NEW YORK CITY — The city will pay as much as $75 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that accused the NYPD of writing nearly a million unjustified tickets and agreed to aggressively curb the practice moving forward, officials said.
The plaintiffs accused police of adhering to a quota system that prompted them to issue 900,000 summonses between 2007 and 2015 that were later dismissed because they lacked any legal merit, documents show.
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City officials refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing, but agreed to pay as much as $56.5 million of the $75 million to people who were issued the frivolous tickets, they said.
The other $18.5 million will be used to pay attorney fees, officials said.
The money, which will be doled out at $150 per person per incident, comes with a series of policy changes to try to prevent the type of baseless tickets that led to the lawsuit in the first place.
City officials denied that the NYPD was driven to issue the tickets through a quota system and said those types of systems are against department policy. They also pledged to revoke any bulletin or other order that conflicted with that policy, documents show.
Under the settlement, if police officers feel that someone in the department is using numeric goals to spur arrests or tickets, they can report it to the Internal Affairs Bureau, which will investigate the claim as a misconduct case.
Investigations into such claims will also be handled by officers outside the precinct where they occur, officials said.
Police leaders will also review training materials to ensure that they adhere to a 2010 law — dubbed the "Quota Bill" — which bars any penalty against an officer who refuses to follow a quota system.
It also marks an end to the class-action lawsuit led by Sharif Stinson, who was twice ticketed by police for disorderly conduct while leaving his aunt's apartment building at 994 E. 179th St. in 2009 and 2010, documents show. Both those tickets were later dismissed.
The settlement is still pending a fairness hearing, which should take place in March, officials said.
"This agreement is a fair resolution for class members and brings an end to a longstanding and complex case in the best interests of the city," said Zachary Carter, the corporation counsel who oversees the city's Law Department.
City officials don't expect to pay out the full $75 million, with the amount that goes unclaimed feeding back into city coffers, officials said.
NYPD Summonses Settlment by DNAinfoNewYork on Scribd
