A reason for better policing that even conservatives should like

Nick Wing, Huffington Post - In November 2014, a county judge approved a $3 million out-of-court settlement resulting from a wrongful death lawsuit, to be paid by the city of Cleveland to the victims' families and their lawyers. That money, like the rest of the police department's budget, comes from taxpayers.

....As the Washington Post's Radley Balko noted in a 2014 blog post, these lawsuits are "supposed to inspire better oversight, better government and better policing." When the Baltimore Sun reports that the $5.7 million in taxpayer funds paid out to settle police misconduct cases between 2011 and 2014 could "cover the price of a state-of-the-art rec center or renovations at more than 30 playgrounds," for example, citizens are supposed to respond by demanding political change that will help address the root causes of these lawsuits and ensure their money goes to building playgrounds instead.

....The sheer size of this financial burden is a big problem, as the regular six- and seven-figure police misconduct settlements around the nation demonstrate. And while the reports below point to some substantial figures, the total amount we're actually paying remains something of an unknown, as the terms of settlements are sometimes sealed to the public and police data collection concerning civil suits and their outcomes has long been criticized as inadequate. There's also the broader question of what messages the civil justice system's indemnification of police sends to officers and the taxpayers who are liable for the costs that officers incur.

If the public ends up paying for an officer's misconduct or alleged misconduct, it seems fair that they'd want the officer and the police department he or she works for to make efforts to keep taxpayers from having to shell out for future settlements or judgments. Instead, we see police departments routinely failing to discipline problematic officers, including those named in lawsuits, even when they may already have a record of misconduct or complaints.