SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — A long-running dispute over wiretapping within the South Bend Police Department has cost taxpayers nearly $2 million to date.

The case stems from a subpoena that South Bend’s city council issued to Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s office in 2012, seeking copies of recordings made from police phone lines.

Four officers who were inadvertently recorded in 2010 and 2011 saying things the administration deemed inappropriate sued the city over the recordings, arguing they were an illegal wiretap.

The South Bend Tribune reports that since 2012, the city has paid nearly $850,000 in legal fees to law firms, and another $805,000 to settle the officers’ lawsuit and two other civil lawsuits.

The city council’s legal fees now total about $320,000, boosting taxpayers’ total expense to $1.98 million.

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Information from: South Bend Tribune, http://www.southbendtribune.com