote them out.

[JesseAz (mean girl ambassador)]

City police is a federal issue to you marxists?

[AT]

I wonder if we can figure out a causative relationship between police reforms and increased criminal behavior.

[DaveH]

Malpractice insurance at the level of the individual officer. Best funded by the police union, which would adjust their willingness to support officer conduct regardless of justification.

[Rossami]

I like the idea of malpractice insurance but think it should be paid individually. Consider the distortions you'd see if the AMA had to pay for all doctors' malpractice premiums. It would become more cost-effective to weaken malpractice laws than to find and police the bad doctors. The same would likely happen if you made police malpractice a collective thing.

The counter-argument is that scale matters - that it's more cost-effective for the AMA to lobby for weaker malpractice laws because there are so very many doctors but that a local police union would have less lobbying power and fewer members to monitor. That's true right now but in the long term, I think it gives police unions an incentive to merge - something I don't want to give them even one iota more incentive to do.

[sarcasmic]

Pretty sure that police departments don’t settle unless the agreement says they didn’t do anything wrong. Because government can drag out lawsuits until the plaintiff dies of old age, everyone eventually settles.

With no admission of wrongdoing, the police keep doing what they’re doing.

[AT]

It's Chicago.

So, file that under the "I don't really care, Margaret" column.

Chicago officials have failed to take policing reforms sufficiently seriously.

Nonsense. Chicago is the #1 reformer in the Nation. They're at the point where they effectively don't have police anymore, and have essentially turned the city over to gangs, thugs, illegals, and all their respective crime.

For example -

Reason: "Officer Jhonathan Perez engaged in an unauthorized police pursuit of the car Jones was a passenger in for rolling through a stop sign."

Reality: "When the driver didn't stop, police chased the Volkswagen for several blocks as the driver ran several stop lights and stop signs, before crashing into a 2007 Toyota Yaris at the intersection of Grand and Damen avenues."

So either A) the cops have been depowered and are no longer allowed to pursue criminals; or B) the criminals have become so emboldened that they'd risk pursuit rather than surrender peacefully.

For another example -

when they make the judgment that pursuing for a minor traffic violation is risking human life, bad things happen," said attorney Lance D. Northcutt

Broken windows, Lance. Broken windows.

The police didn't make bad things happen with that kid. The driver did. And we don't know the reason he instigated chase, but I'm willing to bet he was worried about something a lot bigger than a traffic violation.

That settlement shouldn't have come from the police (and thus the taxpayer) AT ALL - it should have come from the driver's pockets.

ACAB (and BLM) is to blame for all this. They've screwed up the ability to properly police so badly that this is the inevitable result.

"No amount of money can bring back the child I had before this," said Boyd. The family said they have not yet decided if they will pursue a separate suit against the driver.

LMAO. "No amount of money," as she gleefully raids the deepest pockets first. Yea, that chick's going to Hell.

[Wizzle Bizzle]

Pretty hard to ignore police corruption, particularly in deep blue shithole cities and little beet red backwaters. But I don't buy for a second that you care about the expense to taxpayers. If you did, you would raise just as much of a stink about the cost of the causes you celebrate (illegal immigration, drug addiction) as those you detest (the boys in blue).

[Michael Ejercito]

Is this really news?