Cop corruption bills: lawsuit spending.

• Author: Krayewski, Ed
• Position: Citings - Brief article

THE CITY of Chicago has spent $521.3 million settling and otherwise resolving police-related lawsuits since 2004, according to a new report by the Chicago-based investigative journalism nonprofit Better Government Association (BGA).And that figure is conservative: According to the BGA, the half-billion dollar price tag doesn't include "less tangible expenses," like insurance premiums, investigations, and false incarcerations.

Chicago spent $84 million of that money last year alone, though Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a Democrat, blames the volume of lawsuits on the previous mayor, Democrat Richard Daley.

In the last four years, 1,611 lawsuits were filed against the Chicago police, mostly over excessive force allegations. According to the BGA, the city is currently working through nearly 500 pending lawsuits.

The city was originally projected to spend "just" $27 million on police lawsuits in 2013. But the Chicago City Council voted on payouts exceeding that amount on a single day in...