Legal Trends
Small Borough, Defining Moments: Staten Island NYPD Claims and the Garner Legacy
Staten Island's 168 tort claims per 100K residents nearly matches Queens' rate despite its reputation as a low-claims borough. The 120th Precinct tells why.
Key Finding
Staten Island paid $29.7 million in municipal tort claims in FY23, the lowest dollar total of any borough. But its per-capita claims rate of 168 per 100,000 residents nearly matches Queens at 167, puncturing the idea that it's a quiet borough for liability. The 120th Precinct on the North Shore generated the borough's most consequential recent misconduct cases, including two federal drug-planting settlements and a federal investigation. Eric Garner's $5.9 million wrongful death settlement in 2015 remains the defining accountability event, and the policy legacy it produced still shapes how NYPD misconduct is litigated in New York.
Key Facts
Staten Island paid $29.7 million in municipal tort claims in FY23, the smallest borough total. Its per-capita rate of 168 claims per 100,000 residents nearly matches Queens at 167.
The $5.9 million Eric Garner wrongful death settlement (2015) remains Staten Island’s defining NYPD accountability case and the policy anchor for a decade of chokehold reform, CCRB expansion, and body camera mandates.
The 120th Precinct (North Shore) generated two federal drug-planting settlements totaling $526,000 and a 2022 FBI and EDNY investigation into misconduct.
All four Staten Island precincts combined logged roughly 20 CCRB complaints in a representative late-2024 month, approximately equal to what a single high-complaint Bronx or Brooklyn precinct produces alone.
Staten Island paid $29.7 million in municipal tort claims in fiscal year 2023. That’s the smallest dollar total of any borough. Per capita the picture changes: 168 tort claims per 100,000 residents, nearly identical to Queens at 167. The island isn’t as quiet as it looks.
168 per 100K
Staten Island's FY23 tort claims rate, nearly matching Queens at 167 per 100,000 residents. The Bronx led at 533. Brooklyn: 205. Manhattan: 276. Small dollar total, not a small-claims borough.
NYC Comptroller Annual Claims Report, Fiscal Year 2023 (April 2024)
Methodology
This analysis draws from the NYC Comptroller’s Annual Claims Report for Fiscal Year 2023, published April 16, 2024, which covers the period July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023. The $29.7 million Staten Island figure is the all-agency tort burden for claims geolocated to Staten Island.
Named settlements(Garner, Kuyateh, Serrano) are sourced from contemporaneous press reporting and the federal EDNY docket. The Garner settlement is from 2015 and is included as the historical anchor the data requires.
Note
The Comptroller reports borough-level tort payout totals across all city agencies, not NYPD alone, and does not publish NYPD-specific payouts broken out by borough in its public summary.
Staten Island has fewer verified settled NYPD misconduct cases from the 2022 to 2025 window than any other borough: only the two 120th Precinct drug-planting matters ($526K combined) appear in publicly documented reporting.
The North Shore Concentration
The 120th Precinct covers the North Shore of Staten Island, from St. George through New Brighton and Stapleton. It’s the island’s most densely populated and racially diverse command, and it’s the source of the borough’s most consequential recent misconduct cases.
| Precinct | Neighborhoods | Complaint Volume |
|---|---|---|
| 120th | St. George, New Brighton, Stapleton | Highest on the island; 4 to 12 CCRB complaints per month (2024) |
| 122nd | Dongan Hills, Midland Beach, New Dorp | Mid-island; 2015 leaked photos exposed an arrest-points scoreboard |
| 121st | Richmond, Eltingville, Tottenville | South Shore; typically 4 to 5 complaints per month (2024) |
| 123rd | Huguenot, Pleasant Plains, Prince’s Bay | South Shore; lowest volume; 1 to 4 complaints per month (2024) |
The Eric Garner killing on July 17, 2014 occurred in Tompkinsville, a 120th Precinct neighborhood. Eight years later, the same precinct generated a federal investigation.
In 2022, the FBI and EDNY opened an investigation into drug-planting and misconduct allegations tied to officers from the 120th, following bodycam footage showing Officer Kyle Erickson planting a partially burning marijuana cigarette in a stopped vehicle on October 3, 2018.
Two federal settlements followed. In Lasou Kuyateh v. City of New York (EDNY 21CV00652), the city paid $326,000 in 2022 after Kuyateh was falsely charged with felony firearm possession by Officers Erickson, Elmer Pastran, and Frank Desiderato. The bodycam footage, which showed Erickson planting the contraband, surfaced after charges were filed and led to dismissal.
