Over the past five years, Los Angeles has paid $384 million in LAPD-related settlements, including civil rights and excessive-force cases, putting increasing strain on the city’s finances.
About half of that amount — roughly $200 million — stemmed from civil rights violations and excessive force incidents, according to the LA Public Press. The outlet reported on November 3 that since 2019, around 2,000 lawsuits have been filed against the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), resulting in $384 million in city payouts.
Civil rights violations, police shootings, excessive force, and illegal searches accounted for $183 million, or half of all settlement costs. Traffic accidents made up 23%, and labor disputes 17%.
In just the first two and a half months of the 2024–25 fiscal year, the city had already spent $48 million in settlements—nearly one-quarter of its $187 million litigation budget.
At that time, Kenneth Mejia, the Los Angeles City Controller, warned that the city’s finances were “on the brink of bankruptcy,” noting that all settlement payments come directly from the city’s General Fund.
Eunisses Hernandez, a Los Angeles City Council member representing District 1 and a member of the Budget and Finance Committee, said rising settlement costs are outpacing city revenues. “As payouts drain the general fund, essential services like street and sidewalk repairs and streetlight maintenance are being cut,” she said.
During the previous fiscal year, LAPD-related settlements reached $155 million, nearly equal to the combined annual budgets of the Animal Services Department and the Street Lighting Bureau. Of the city’s ten largest settlements that year, eight were tied to LAPD incidents, according to data from the Controller’s Office.
Since 2019, protests-related excessive-force and civil-rights lawsuits have cost $20 million across 35 cases. The department has faced renewed criticism for its handling of recent anti-immigration enforcement demonstrations. Civil rights attorney Dan Stormer warned that “if such cases continue to accumulate, the city could face up to another $100 million in settlements.”
Joanna Schwartz, a law professor at UCLA, said the city must strengthen accountability for individual officers to control lawsuit costs. “Even if settlements are paid from the police budget, any overages are still covered by the city—making structural reform difficult,” she said.
The LAPD has yet to submit specific preventive measures or formal reports to the Los Angeles City Council addressing lawsuit risk management.
Controller Mejia announced plans to audit the city’s overall risk management system, calling settlements “one of the leading causes of LA’s fiscal emergency.” He added, “Behind every payout is a case where the city failed to meet public expectations.”
BY HANKIL KANG [kang.hankil@koreadaily.com]
