DALLAS (AP) – Records show that Dallas has spent almost $11 million in the past five years settling more than 20 lawsuits against police, a huge increase compared to the previous five years.
The city spent less than $400,000 to settle less than 10 cases from 2006 to 2011, KDFW-TV reported . Dallas also currently has almost 40 unresolved liability claims against local police officers.
Arlington spent less than $2 million settling lawsuits involving excessive police force claims in the past five years. Fort Worth paid $12,000 in the past five years in law enforcement liability claims.
Geoff Henley, an attorney who specializes in civil rights cases, said the increase in payouts may be due to the better documentation that comes with video cameras, not because officers are behaving worse.
“I don’t think there’s been an increase in the violent propensity or unlawful propensity of certain police officers,” he said. “I just think we have better means of documenting those abuses now.”
One of the pending cases in Dallas involves Henley’s client, Kelvion Walker, who was shot and injured by a police officer in 2013. The shooting was caught on a police vehicle’s dashcam.
Walker was in the passenger seat of a vehicle that had been reported stolen. The driver ran from the car, and Officer Amy Wilburn fired at Walker, who was in the vehicle with his seat belt on. An internal investigation determined Wilburn didn’t follow the department’s deadly force policy. She was fired after the shooting.
Walker, who has undergone three major surgeries, has sued Wilburn. She also is expected to go to trial on a criminal assault charge in January. The city has spent more than $500,000 to hire a private law firm to defend Wilburn.