In Jason Serrano v. City of New York (EDNY 22CV01989), the city paid $200,000 in 2022 to a second person victimized by the same Erickson and Pastran scheme.
The 122nd Precinct generated a separate accountability thread. In 2015, leaked photos exposed an arrest-points scoreboard in the precinct: officers scored a point for every misdemeanor arrest and 1.5 points for every felony, creating a perverse incentive structure that increases false-arrest risk across all encounters.
The Garner Legacy
Eric Garner died on July 17, 2014 in Tompkinsville, Staten Island, after NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo applied a prohibited chokehold during an arrest for selling loose cigarettes. Garner repeated “I can’t breathe” 11 times before losing consciousness. He was 43 years old.
$5.9M
Wrongful Death Settlement
Estate of Eric Garner v. City of New York. Garner died July 17, 2014 in Tompkinsville, Staten Island after Officer Daniel Pantaleo applied a prohibited chokehold. No criminal indictment was returned. The city settled with the Garner family in 2015. Richmond University Medical Center paid an additional $1 million in a separate settlement. Pantaleo was fired in August 2019.
Theory: 42 U.S.C. § 1983; Fourth Amendment
Reported New York case, not a case this firm handled.
The policy trail from that settlement is measurable. NYC Admin Code § 10-181 codified the chokehold ban into city law in 2020, building on a departmental prohibition that Pantaleo violated.
The Right to Know Act, which took effect in 2018 as NYC Admin Code §§ 14-173 and 14-174 , requires officers to identify themselves and explain the basis for investigative encounters.
Body camera deployment, now mandatory across the entire NYPD, accelerated directly from the Garner accountability gap: there was no bodycam footage from Garner’s death. The CCRB’s authority was expanded in 2021 to include prosecutorial power over certain officer misconduct cases, a structural change the Garner case helped drive.
None of those reforms stopped the 120th Precinct drug-planting operation. But they did produce the bodycam footage that exposed it.
The two drug-planting cases from the same precinct ten years later illustrate the contemporary pattern.
$326K
False Arrest Settlement
Lasou Kuyateh v. City of New York (EDNY 21CV00652). Officer Kyle Erickson, caught on his own bodycam planting marijuana in Kuyateh's vehicle on October 3, 2018. Officers Pastran and Desiderato named in the complaint. All charges dismissed after footage surfaced. Settled 2022.
Theory: 42 U.S.C. § 1983
Reported New York case, not a case this firm handled.
$200K
False Arrest Settlement
Jason Serrano v. City of New York (EDNY 22CV01989). Second person falsely arrested under the same 120th Precinct drug-planting scheme by Officers Erickson and Pastran. Settled 2022. Federal investigation into the 120th Precinct opened by EDNY and FBI later that year.
Theory: 42 U.S.C. § 1983
Reported New York case, not a case this firm handled.
The three cases spanning 2014 to 2022 trace a single command geography: the North Shore’s 120th Precinct. They are not three isolated incidents. They are a pattern.
Section 1983 in Staten Island
Federal civil rights claims from Staten Island route through the Eastern District of New York. The EDNY courthouse sits at 225 Cadman Plaza East in Brooklyn.
Staten Island cases are filed there, briefed there, and tried there. The distance matters practically for discovery and depositions, but the legal framework is identical to any other EDNY district.
Most claims against the NYPD are filed under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 , the federal civil rights statute enacted in 1871 to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment. It lets anyone sue a government official who, acting under color of law, deprives them of constitutional rights.
The standard for excessive force is objective reasonableness under Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989). When the violation stems from a departmental custom or practice rather than one officer’s conduct, Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658 (1978) allows the city itself to be named as a defendant.
42 U.S.C. § 1988 provides for attorney’s fees in successful civil rights actions, which makes it economically viable for firms to take Section 1983 cases even when the settlement is below typical defense costs. The Kuyateh and Serrano settlements, each under $350,000, were reachable partly because of the fee-shifting structure.
Common Section 1983 claims against the NYPD include false arrest, unlawful search, excessive force, malicious prosecution, failure to intervene, and fabrication of evidence. All of the above appeared in the 120th Precinct drug-planting cases.
What This Means for People Hurt by Police on Staten Island
Note
Before filing a lawsuit against the City of New York or the NYPD, you must file a Notice of Claim within 90 days of the incident under NY GML § 50-e. Missing this window can bar the claim entirely, even when the underlying misconduct is clear and documented.
The statute of limitations for a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim in New York is three years from the date of the incident, under federal borrowing doctrine applied to state CPLR limitations periods.
