The city is settling a record number of police misconduct suits, paying
$28.3 million last fiscal year -- nearly three times the $10 million it
paid a decade earlier.

The cost of the settlements has climbed steadily since 1988 as increasing
numbers of New Yorkers have filed claims alleging that police violated
their rights.

The latest numbers come to light as the city is embroiled in controversy
over police tactics sparked by the fatal police shooting of Amadou Diallo.

The number of suits alleging some form of police misconduct climbed from
1,335 in 1988 to 2,105 last year, a jump of nearly 58%.

During the same period, settlements rose from $10 million to $28.3 million.
The biggest leap occurred two years ago, when the payouts jumped to $27.5
million from $20.6 million.

The city corporation counsel's office attributes the increase in police
misconduct cases to a larger and more aggressive police force, not to more
brutal or overzealous cops.

"The police force is more active," said Georgia Pestana, deputy chief of
general litigation.

Pestana said that since Los Angeles police were video-taped beating Rodney
King, more citizens have become aware that they can sue police departments.

Although the settlements allow the city to deny any wrongdoing in the
incidents, some lawyers say the trend is a clear sign that the Police
Department's successful fight against crime has come at a price.

"The city just assumes that with the crackdown, with tougher police, 'We'll
have to pay for a few lawsuits, that's the cost of doing business, so
what?' " said Joel Berger, who used to represent the city in police
misconduct cases when he worked for corporation counsel, but now represents
people alleging police brutality.

Berger's clients include Cornelius and Mary Jefferson, two grandparents in
their 60s, whose $200,000 settlement with the city was approved last month
by Manhattan Federal Judge Mary Johnson Lowe.

The Jeffersons never had a run-in with the law until the night of June 24,
1997, when a crew of pistol-wielding cops smashed down their Bronx door
with a battering ram.

After the case made headlines, police officials continued to stand behind
an informant's tip that the Jeffersons' neatly kept home was really the
business office of a cocaine dealer.

A few weeks ago, the city switched gears and agreed to settle.

In weighing whether to take a case to trial, the city often considers
whether the person bringing suit represents a sympathetic figure.

In the case of the Jeffersons, for instance, Pestana admits jurors probably
would side with the couple and impose a huge financial punishment against
the city.

"You had two people in their 60s, and you have to take that into
consideration with the jury," she said. "Settling cases is usually a
question of trial risk for us, not a question of admission of wrongdoing."

The same holds true for Edna Louise James, who reached a $120,000
settlement with the city last month.

The retired midwife found herself under arrest after a confrontation with a
city worker escalated into what James alleges was a physical attack by a
detective, who, she said, hit her with a karate chop and slapped her at her
Roosevelt Island apartment.

In another recent settlement, Elkin Mann was awarded $180,000 stemming from
an incident that occurred in August 1993. Mann, then 19, was stopped on a
Queens street by two cops investigating a burglary.

Mann alleges he was thrown to the sidewalk and beaten with a flashlight,
and that when he lifted his head to get a look at the officers, one smashed
two of his front teeth with the flashlight.

He was released after the woman whose house was burglarized told cops he
wasn't their man. Last month, the city agreed to pay him.