A recent report (March 9) by The Washington Post highlights a problem that is costing many state taxpayers large amounts of money: the hidden cost that towns, counties or states repeatedly incur when they have to settle claims of misconduct by local or state police officers. Based on data from the 25 largest police departments in the country, The Washington Post found that more than 1,200 officers had been the subject of at least five payments to victims, and that more than 200 had been the subject of 10 or more payments. And the total cost to taxpayers in just those 25 cities was more than $1.5 billion dollars.

What sorts of misconduct have led law enforcement agencies, towns and counties to settle citizen complaints over and over again for such sums of money? Take the example of Philadelphia. Complaints there between 2010 and 2020 over officers’ “excessive use of force” resulted in $71.9 million in payments; for “false arrest,” $51 million; for “violations of civil rights,” $7.3 million; for “illegal search and seizure,” $1.7 million; and for “other alleged misconduct,” another $3.6 million.

Why are these payments not shared with local leaders and the public? The “Post” notes that, for a start, few cities or counties actually track claims by the names of the officers involved, meaning that officials may be unaware of officers whose alleged misconduct was repeatedly costing taxpayers such large sums of money. But it appears that towns and counties also have a self-interest in not knowing the facts of such misconduct: Few want to run the risk of retaining such information and then being charged with “negligent retention” of an officer in their employ. Settling claims without actually going to a costly trial is also viewed as a way to save the town or county money. And in the case of officers who are the subject of repeated claims of misconduct, tracking such conduct and settlements could then later be used by defense attorneys in other criminal cases.

What can be done? Former New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, in his presentation before the state Senate Judiciary Committee in July 2020 — shortly after the murder of George Floyd — called for making public records of police use of force more transparent, arguing that good officers had nothing to hide. Meanwhile, the director of the National Police Foundation’s Center for Mass Violence Response Studies, Frank Straub, has called for departments nationwide to publicize cases with such settlements.

So what can be done here in New Jersey? Legislators in the state Senate and Assembly have introduced bills which can potentially go a long way to making law enforcement personnel in the state more accountable for their conduct, while also protecting officers’ ability to do their difficult jobs. Assembly bill A-2654 would require the chief law enforcement officer of a municipal department to hold two community roundtables on police relations each year. Concerns about police conduct could therefore be aired before they became seriously problematic. Assembly bill A-1515 would establish civilian review boards with subpoena power — yet another avenue for law enforcement agencies to hear community concerns. Then there are bills to hinder the most deadly examples of police misconduct: bills to ban chokeholds (S-265) and to penalize “accomplice liability” when a law enforcement officer fails to intervene when another officer commits an offense (A98-7/S-370). Finally, bills in both chambers (A-996/S-371) would make police disciplinary records open to the public, but without any information on officers’ addresses or phone numbers. This would bring New Jersey in line with many other states — including Georgia, New York and Florida — that already have such laws and would go a long way toward ensuring that officers guilty of repeated misconduct are not able to be shielded from lawsuits at great public expense. New Jersey taxpayers should ask that these sensible bills be given thorough consideration soon.