In an update with the Justice Department, the City of Ferguson said that it is reviewing nearly 8,000 municipal cases before 2014 to determine which should be dismissed.
An attempt to fix Ferguson’s long history of gross mistreatment of African Americans, it is part of a consent agreement with the U.S. Justice Department.
Where about two-thirds of the residents are black, but the police department is majority white, documents uncovered in investigations revealed that the town’s revenue subsisted largely on citations, fines, court costs and other fees enforced upon black residents and the poor. The disturbing practice was unveiled after the police shooting death of Michael Brown in 2014, the process will take about six months.
After finding fault in Ferguson’s police and court practices, the Justice Department called for serious reformation in the suburban town of St. Louis. Another part of reform is diversifying the staff, diversity training, adding body cameras to police officers and incorporating a community policing model.
