WEST VILLAGE — Personal injury and misconduct lawsuits filed against the NYPD in the Sixth Precinct jumped 55 percent from 2013 to 2014, according to a recent report by Comptroller Scott Stringer.
Forty-five personal injury claims were leveled against 6th Precinct officers in calendar year 2014, up from 29 in 2013, according to Stringer's ClaimStat report, which looked at complaints against various city agencies.
But complaints of crime in the 6th Precinct — which covers Greenwich Village, the West Village and the Meatpacking District — went down between calendar years 2013 and 2014 about 8 percent, from 1,703 to 1,575 crimes reported.
The decrease in reported crime and increase in lawsuits meant there were 2.86 lawsuits against 6th Precinct officers for every 100 crimes reported in the area in 2014, up from 1.7 lawsuits for every 100 crimes reported in 2013.
Lawsuits were also up in other neighborhood precincts. The 1st Precinct, which covers SoHo, had 45 percent more lawsuits, and the 5th Precinct saw a 40 percent increase in lawsuits against officers in SoHo, Nolita, Chinatown and Little Italy.
The results buck a citywide trend of a drop in lawsuits against the NYPD, according to Stringer.
The NYPD received 12 percent fewer lawsuits in fiscal year 2015, marking the first double-digit drop in claims in at least two decades, according to the comptroller.
Since 2010, claims against the NYPD cost the city more money each year than any other city agency, Stringer said.
The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the 6th Precinct data.
The comptroller's full report can be read here.
