Police lawsuits have cost L.A. nearly half a billion dollars since 2019, new data show
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Set us as preferred The LAPD’s legal bills keep piling up.The city of Los Angeles has shelled out nearly $480 million over the last five and a half years to end legal disputes involving the Police Department, including claims of excessive force, litigation over traffic accidents and cases filed by employees who allegedly faced retaliation after reporting misconduct.The soaring legal costs have come under greater scrutiny in recent years as Los Angeles’ financial problems have gotten worse.The city faced a $1-billion budget shortfall in 2025 but, after various cost-cutting measures, managed to set aside funding for the LAPD to hire more than 500 new officers in the coming year.The LAPD’s annual lawsuit costs more than doubled from 2019 to 2025.
The payouts peaked in 2024, when the city spent $178.6 million to resolve more than 300 police-related lawsuits and civil claims, before dropping to just over $100 million in 2025, according to a Times analysis of city attorney’s data.The Times reviewed hundreds of pages of court documents and analyzed data from the city attorney’s office released through a public records request showing nearly 2,000 payouts dating to January 2019.Through the first six months of this year, the city has paid out $20.3 million in legal settlements and court judgments involving LAPD officers.
Several recent big-dollar verdicts aren’t included in that tally because they hadn’t yet been approved by the City Council.California Wilver Blanco, 42, was shot in 2024 after police were called to the Broadway-Manchester neighborhood for a report of a man seen chasing an elderly man with a knife, possibly while under the influence of drugs.The surging cost of LAPD payouts depriving the cash-strapped city of money for pressing needs such as fixing roads and sidewalks, according to City Controller Kennet...