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Cost of Memphis Police Killing Likely to Fall on Residents

Police departments and officers are rarely responsible for the direct costs of their own misconduct. 

Supporters hold candles during a vigil for Tyre Nichols at Tobey Skatepark in Memphis, Tennessee on Jan. 26.

Supporters hold candles during a vigil for Tyre Nichols at Tobey Skatepark in Memphis, Tennessee on Jan. 26.

Photographer: Brandon Dill/The Washington Post/Getty Images
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Restitution for the killing of Tyre Nichols by Memphis, Tennessee, police could rival payouts in some of the highest-profile cases of police brutality on record, experts say, and much of the cost will be passed along to the city’s residents. 

Each year Memphis sets aside money to settle civil lawsuits against its police. It’s budgeted $1.25 million for this fiscal year, but that’s unlikely to come close to covering any agreement that might be reached with Nichols’s family. The city of Minneapolis paid George Floyd’s family $27 million in one of the largest pretrial settlements in history following Floyd’s murder by police there.