NYPD Excessive Force Complaints Surged in Past 3 Years to Highest Since 2013, NYC Comptroller Report Finds

New York, NY — In a new report, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander found a dramatic increase in excessive use of force claims against the New York Police Department (NYPD) during Mayor Eric Adams’ tenure. Between 2022 to 2023, excessive or unnecessary use of force complaints to the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) jumped 49 percent, to the highest number since 2013. 

In addition, in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025, “Police Action” claims—often alleging excessive force—were the most common tort claims against the City, based on data available as of September 16, 2025, with 6,082 claims filed and over $113 million in settlements, making the NYPD the City’s largest source of claims.  

“Our goal must be to prevent misconduct before it happens—rather than leaving communities to pay the price in harm, trauma, and costly settlements after the fact,” said Comptroller Brad Lander. “The NYPD’s early intervention system is a good start, but this data shows it doesn’t go far enough to root out misconduct. Our recommendations call for a data-driven, management-forward approach that targets precincts where excessive force and claims are concentrated to reduce harm, save taxpayer dollars, and begin to rebuild trust and advance racial justice in communities most impacted.” 

The Comptroller’s report found: 

Allegations of excessive use of force and related tort claims against the NYPD surged in recent years.  

• The number of complaints for incidents of excessive use of force investigated and closed by CCRB increased by 49% between 2022 to 2023.  

• In FY 2024, the NYPD had more tort claims filed than any other City agency, with 9,249 filings—up 31.8% from 7,017 in FY 2023—many involving misconduct allegations, particularly excessive force.   

A first-of-its kind precinct-level analysis of CCRB complaints and misconduct settlements identifies a small number of precincts where targeted action by the NYPD could prevent excessive use of force.   

• Sixteen precincts show an increase of more than 50% in average annual CCRB excessive force complaints. These precincts have also cost the City over $8.9 million in settlements for police action claims from 2019–2024.   

• The four precincts with 100+ excessive force complaints to the CCRB in the past three years are the 75th and 73rd precincts in Brooklyn (East New York, Cypress Hills) and the 40th and 44th precincts in the Bronx (Mott Haven, Melrose, Concourse, Highbridge).  

• The precincts with the highest settlement totals—each exceeding $3 million since 2019—are all in central Brooklyn and the south and central Bronx, together accounting for more than $30 million in payouts.   

Precincts with a high proportion of Black or Hispanic/Latino residents have more allegations of force and more settlements for police misconduct. 

• More than 85% of residents in the four precincts with more than 100+ recent force complaints to the CCRB are Black or Hispanic/Latino. All of the top 10 precincts with the most total force complaints have populations that are majority Black or Hispanic/Latino. 

• NYPD’s Early Intervention System (EIS) fails to detect precinct-level and department-wide trends in line with national best practices and recommended by the Office of the Inspector General for the NYPD in 2018. 

Lander continued, “While the NYPD has taken meaningful steps to strengthen accountability under Commissioner Tisch, including higher rates of discipline in substantiated CCRB cases, this report makes clear that serious gaps remain – and that discipline alone is not enough. We need to move beyond reacting after the fact toward real culture change and prevention – through better use of data, stronger training and supervision in the precincts where use of excessive force persists, and financial accountability for the NYPD – to stop excessive force before it occurs.”  

The report draws from data from the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), claim and settlement data, and precinct-level analysis to address underlying patterns of police action claims. 

The Comptroller’s Bureau of Law and Adjustment investigates and can resolve claims prior to litigation, which often results in substantial financial savings to the City and provides prompt relief to New Yorkers. In FY 2024, the City resolved a total of 13,397 claims against New York City and paid out $1.94 billion in settlements, the most ever for one fiscal year and a serious source of chronic underbudgeting in every budget cycle. 

This year, Comptroller Lander launched the Claims Dashboard, a real-time, comprehensive transparency tool to visualize claims filed to and settled by the Comptroller’s Office. Comptroller Lander perennially recommends that the City require agencies to assume financial responsibility for legal settlements arising from their operations, rather than settlement amounts coming from the City’s General Fund without agency-level consequences.  

