SACRAMENTO, CA – Over the course of five years, specifically between 2019 and 2023, more than “100 settlement agreements” were reached by the city of Sacramento, including 28 “allegations of misconduct by the Sacramento Police Department,” according to a report by the Sacramento Bee.
The cases involving the Sacramento Police force were settled for “more than $22 million,” the Bee said.
Significant cases involved “five deaths and 12 people who were seriously injured,” said the Bee, adding misconduct of the police force extends to the disregard for human lives as well—one case cited found “police shot and killed a man’s dog.”
As a result of these lawsuits, candidate of the 2024 mayoral race Flojaune Cofer stated her plan to “shift $70 million out of the police budget and toward alternative responses to calls for help with non-violent situations” for the city.
The Sacramento Bee further reports mental health crises should be treated with non-violent responses instead of the violent encounters with the police force.
Cofer’s mayoral opponent Kevin McCarty stands with Sacramento police officers, claiming in the Bee story he “does not want to decrease funding for the department,” despite the payouts to those injured by police.
In Sacramento, the police budget is currently $251 million. In comparison to the budget, the settlements are eight percent of what the funding toward the police department, wrote the Bee.
Civil rights attorney Mark Merin said, in the Bee story, he presumes officers “learn from being sued.”
The Bee cited Stephon Clark, who was shot and killed in his grandparent’s backyard, unarmed and holding a cell phone in 2018. On Oct. 22, 2019, $3.3 million settled with Clark’s children, and another settlement from Aug. 12, 2022 paid $1.7 million to his parents.”
Another significant settlement was made to protesters that have been injured; for example, a woman named Shantania Love was “blinded in one eye after police shot her with a rubber bullet,” said the Bee, during a demonstration for the Black Lives Matter movement. The matter was settled for $3 million.
Another case the Bee noted involved severe injuries caused by the repeated rubber bullets shot at Thongxy Phansopha during another demonstration. That case was settled for $65,000.
The largest settlement, although not stated by the Sacramento Bee, went to a man—John Hernandez—that was tased so badly that he was in a coma for days. The victim of the event was left with severe and permanent brain damage.
More cases explained in the Sacramento Bee involve various forms of police misconduct, and allegations against the police department.
Over the course of the five years, the settlements from the city totaled $76 million. Of the millions of dollars, the Bee reports “involved allegations of police misconduct contributed to about 30 percent of the total amount.”
