Report: LA pays big bucks in LAPD workplace suits

At least 17 officers won jury verdicts or settlements totaling at least a million dollars, and dozens more officers received payments of five or six figures, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. In September, a former officer who alleged discrimination was awarded $4 million.

From 2005 to 2010, officers sued the Los Angeles police department over workplace issues more than 250 times. In 45 of those cases, the city paid settlements that totaled more than $18 million and lost several other cases that are being appealed. The rest, representing tens of millions of dollars in potential liability, remain open.

"These cases irk the heck out of me," city councilman Greig Smith told the Times, adding the city's job-protection rules make it too difficult to fire officers who cause workplace problems. "Somebody running a private company would never let this ... stand. Why do we let it happen here? And we see the same things happening over and over again."

A survey of large police departments across the country showed that LAPD officers file lawsuits more often than their counterparts in in other cities. Los Angeles police brought an average of about three times more lawsuits a year, per officer, than officers in Chicago or in the Los Angeles County sheriff's department, according to records obtained by the Times. There were about a third fewer lawsuits from officers in Boston.

Read more from San Jose Mercury News...