New York Pays $206 Million to Settle Misconduct Suits, the Most Since 2018

New York City paid out $206 million last year to settle cases involving police and prosecutorial misconduct, including decades-old wrongful convictions.

The amount was the most since at least 2018, and it accounts for 27 percent of the $756 million the city has paid in such lawsuits over the past seven years, according to data released on Tuesday by the Legal Aid Society.

Much of the continuing financial burden stems from dubious practices from the 1990s, when the city was ridden with crime and police investigators and prosecutors were under pressure to get convictions at any cost.

The city settled 953 cases in 2024, and the highest payouts included five settlements that cost at least $15 million each. Two were from the wrongful convictions of James Irons and Thomas Malik, who in 1995 were charged with the murder of a subway clerk.

After spending three decades behind bars, Mr. Irons and Mr. Malik were exonerated by a judge who found that the police had elicited false confessions from them. Both were awarded about $16.3 million last year.