NYPD ordered to pay $75MIL settlement over summons quotas
Manhattan Federal Judge Robert Sweet on Monday finalized a historic, $75 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed against the NYPD claiming that 900,000 summonses had been issued with no legal justification in order to fill summons quotas.
The judge referred to the settlement as “the second-largest in NYC history.”
“The non-monetary benefits could be, in the Court’s view, ‘a game changer’ for NYC communities,” Sweet said.
— Ann Coulter calls NYPD officers ‘little girls’ on Twitter —
Although the city has maintained that the NYPD does not, in fact, use quotes, part of the settlement requires that the department sends notices that quotas are banned from the department and that any institution of quota systems will be investigated by the Internal Affairs Bureau.
The suit, which focused on summonses issued from 2007 and 2015 for “c summonses,” those dealing with minor offenses like drinking in public or disorderly conduct, found that hundreds of thousands of those summonses had been issued without articulating probable cause. As part of the settlement, those who received these bogus summonses would be eligible for payments up to $150 per incident, with 25% of the settlement aimed at paying legal fees.
“This settlement serves as a historic contribution to advancing civil rights with respect to police conduct,” said lawyer Elinor Sutton.
