Expensive lawsuits against Salem police spiked city insurance rates. City services are footing the bill

City of Salem agencies are now paying more for insurance after lawsuits alleging excessive police force cost the city $2 million in the last two years.

The growing cost of claims against the city has raised insurance rates, forcing city departments to pay more money into a self-managed city insurance fund at a time when their budgets are already stretched thin. 

The city plans to bill its departments a total $11.8 million next year for insurance premiums, about $1.6 million more than the current rate. About $6.8 million of the premiums billed to departments will come from the general fund.

That leaves less to spend on police patrols, emergency response and library books.

City officials linked the cost increases to three large losses on lawsuits filed between 2020 and 2022. 

Two were civil trials which the city lost in court – one to a woman who police struck with rubber bullets at a protest, and another to a man falsely arrested and subjected to excessive force. They cost the city nearly $1.2 million.

The city also recently paid $850,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a woman whose son police shot and killed. His family said he had a history of mental illness.

Outside those three cases, the number of recent claims against the city and how much they cost “is consistent with past history,” according to city spokeswoman Kathy Ursprung.

The city’s insurance costs have more than doubled over the past four years to $3.3 million in 2025. That’s part of a nationwide trend, Ursprung said.

The city budgets money in anticipation of possible lawsuits and worker’s compensation claims based on a five-year forecast. But city officials have paid more than they anticipated in recent years, according to Ursprung, leading to the need to raise rates.

An analyst who predicts how much claims are likely to cost the city determined it needed to add $5 million to the $1.78 million it had set aside, Ursprung said.

Ursprung said she couldn’t quickly provide a list of recent settlements and instead suggested that Salem Reporter track them using the Salem City Council’s previous meeting agendas. The city manager has authority to settle claims up to $50,000, while more expensive settlements require the council’s approval.

Salem Reporter calculated that the city has paid at least $2 million to settle claims in 2024 and 2025. Most of those claims involved the Salem Police Department. 

That’s compared with $785,000 in the previous eight years, based on council meeting records and previous reporting.

In addition to settlements, the city has lost four civil trials since 2022 in state and federal court. Two were related to collisions involving a city vehicle, and the other two were related to excessive police force.

Salem Police Chief Trevor Womack told Salem Reporter in a statement that each of the three recent cases that resulted in the most expensive payouts “involved a unique set of circumstances: a large protest that was deemed unlawful, detention of a person for suspected criminal activity, and a fatal use of force involving a man who threatened an officer with a large knife.”

Womack also noted that all three events occurred before Salem police started using body-worn and in-car cameras, which he said have boosted transparency and accountability while reducing complaints against officers.

Unrelated to the three cases, Womack said his agency has made many changes to policy, practice and training since 2020. They include procedures outlined by the Police Executive Research Forum which help officers “assess situations, make safe and effective decisions, and document and learn from their actions,” according to the organization’s website.

Womack said Salem police modernized their crowd management training based on recent changes to state and federal law. He became police chief in December 2020.

He said the agency also recently revamped its policies to follow best practices and “all legal and accreditation standards,” he said.

Lawsuits over negligence and federal civil rights, as well as workers compensation claims, are generally covered under the city’s own insurance fund. City departments pay into that fund so the city has money on standby in case of such claims. The fund also pays for “risk and safety consultation services,” according to the city’s 2026 budget.

Ursprung said city officials meet quarterly to “monitor the fund’s health and get updates on large anticipated or outstanding claims.”

A department’s insurance rate is determined by the value of property it owns, its recent history of claims and the size of its payroll. 

Other legal claims such as contract disputes are covered by the city’s general fund – which pays for most routine city services and is largely funded through property taxes – or other funds specific to the city department that the claim is related to.

The city council in February approved transferring a total $2 million from several funds to address rising insurance rates and avoid ending the year with a negative balance in its insurance fund.

Salem’s insurance rates are growing as the city is already facing a budget crisis. City officials are asking voters in the May 20 election to approve a property tax increase that would fund services like the library, Center 50+ and parks maintenance while avoiding future cuts to other departments including police and fire.

Kevin Toon, spokesman for the League of Oregon Cities, said the organization doesn’t track whether insurance rates are rising in cities across the state.

But for the state’s budget, Gov. Tina Kotek recently recommended that state agencies start paying significantly more into Oregon’s insurance fund to stop it from going bankrupt, according to reporting by the Oregon Journalism Project.

Some of the largest settlements in the last year:

*$850,000 paid to a woman who alleged in a lawsuit that Salem police used excessive force in shooting and killing her son (approved by the city council in March 2025).

*$26,000 paid to a woman injured in a crash who sued the city over road conditions (approved by a judge in January 2025)

*$134,000 paid to a man who alleged dangerous road conditions led to his teenage daughter’s death in a collision (approved by the city council in January 2025).

*$143,000 paid to two people who claimed city work resulted in their home being flooded (approved by the city council in September 2024).

*$110,000 paid to settle a workers’ compensation claim by a former Salem police officer (approved by the city council in June 2024).

*$195,000 paid to a woman who alleged in a lawsuit that she was injured in a crash with a Salem police vehicle (approved by the city council in April 2024).

*$175,000 paid to settle a workers’ compensation claim by a former Salem police officer (approved by the city council in April 2024).

*$325,000 paid to a former 911 dispatcher who alleged in a lawsuit that she was denied a promotion after her employer refused to reschedule an exam so she could testify against her accused rapist in court (approved by the city council in April 2024)

Payouts ordered by judges due to civil trial verdicts against the city since 2022:

*$270,000 paid to a woman subjected to excessive force when police shot her with rubber bullets at a protest (court-ordered in September 2024)

*$895,000 paid to a man falsely arrested and subjected to excessive force (court-ordered in December 2023)

*$14,000 paid to a man injured in a crash involving a city vehicle with a trailer (court-ordered in February 2023)

*$37,000 paid to a woman injured in a crash with a Salem police vehicle (court-ordered in November 2022)

Contact reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian: [email protected] or 503-929-3053.

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