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Top 25 Settlements:
Portland Police Incidents settled 1993-2023 totalling roughly $15.7 million*-1
(revised October 2023)
Note: Some amounts are settlements, other are jury awards or judgments

Name Amount Date settled Incident date Brief notes
William Monroe*-2 $2,300,000.00 6/5/13 6/30/11 Use of force (live rounds/less lethal gun)
Family of Quanice Hayes*-2 $2,095,081.00 3/10/21 2/9/17 Shooting (died)
Family of James Chasse, Jr $1,600,000.00 7/28/10 9/17/06 Use of force (beating led to death)
Family of Aaron Campbell $1,200,000.00 2/1/12 1/29/10 Shooting (died)
Don't Shoot Portland protestors*-3 $1,034,332.22 (judgment) 9/24/23 6/1/2020 Use of Force/civil rights violations
Family of Lane Martin*-2 $975,000.00 9/9/20 7/30/19 Shooting (died)
Protestors August 2002 & May 2003 $845,000.00 12/1/04 8/22/02 Use of force (pepper spray)
Family of Terrell Johnson*-2 $600,000.00 7/21/21 5/10/17 Shooting (died)
Family of Damon Lowery $600,000.00 6/25/05 12/5/99 Use of force (leading to death)
Jason Cox*-2 $562,129.00
(jury)
9/29/14 6/28/11 Use of force
Family of Raymond Gwerder $500,000.00 11/14/07 11/4/05 Shooting (died)
Kyle Odell*-2 $400,000.00 3/9/22 1/18/20 Car crash injury (was in police car)
Barbara & Ted Vickers, Estate of Dickie Dow $380,000.00 3/27/02 10/19/98 Wrongful death/Dickie Dow
Family of James Jahar Perez $350,359.00 9/3/08 3/28/04 Shooting (died)
Daniel Thomas*-4 $311,000.00 3/14/08 & 9/28/04 7/11/03 Use of force
Gallagher Smith** $306,000
(settlement/jury)
7/24/13 11/13/10 Use of force
Dan Halsted $258,040.00
(jury)
3/14/12 6/17/08 Use of force (Taser)
Edward Gathright*-2 $211,006.58 ?-unknown 5/13/01 First Amendment violation
Bruce Browne $200,895.00 4/1/03 7/11/01 Shooting (lived)
Family of Dennis Young $200,000.00 10/8/08 1/4/06 Shooting (died)
Maria-Janeth Rodriguez-Sanchez $177,161.41 12/2/05 & 8/3/05 4/8/03 Use of force
Harold Hammick, Ri'Chard Booth & Alex Clay $175,000.00
(jury)
9/23/09 3/17/07 Mistreatment (pointing guns and more)
Family of Peter Gilbaugh $150,000.00 10/1/02 12/31/98 Shooting (died)
Barbara Weich $150,000.00 1/2/08 5/29/05 Use of force (broken arm)
Eunice Crowder $145,000.00 4/23/04 6/9/03 Use of force (including Taser)
Total $15,726,004.21

Sources: Portland Office of Risk Management, Portland Office of Management and Finance, Portland City Auditor's Office and various news agencies.

This chart should be published regularly by the City to inform Portlanders about the cost of police misconduct. Sure, the City and the Police Bureau can argue that in cases that were settled out of court they never admitted wrongdoing, but if they felt they had a sure chance to win, they would defend their officers. The $15.7 million total for just these 25 cases does not include another $6.4 million paid out to over 450 other people from 1993-2023. With an average of roughly $726,000 per year, the City could have been paying for several civilian investigators to staff an independent police review board (such a board was approved by voters in 2020 and is expected to be in place by 2024). Perhaps with ongoing external monitoring, the frequency of such cases will decline.

Although the US Department of Justice Settlement Agreement from 2012 requires regular reporting on these payouts (Paragraph 170-e-v), no such data have ever been published.

In late 2020, a Portlander was also good enough to share 10 years' worth of claims from a public records request, which show over 200 cases adding up to nearly $222,000 with amounts mostly under $5000. (We received info on another 9 such incidents in 2023, mostly related to protest incidents). The significance? $5000 is the threshold to send a case to Council for a vote. Many of the cases are for things like breaking (or running into) fences, hitting the wrong car's tires with spike strips, and other lost and damaged property. PCW contends that most of these incidents will still occur-- and still cost the City money-- even now that officers are wearing body cameras.

An additional $4,516,390.50 was paid out in ten negligence cases where police inaction led to disastrous results; PCW counts these separately from the active misconduct cases.

Moreover, from 2020-2023 we reviewed City Council and other records showing that from 2013-2023 the City paid out at least $1,778,776.16 for 49 officer-related auto accidents, an average cost of $36,301.55 per crash.

When we compared the average annual totals for misconduct incidents between 1993 and 2001 ($382,000) and from 2002-June 2011 ($636,000), it revealed that the advent of Portland's "Independent" Police Review (IPR) in 2002 has done little to slow the lawsuits or the misconduct that generates them, and in fact it may be that more people are turning to the courts rather than using the civilian complaint system (see People's Police Report #44, May 2008).

--Some of the amounts shown include legal expenses, making them appear higher than the settlements alone. But since this expense comes back to you, the taxpayer, we feel all expenses should be included when known. For example, the case involving protestors harmed at actions in 2002 and 2003 includes attorney fees. The 2023 Don't Shoot Portland judgment around protest actions in 2020 includes $784,326.22 in attorneys fees and costs.

--To be absolutely clear, the City is self-insured through the office of Risk Management, but settlements/awards of over $1 million are paid by an external insurance company.


Notes:
*1-The total of the top 25 up to 2005 was $3.6 million; in April 2008 it was $4.5 million; in March 2012 it was $8.1 million; in late 2020 it was $12 million.

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*2-**-info or settlement/judgment added in 2020- 2022.

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*3-new judgment since top 25 list of October 2022; includes attorneys' fees.

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*4-Daniel Thomas' case ended with a judgment in March, 2008 of $100,000,
  but the city closed out his original claim with $91,746.53 in city legal expenses.
  The total reported payout including attorney's fees was $311,000 (Oregonian, 12/10/09)

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We use the term "settlement" loosely to cover settlements, judgments, jury awards and other payouts by the city to cover the costs of police misconduct.


Compare to totals from:
  • 2022
  • 2021
  • 2020
  • 2012
  • 2011
  • 2008
  • 2006
  • 2005
  • Back to top


     

    Previous lists

    Top 25 2005 (12/05)
    Top 25 2006 (5/06)
    Top 25 2008 (4/08)
    Top 25 2011 (8/11)
    Top 25 2012 (3/12)
    Top 25 2020 (9/20)
    Top 25 2021 (9/21)
    Top 25 2022 (10/22)
       


    Portland Copwatch
    PO Box 42456
    Portland, OR 97242
    (503) 236-3065/ Incident Report Line (503) 321-5120
    e-mail: copwatch@portlandcopwatch.org

    Portland Copwatch is a grassroots, volunteer organization promoting police accountability through citizen action.


    Last updated October 11, 2023

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