This data is a part of a FiveThirtyEight/The Marshall Project effort to collect comprehensive data on police misconduct settlements from 2010-19. See the data dictionary here and the story here.
We received a data set containing three settlements for incidents that took place between 2010 and 2013. They were missing information on when they were closed, so we looked up the docket numbers provided by the city and input the filed_year based on the information found in the legal filings. We later received a fourth case involving a 2006 incident that resulted in a settlement in 2011. We were assured these four settlements are all that occurred in the full 10-year period. We don’t know if any cases include the city as a sole defendant because we have no case name information.