Fresno taxpayers can’t keep footing the bill for ‘justified’ police shootings
Federal civil rights lawsuits filed on behalf of the victims of Fresno police shootings follow a troubling, perplexing pattern.
First the shootings are determined to be legally justified and in compliance with Fresno Police Department policy.
Then the city agrees to a multimillion-dollar settlement with attorneys representing the victim’s family.
Our officers did nothing wrong. But to make this mess go away, here’s a seven-figure check.
There’s an incongruence to this pattern. Something just doesn’t add up. Except the checks, which are becoming more burdensome on those who foot the bill: Fresno taxpayers.
How, exactly? Consider the city’s two recent, high-profile settlements: a tentative $4.9 million agreement with the family of Isiah Murrietta-Golding and $4.4 million to the family of Casimero “Shane” Casillas.
Because the city carries a $3 million risk fund per individual cases involving the Fresno police, Fresno taxpayers are on the hook for $6 million total in the Murrietta-Golding and Casillas settlements. The other $3.3 million is covered by insurance.
To make the accounting work, that $6 million will be added to the police department’s budget, over a three-year average, under line item 59305 (liability self-insurance charges). In the 2021 revised budget, nearly $5.6 million was allotted — double actual spending in 2019.
“It will go up even more given the recent settlements,” Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias said.
That extra $2.8 million, along with bumps in salaries, pensions, workers’ compensation claims and fees for information and fleet services, explain how the Fresno police budget can grow $40 million in two years while funding only minimal staffing increases.
“It’s because the money went to a 5% raise for all officers, a significant increase in workman’s comp costs, set aside for lawsuits and to cover operational costs in terms of equipment,” Arias said.
More large settlements pending
Prior to the Murrietta-Golding and Casillas cases, the $2.8 million paid to the family of Dylan Noble in 2018 was the highest civil settlement in Fresno history. The new record may not last long. There are at least two more notable federal civil rights cases pending against the city: one for the 2017 suffocation of Joseph Perez (the video still sickens me); the other involving separate acts of domestic violence against two women, one killed and the other paralyzed, in which the attorney accuses police of being indifferent to their claims.
In other words, taxpayers better keep their wallets open. This bill is still coming due.
Because Fresno has seen a number of high-profile shootings (and pummellings) involving law enforcement officers, we tend to think the financial costs are higher here than elsewhere.
There is no hard data to support that. Fresno paid an average of $1.8 million per year in claims against its police department from 2010-19, ABC 30 reported. That figure is higher than some U.S. cities of similar or larger size but lower than others, according to a recent investigation published by Fivethirtyeight.com that examined civil settlements in 31 of them.
“As the country has witnessed episode after episode of police abuse, holding police officers accountable for misconduct has become an urgent issue,” the authors write. “But despite increased attention, it’s still rare for police officers to face criminal prosecution. That leaves civil lawsuits as victims’ primary route for seeking legal redress and financial compensation when a police encounter goes wrong.”
While costly to taxpayers, civil settlements can also bring about policy changes designed to prevent similar incidents in the future. Ideally, at least.
Policy change didn’t prevent Murrietta-Golding shooting
In November 2016, as part of a $2.2 million settlement with the parents of Jaime Reyes Jr., shot multiple times and killed by Fresno police four years earlier, the department agreed to alter its use-of-force policy. Instead of officers being allowed to shoot a suspect if he posed an “imminent threat,” the wording was amended to “immediate threat.”
That change didn’t seem to make much of a difference six months later, when Murrietta-Golding was shot in the back of the head while fleeing a traffic stop. Police say the unarmed 16-year-old was a suspect in a fatal shooting committed the previous day.
Back then, alterations to the use-of-force policy were a rare occurrence. Lately, it’s been commonplace. Policy 300 in the Fresno PD policy manual has been amended three times since August 2019, when California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 392 into law. The latest update occurred in December with new requirements and mandates adding one page to the section.
The use-of-force policy will be further amended in the coming weeks and months when the department adopts recommendations made by the Fresno Commission for Police Reform. Seven of the 24 recommendations targeted by Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer for implementation call for modifications and additions to Policy 300.
Fresno police have received extensive training on AB 392, which stipulates that lethal force by a peace officer is only justifiable “when necessary in defense of human life,” and other legal mandates, according to Lt. Rob Beckwith, the department’s public information officer.
Dyer: ‘We’re not used to seeing people get shot’
While policies and laws can overlap, the biggest unknown in a civil trial is the jury. There’s no telling how a group of people will react when presented with video evidence showing a police officer using lethal force.
“We’re not, as human beings, used to seeing people shot. Even when it’s justified,” Dyer said. “We’re not used to seeing that. It’s shocking to us, and so sometimes decisions are made to limit the potential exposure for liability.”
During his 2½ years on the City Council, Arias said his fellow council members and the mayor’s staff have consistently sought to settle civil rights cases involving police officers, while the police chief and union wanted to fight the decision in court.
“We were guaranteed a win, and we lost $4.7 million at trial,” Arias said of the Casillas case, which was settled at $4.3 million after the city appealed the initial verdict. “That signaled to us that there had been a dramatic shift in how civil juries view these cases.”
How much will the Fresno police department’s “liability self-insurance charge” cost taxpayers in next year’s budget? It’s too soon to tell. But one thing should be obvious: If Chief Paco Balderrama and the union want to hire more officers and pay them higher salaries, curtail instances of unnecessary, unwarranted uses of force that cost the city millions.
Fresno taxpayers can’t afford to keep footing the bill.