Without stronger oversight, financial accountability, and structural reform, New Yorkers will continue to face preventable harm, and the City will remain on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars in legal claims each year. Comptroller Lander recommends four strategic steps to better protect the civil liberties of New Yorkers, reduce harm, and save taxpayer dollars: 

1. Strengthen the NYPD’s Early Intervention System with precinct-level analysis and oversight: The NYPD’s current Early Intervention System flags individual officers for non-disciplinary interventions based on complaints but fails to address broader department-wide patterns. 
2. Target high-risk precincts with non-disciplinary use-of-force training and structured supervision reforms. The NYPD should deploy precinct-wide training, along with structured supervision reforms, including additional mandatory force-review audits, after-action debriefs, and precinct-level corrective action plans, where force complaints and settlements are highest and rising, including: 
   1. Most Force complaints: 75th, 40th, 73rd, 44th, and 46th precincts.  
   2. Highest settlement amounts (2019–2024): 77th, 75th, 44th, 40th, and 52nd precincts (with more than $3 million in settlement payments for claims since 2019)  
   3. Largest increases in CCRB force complaints in recent years: 45th, 108th, 88th, 43rd, 49th precincts, the top five precincts with the largest increases in annual force complaints (with increases ranging from 92% to 323%), comparing the three most recent years to the three years prior. 
3. Increase transparency and improve accountability through quarterly public reports on department-wide misconduct and litigation trends as well as early-intervention outcomes. 
4. Make City agencies – including the NYPD – financially responsible for settlement costs: The City should expand the NYC Health + Hospitals model to every City agency, requiring agencies to absorb part of their own legal settlement costs. Budget projections would be based on prior years’ trends, with savings reinvested and overruns covered from agency operating budgets. This would promote accountability, incentivize prevention, and reduce overall City liability. 

“Excessive force by the NYPD brings compounding costs – harming individual’s safety, community trust, and our city’s budget,” said New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. “I appreciate the Comptroller’s report showing the financial impact of the surge in settlements, which only further highlights the need for change in both policing practices and city policy. By engaging with precinct-level training and increasing transparency and accountability, we can prevent these incidents and the excessive targeting of certain communities. By shifting the costs of settlements to agencies, we can create more direct incentive for the change we clearly need.” 

“This report highlights what so many families in the Bronx already know—excessive force leaves lasting scars on our communities,” said Council Member Althea Stevens. “Behind every settlement is a person, a loved one, a neighbor whose trust in the very people sworn to protect them has been broken. Community members deserve to feel safe walking to school, going to work, or simply sitting outside their homes. Accountability must mean more than dollars paid out, it must mean real change in how our communities are treated and respected.” 

“This report’s findings are clear: the NYPD continues to be a rogue, unaccountable agency who is committing violence against New Yorkers,” said Council Member Tiffany Cabán. “That violence, in turn, steals away critical taxpayer dollars. Investing in true safety would mean spending those dollars on schools, housing, economic opportunities, healthcare and more — not cleaning up after the NYPD’s abuses.” 

“The Comptroller’s Office findings on the increase of excessive force claims and where those settlements are arising from reflect the fatally flawed policies of this administration. NYPD’s return to over aggressive so-called ‘quality of life’ policing coincides with this alarming finding,” said Jennvine Wong, Supervising Attorney at the Legal Aid Society. 

“Longstanding failures to hold NYPD officers accountable for misconduct can lead to multiple harms. Too often, the CCRB substantiates an officer’s misconduct and recommends discipline, but no discipline is imposed, allowing the officer to engage in the same misconduct again” said Obi Afriyie, Community Organizer at the Legal Defense Fund. “At the same time, countless families have been denied justice while the officers responsible for harming their loved ones remain in uniform. Accountability in name only is not accountability: it is impunity. And New Yorkers pay the price every day.” 

 “Under Mayor Adams, the NYPD has made it clear that its priority is criminalizing Black and Latine communities — not keeping them safe. The Comptroller’s report confirms this,” said Loyda Colón (they/them), Justice Committee Executive Director. “It’s no surprise that the neighborhoods with the most CCRB complaints are also the ones with the most lawsuits and multimillion-dollar settlements. The result is further harm, fear, and taxpayer money wasted on settlements. We need to do more than just claw our way back to 2013 levels of misconduct: true public safety will come from real accountability and investments in services, infrastructure, and non-police safety alternatives for our communities.” 

Read the Comptroller’s report here. 

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