[RedStateRocker]

As with the Ford Pinto case, the point is to level a punitive damage award that is so large that it permanently affects the future actions of similar parties. With the Pinto, the attitude of the defendants was "it's cheaper to have a few people die than it is to correct the problem"; to correct *THAT* attitude took a megabucks judgment of the sort that gets headlines and strikes the same fear into those in charge that a few good crudcfixions and heads on a spike would if only such punishments were applied to child molesters and carjackers.

With the anti-drug zealots and other, similar big brother types it's "well, john and Mary Citizen may get accidentally terrorized once in a while BUT it's worth it in the big picture". The fact that some aggrieved party ends up with a major amount of money is secondary, the point is to (as it should be with any punishment) create shock, fear and awe that forever causes any potential perpetrator to completely rethink their actions and re-check their facts.

[R. Scott]

…that forever causes any potential perpetrator to completely rethink their actions and re-check their facts.

Yea – like checking house numbers.

[The Red Zone]

that it permanently affects the future actions of similar parties

This is quite true; while one might choose to believe the claim of this PD that it will in fact "take steps to prevent this from happening in the future" what about all the PDs across the country that have made no such promise. They need a larger incentive than "oh, we might be embarrassed."

[traditional1]

"As with the Ford Pinto case"

Not quite a good comparison: in the Pinto case, it was shown that a business decision was made, consistent with an evaluation of the risk/reward of producing a defectective product as opposed to a case of error/omission. The police will not be shown to have conspired/intended to go to the wrong house.

And, again, the problem is not the terror, embarassment, and deterent power of a mega-bucks settlement; it's the point that the ones who caused the pain and committed the error are NOT the ones who will pay....it will be John-Q Taxpayer, who are, as usual, the deep pockets as opposed to the ones who need to be penalized to "teach them a lesson"...that's the problem in Tort Law today (the "deep pockets" efforts, as opposed to precise penalties to the actual offenders).