If you’re hurt by NYPD officers on Staten Island, the legal path runs through EDNY at 225 Cadman Plaza East in Brooklyn.
The framework is federal: 42 U.S.C. § 1983 , constitutional claims, and the city as the named defendant under Monell. The 90-day notice requirement is state law but it governs federal cases against the city.
Three steps matter immediately after a police misconduct incident on Staten Island. Get bodycam footage preserved: NYPD retains it for a limited period, and litigation holds can be triggered early.
Request the officer’s identity and shield number in writing. And file the Notice of Claim within 90 days: even if you’re still deciding whether to sue, the notice preserves your right to do so.
The per-capita claims data shows Staten Island residents file at the same rate as Queens residents. The difference is that their cases don’t generate the same headlines. That doesn’t change what the borough owes them under the law.
Small borough, defining moments. The law counts them the same.
Sources
- NYC Comptroller. (April 16, 2024). Annual Claims Report, Fiscal Year 2023. https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/annual-claims-report/
- NYC Comptroller. (October 2024). A Blueprint to Address Police Misconduct: Department-Wide Restraint. https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/a-blueprint-for-department-wide-restraint/
- Legal Aid Society. (2025). Cop Accountability Project: 2025 NYPD Misconduct Settlements Analysis. https://legalaidnyc.org/programs-projects-units/the-cop-accountability-project/
- THE CITY. (December 2022). EDNY and FBI Investigating 120th Precinct Drug-Planting Allegations. https://www.thecity.nyc/2022/12/13/edny-fbi-investigating-nypd-drug-planting-allegations/
- VICE. (2016). A Former Cop Describes Racist Police Quotas in New York. https://www.vice.com/en/article/a-former-cop-describes-racist-police-quotas-in-new-york/
- TIME. (2015). Eric Garner Family Receives $5.9 Million Settlement. https://time.com/3956619/eric-garner-settlement/
- NYC Civilian Complaint Review Board. (December 2024). CCRB Monthly Statistical Report. https://www.nyc.gov/assets/ccrb/downloads/pdf/policy_pdf/monthly_stats/2024/12112024-monthlystats.pdf
- 50-a.org. 50-a.org Officer Misconduct Lookup (Officer RDTZ: Erickson, Kyle). https://www.50-a.org/officer/RDTZ
- Justia. Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989). https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/490/386/
- Justia. Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658 (1978). https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/436/658/
Updated June 14, 2026
Frequently asked questions
- How much did Staten Island pay in tort claims in FY23?
Staten Island paid $29.7 million in municipal tort claims in fiscal year 2023, the lowest borough total in NYC. Personal injury claims accounted for $29.3 million of that. The borough filed 824 total tort claims in FY23, of which 533 were personal injury and 291 were property damage.
- What was the Eric Garner settlement amount?
The City of New York paid $5.9 million to Eric Garner's family in 2015 to settle a wrongful death and excessive force claim arising from his July 17, 2014 death in Tompkinsville, Staten Island. Richmond University Medical Center paid an additional $1 million in a separate settlement. Officer Daniel Pantaleo was fired in August 2019 following a departmental trial.
- What happened with the 120th Precinct drug-planting cases?
Officer Kyle Erickson of the 120th Precinct was caught on his own bodycam planting a partially burning marijuana cigarette in a vehicle on October 3, 2018. Two federal lawsuits followed. The city settled Lasou Kuyateh v. City of New York for $326,000 in 2022 and Jason Serrano v. City of New York for $200,000 in 2022. The FBI and EDNY opened a federal investigation into the 120th Precinct in 2022.
- How does Staten Island's claims rate compare to other boroughs?
Staten Island had 168 total tort claims per 100,000 residents in FY23, nearly identical to Queens at 167. The Bronx led at 533 per 100,000. Manhattan was 276. Brooklyn was 205. Despite having the smallest dollar total, Staten Island's per-capita rate shows the island isn't insulated from municipal liability in the way its reputation suggests.
- How do I file a civil rights claim against the NYPD on Staten Island?
Federal civil rights claims under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 are filed in the Eastern District of New York, which covers Staten Island. The courthouse is at 225 Cadman Plaza East in Brooklyn. Before suing the City, you must file a Notice of Claim within 90 days of the incident under General Municipal Law Section 50-e. The statute of limitations for a Section 1983 claim in New York is three years. Missing the 90-day notice window can bar the claim entirely.
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Antin, J. S. (2026, May 14). Small Borough, Defining Moments: Staten Island NYPD Claims and the Garner Legacy. AEE Law Insights. https://aeelaw.com/insights/staten-island-nypd-claims-fy23/
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