Chicago City Council members agreed on Thursday to pay $90 million to 180 people who said they were victims of a unit with corrupt police officers who fabricated evidence, charged drug dealers a “street tax” and falsely arrested people at a public housing complex in the early 2000s.
Approval of the settlement, which is expected to be paid next year, came as Chicago’s schools, transit network and pension funds were already facing foundational budget problems. Still, many City Council members described the agreement as a relative bargain given the quantity of lawsuits and the seriousness of the allegations against former Sgt. Ronald Watts and other officers who worked on his South Side tactical team.
“I almost think not enough is being made about what a staggeringly good outcome this is for the taxpayers of the city of Chicago,” Bill Conway, a City Council member, said earlier this month when a committee advanced the settlement proposal.
Taxpayers in Chicago, the country’s third-largest city, have repeatedly been asked to pay out multimillion-dollar sums to cover allegations of police misconduct and to settle lawsuits stemming from police shootings. All the while, the city has raised property taxes, faced budget shortfalls and struggled to reckon with pension liabilities.
The cases involving Mr. Watts began to come to light in 2012 when federal prosecutors accused him and a colleague, Officer Kallatt Mohammed, of stealing what the two men believed to be drug money. Both men pleaded guilty to stealing government funds and were sentenced to stints in federal prison.
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