Proposed consent decree would reform Ferguson policing and municipal courts
The U.S. Justice Department has reached a proposed agreement with the city of Ferguson, Missouri, to reform its police department and its municipal courts.
The consent decree still must be approved by the city council, report USA Today and the New York Times. The agreement follows a Justice Department report that found “a pattern of unconstitutional policing” in the town. The report also criticized municipal courts for imposing fees and fines that are used for city revenue.
The agreement (PDF) calls for bias-free policing in which groups of people are not stopped for warrant checks and stops are not pretextual. Those who are frisked must be lawfully stopped or detained as a result of reasonable suspicion. Force should be used only when necessary for public safety, and de-escalation techniques should be used, the agreement says.
The municipal court would be removed from the oversight of the city finance director, and the city would implement an amnesty program. Among other things, the program would eliminate pending fines for failure to appear and close cases where total payments made exceed initial fees.
The Times says the settlement is “unusual in its breadth.” As examples, the Times cites requirements for the city to:
—Repeal its jaywalking ordinance, under which 95 percent of those arrested were black.
—Use a civilian review board to review police complaints.
—Require police to inform people of their right not to be searched without a warrant, and require police to videotape their requests to search people.
The cost of implementing the decree is a concern, city spokesman Jeff Small told USA Today. He said the city could have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement the decree at the time it is facing a $2.8 million budget deficit.
Hat tip to the Marshall Project.
