And They Have Tasers

NYC's finest are behaving badly and costing taxpayers loads:

NEW YORK - The amount New York City is paying to settle claims or cover judgments related to improper police conduct is soaring.

According to a report in the New York Post, the city paid $66.4 million last year to 1,265 claimants who accused the NYPD of bad behavior. That compares with $31.8 million paid to 571 claimants in 1998.

Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, says those figures reveal an increasing problem of police wrongdoing during Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration. She says the rise in payouts parallels an increase in police-abuse complaints made to the city's Civilian Complaint Review Board.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne says payouts don't always reflect misconduct because the city frequently settles cases in which the police are innocent of wrongdoing.