MPD misconduct cost the city $22 million since 2015

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58)- Incidents like the Sterling Brown case can not only hurt the image of the city, but it costs a lot of money.

Since 2015, city has agreed to pay out $22,132,212 dollars in police misconduct cases.

It has people calling for a change not only to protect citizens but also budgets.

“No excuses, no apologies, no more hashtags and settlements and lawsuits,” said Alderwoman Milele Coggs a day after the Brown tape was released.

At a recent listening session, the new head of the Fire and Police Commission shared the same concerns.

“That oversight piece is important especially as we turn to try to reduce the number of instances that we have that are instances of police misconduct resulting in lawsuits that result in money that the city has to spend to defend them and in some cases pay in terms of settlements,” said La Keisha Butler.

Of the $28,290,669 in settlements paid by the city since 2015, $22,132,212 has been for police misconduct.

That includes six cases that have paid about $2 million dollars or more.

For perspective, Baltimore has roughly the same population but paid out only about $11 million over the past 4 years.

Defense attorney Jeff Dummier says the money being paid out would be better spent on training.

“The cities, municipalities are going to keep paying all these settlements because their people are not trained,” said Dummier.

Some believe making the investment early on can save money in the long run.

“I think it's better off actually building in some money progressively over the next few years to do more to educate police officer on community relations,” said Jake McCormick.

Sterling Brown's lawyer has said Brown plans to file a lawsuit against the City of Milwaukee.