How much does Sacramento spend on police misconduct? We found $22 million in settlements
The city of Sacramento spent more than $22 million settling lawsuits involving claims of police wrongdoing over five years, documents show.
The Sacramento Bee reviewed over 100 settlement agreements reached by the city between 2019 and the end of 2023, along with associated court filings. Of those cases, 28 involved allegations of misconduct by the Sacramento Police Department. The police cases included five deaths and 12 people who were seriously injured. In another incident, police shot and killed a man’s dog.
In February, the city announced it would face a $66 million budget shortfall in the 2024-2025 fiscal year. During the 2024 mayoral race, candidate Flojaune Cofer has argued that, over time, the city should shift $70 million out of the police budget and toward alternative responses to calls for help with non-violent situations, such as mental health crises. Her opponent, Kevin McCarty, who has been endorsed by the union that represents local officers, has said he does not want to decrease funding for the department.
These police settlements are separate from the designated police budget, which is nearly $251 million.
A settlement does not in itself constitute an admission of wrongdoing. The city may choose to settle a case to avoid the costs of a drawn-out lawsuit or the uncertainty of a trial.
On Friday, a spokeswoman for the city did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
Mark Merin, a civil rights attorney who represented many of the plaintiffs, previously told The Bee, “Theoretically, they learn through the experience, they learn from being sued.”
Most famously during the period reviewed by The Bee, the city agreed to pay two settlements to the family of Stephon Clark.
An agreement effective Oct. 22, 2019, earmarks $3.3 million to settle with Clark’s children, and another settlement from Aug. 12, 2022, earmarks $1.7 million to his parents. Police fatally shot Clark in his grandparents’ backyard in 2018. Clark was unarmed and was holding a phone.
The city also spent significant sums compensating injured protesters. Shantania Love, who was blinded in one eye after police shot her with a rubber bullet during a protest following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, settled with the city for $3 million. Another Floyd protester, Thongxy Phansopha, settled for $65,000. Their complaint said police hit them with a tear gas canister and shot them in the head and face with multiple rubber bullets during a protest, causing severe injuries.
The largest police-related settlement was for the grave injury police caused to John Hernandez in 2017. Police forcibly restrained him and tased him. He was resuscitated and was in a coma for several days. The complaint says the incident left Hernandez, then 34, with severe and permanent brain damage.
Of the 28 cases reviewed by The Bee, 17 were settled for less than $100,000. In 2017, one complaint alleged that police handcuffed two Black girls — then 13 and 15 — who had purchased tickets to see a movie and showed police the receipts. That case was settled for $45,000. In 2020, the city agreed to pay $99,000 to settle a case with the family of a 16-year-old boy. The complaint says he was headed to his grandmother’s house and rode his bike away from police, and that an officer proceeded to hit the boy with a car.
All told, over the five years, the city agreed to pay more than $76 million to settle claims. Cases that involved allegations of police misconduct contributed to about 30% of the total amount.
