A Sydney teenager whose forceful arrest at last year's Sydney Mardi Gras parade sparked community outrage has been awarded nearly $40,000 in costs and plans to ride atop a float at this year's celebration.

Jamie Glenn Jackson Reed, 19, is planning to sue police for damages over the incident on March 3 last year, in which he was thrown to the ground on Oxford Street and later charged with resisting and assaulting officers and using offensive language in public.

Video footage of the latter part of the confrontation with police last year was captured on a mobile phone and showed Constable Leon Mixios slamming Mr Jackson Reed, then 18, to the ground while he was in handcuffs.

The footage amassed more than one million hits on YouTube in less than a week, drawing accusations of police brutality and sparking an internal police inquiry and a protest on the steps of Surry Hills police centre.