Police Commissioner Bill Bratton says he is angry that the city settled a lawsuit with a man who threatened officers with a machete.
Bratton says police officers don't get enough support and often are branded as bad officers when a case is settled.
Ruhim Ullah, 24, will receive $5,000 from the settlement of the lawsuit he filed after a 2010 police confrontation.
The Brooklyn man initially filed a $3 million lawsuit against police, even after he pleaded guilty to menacing the officers.
Ullah was shot once in the leg by an officer trying to stop him from attacking other officers with the 18-inch blade.
"If, as reported, those are the circumstances, that's something that should not have happened, and I'll be one of the first to apologize to the officers for that settlement being made," Bratton said. "Just the fact that it was settled, it kind of paints the officer as a bad officer."
The city Department of Law says the settlement was in the city's best interest.