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What is Indianapolis spending on settling lawsuits?

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The city of Indianapolis spends your tax dollars on lots of things: paying police officers, fixing roads and installing street lights.

They can also use your money to pay off people who sue the city.

Most recently, the city paid the family of shooting victim Aaron Bailey hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

After hearing from you, our viewers and readers, I-Team 8 wanted to find out about other settlements the city and Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department are making. 

I-Team 8 obtained records of settlements made by the city of Indianapolis and IMPD. We requested the 20 most recent settlements from each. 

From Feb. 7 to June 18, the city settled 20 suits, including Bailey’s, for $714,725.53. Bailey was unarmed when officers shot and killed him in June 2017 after he fled from officers. If you take out the $650,000 they settled with the Baileys for, the total is $64,725.53.

This May, the city paid one woman almost $3,000 for property damage. The same month, they paid another woman $12,000 for a car accident, and another got $150 after hitting a pothole. 

The last 20 settlements from IMPD span from June 2017 until June 2018. Their 20 most recent settlements total $857,086.73. That sum decreases to $207,086.73 if you exclude the money paid to the Bailey family.

In February, IMPD paid a man $6,000 for a car accident between the man and an IMPD employee, and another man got $11,000 for an interaction with an officer that happened in July 2015.

Some of you thought the Bailey settlement was too high, some thought it was too low. Many cities settle similar cases for millions of dollars, but we could not see any settlements nearly that size in the last several months in Indianapolis.