Spokane, WA

The Spokane Police Department has paid approximately $9 million in documented civil settlements between 2019 and 2026, with the dataset anchored by a $3.7 million wrongful death settlement approved in July 2025 for the family of Robert Bradley. Bradley was shot and killed by Spokane officers in 2023. The settlement structure is notable from an actuarial standpoint: the city of Spokane contributed only $222,000 of the $3.7 million total, with the remaining $3.478 million covered by the city's liability insurer. This 94% insurance coverage ratio is among the highest documented in the PoliceRiskIndex dataset and illustrates the direct financial relationship between police settlement exposure and municipal insurance costs.

The Spokane dataset includes two additional settlements tied to a former officer's sexual assault of civilians - each settled for $400,000, totaling $800,000. These cases reflect a category of police liability that is distinct from use-of-force incidents but equally significant for underwriters: officer conduct that generates civil liability without involving a use-of-force incident. The Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission maintains records of officer decertifications, which provide a supplemental data source for identifying officers whose conduct generated both criminal and civil exposure.

A prior wrongful death settlement of $4 million - the largest in Spokane's history before the Bradley case - was paid in an earlier period and is documented in the Police Funding Database. The city also paid a $425,000 settlement in March 2026 to Sierra Athos, who was injured during a joint training exercise involving Spokane officers.

Spokane is classified as a Non–Consent Decree Dataset in the PoliceRiskIndex system. Washington State's Public Records Act is one of the most accessible in the country, with a 5-business-day response requirement and no fee for electronic records. For insurance underwriters, the Spokane dataset illustrates a key structural feature of municipal police liability: the majority of settlement costs are absorbed by insurers rather than city budgets, which means the city's direct financial exposure significantly understates the total actuarial cost of its police department's civil liability.