Ferguson leaders expressed concern that the agreement reached would cost the city up to $3.7 million in the first year alone.
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In a unanimous vote Tuesday night, council members approved the deal – but only if the Justice Department accepts seven amendments.
Justice Department investigations into whether a police department has demonstrated a pattern or practice of violations usually end with an agreement to make changes – a consent decree. Justice Department investigators alleged that Ferguson police targeted black residents for harassment, used excessive force, and violated free speech rights of protesters. Gupta, who heads the department’s Civil Rights Division, vowed that the federal government “will take the necessary legal actions” to reform the city’s courts and policing practices. The result was a tentative agreement announced in late January. According to the terms of the agreement, cops would stop practices like making warrantless arrests, and the city would repeal a jaywalking ordinance that was used overwhelmingly to target black people for fines, among other changes.
“Residents of Ferguson have suffered the deprivation of their constitutional rights-the rights guaranteed to all Americans-for decades”, Lynch said. “They should not be forced to wait any longer”, she said.
The 103-page report issued in March revealed that some officers thought of the residents of black communities as “sources of revenues” and have found evidence of racial jokes by Ferguson law enforcement department.
JOHNSON: Yeah, there were at least several months of negotiations.
The federal government alleges the city’s law enforcement uses its authority to generate revenue rather than for legitimate purposes. The police chief was out of the office Thursday, and a police spokesman declined comment.
Mayor James Knowles told a news conference that reforms had to be affordable and attainable.
Instead, the department went to court. “It is a simply a response to their decision”. Sticking points remain, especially about the cost of the changes being sought. The city’s mayor said the costs could lead to the dissolution of the city. The city has a $14.5 million budget and is already facing a $2.8 million deficit. Voters will be asked to approve two tax hikes in April, but approval of both would still leave the city short.
Demonstrators celebrate as a business burns after it was set on fire during rioting following the grand jury announcement in the Michael Brown case on November 24, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.
The revisions could save the city money but also appear to bring policing in the city in line with the Constitution.
City officials claim the agreement, painstakingly negotiated over the last six months, would cost too much to implement, to which Attorney General Lynch replied, “There is no cost for constitutional policing”.
There have been some notable exceptions.
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Ferguson’s pushback against the Department of Justice’s demands highlights how broad reform efforts may require a more focused public investment, experts say. County officials voted in July to settle parts of that lawsuit.
