Ferguson, Justice Department close to agreement on overhauling police force

The officer was not charged. Gray died in April from a spinal injury sustained while being transported in the back of a police van.

Officials in Ferguson, Missouri, the city where 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally wounded by former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, have reached the blueprint of a deal with the Justice Department that would make changes to the city’s police department. We speak to Benjamin Jealous, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

“While we can not comment on the content of negotiations, the talks with the City of Ferguson to develop a monitored consent decree have been productive”. Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III said they were “very close” to finalizing the deal.

Citing officials, the newspaper said the agreement, which would be filed in federal court, would require new training for police officers and improved record keeping, along with a federal monitor.

Iverson added that “an agreement needs to be reached without delay”.

The March report that Mr Smith helped write- which followed a six month investigation of the Department – found a pattern of discriminatory policing in the community.

“We’re at a point where we have addressed any necessary issues, and assuming it is not cost prohibitive, we would like to move forward”, Mr. Knowles said.

Federal and local authorities had hammered out key details of a deal to reform the Missouri city’s police department, The New York Times reported Wednesday, after a white police officer’s fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen highlighted long-standing issues with discriminatinon and violence in policing.

Donald McCullin, a municipal judge appointed this past June, has ordered sweeping changes in court practices, including creating alternatives to fines for people who struggle to pay.

“Ferguson’s own data establish clear racial disparities that adversely impact African Americans”, the report says.

“We are over $2 million deficit spending before the implementation of the agreement”, Fletcher said. “That’s what we have to do”.