City of San Diego data shows litigation involving the San Diego Police Department is costing the city millions of dollars.
Some city council members want to know how the department is addressing the conduct that leads to lawsuits.
“How are we holding our officers accountable?,” asked Councilmember Henry Foster III, who represents District 4.
The issue was the focus of a city council committee meeting Wednesday, which highlighted the $116 million cost of settlements and judgements involving SDPD since fiscal year 2017.
That is the highest total of any city department.
“And the more we spend, the more it impacts our ability to, one, make sure that we are doing the best job we can do in regards to policing, that we are not being discriminatory is how we are deploying those services, but also being able to serve all of our and meet our obligations for all of the other services that we need to provide,” Foster said.
In fiscal year 2026 alone, SDPD settlements and judgements reached a record $42 million.
Of that, $30 million went to the family of Konoa Wilson, the 16-year-old shot and killed by a San Diego police officer last year while running from gunfire. It is one of the largest settlements involving a deadly police shooting in U.S. history.
“Because Konoa Wilson’s life was worth more than $30 million,” said Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, District 9.
Another $10 million settlement went to the younger sisters of Arabella McCormack, 11, who died of severe malnutrition and abuse in August 2022.
“An SDPD officer was alleged to have visited the home, failed in her mandated reporter duties, and contributed to the abuse by directly supplying wooden paddles, not paddle, paddles to the family,” Elo-Rivera said.
San Diego police said preventing those kinds of tragedies means focusing on training.
“When you look at some of those cases, they’re related to use of force, defensive tactics, arrests, detentions. Those are all part of our continual training,” said SDPD Capt. Michael Ramsay. “Investments in training, supervision, policy development, and organizational accountability is significantly less costly than litigation.”
Council members say there is an additional cost that’s more difficult to measure.
“There’s an unquantifiable cost to that erosion in trust,” said Elo-Rivera.
SDPD says its officers receive more training than what is mandated by the state, However, some council members say recent lawsuits and complaints show there’s room for improvement.
“We need to do better. We have a lot of work to do,” said Foster.
An SDPD spokesperson said the department could not comment on individual cases but has made substantial investments in training, supervision, and risk-reduction efforts, including expanding the training division.
Foster said he would like future reviews of settlement and judgment costs to be presented before the city finalizes its annual budget.
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC San Diego. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC San Diego journalist edited the article for publication.
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