Paterson will pay $140,000 to a man who alleged in a lawsuit that city police officers roughed him up and then filed false charges against him more than two years ago.

Christian Reyes claims police accosted him on May 19, 2015 while he was with a group of friends. When he asked the officers why he was being stopped, they became angry, threw him up against a vehicle, body slammed him and handcuffed him, according to a federal suit filed May 10, 2016.

Reyes was charged with several crimes - all of which were dismissed, according to the suit.

The council late Tuesday voted 6-1 to settle the suit for $140,000, according to Council President Ruby Cotton.

"We want to know what's being put in place to stop this kind of treatment of our citizens in the future," Cotton said Thursday morning. "Our police director (Jerry Speziale) has been working on several initiatives that we think will help our city."

Speziale said he couldn't talk about personnel matters, but pointed out that since early this year the police department's Internal Affairs Division has been undergoing an overhaul.

"The Internal Affairs Division is a new Internal Affairs Division that is diversified beyond what you can imagine," Speziale said, adding that IA officers now include an ethnic and cultural mix reflective of the city's 147,000 residents.

In 2018, the city police department's 418 officers will undergo civility tests, integrity tests and staff inspections which could come at any time, Speziale said.

Some of the tests will involve undercover operatives approaching officers in the street to monitor how they interact with the public, Speziale said.

Speziale said he is sending members of the Internal Affairs Division for specialized training at the New York City Police Department, where he said they will learn to detect "early warning signs and red flags" of officers who tend toward excessive force and misconduct.

As a longtime member of the NYPD himself before retiring in 1997, Speziale said New York has become a national leader in monitoring police officers.

"Internal Affairs is the most crucial unit in the police department," Speziale said. "It polices the police. I think we can become a more professional, more specialized and more effective unit."

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.