Ferguson Police Department (Missouri)

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Not to be confused with St. Louis County Police Department or St. Louis Police Department.
Ferguson Police Department
Abbreviation FPD
Flag of Ferguson, Missouri.png
Flag of the City of Ferguson
Agency overview
Formed 1894
Employees 72[1]
Annual budget $5,282,900 USD (2014)
Legal personality Governmental: Government agency
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdiction* City of Ferguson in the state of Missouri, United States
St. Louis County Missouri Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Ferguson Highlighted.svg
Map of Ferguson Police Department's jurisdiction.
Population 21,203 (2014)
Legal jurisdiction Ferguson, Missouri
Governing body City Council
General nature
Operational structure
Headquarters 222 S. Florissant Road
Sworn members 54[1]
Unsworn members 18[1]
Agency executive Unknown, Interim Chief of Police
Facilities
Detention Centers Ferguson Detention Center 222 S. Florissant Road
Website
Ferguson Police Department official website
Footnotes
* Divisional agency: Division of the country, over which the agency has usual operational jurisdiction.

The Ferguson Police Department is a law enforcement agency serving Ferguson, Missouri. The Current interim Chief of Police Andre Anderson.

A federal investigation by the United States Department of Justice initiated in the aftermath of the 2014 Ferguson unrest, found that the Ferguson police department routinely stereotyped and discriminated against African American residents in violation of the Constitution.[2] In response, on August 11, 2015, The Pentagon ordered the Ferguson Police Department to return all Humvees to the defense department[3]

Personnel

The Ferguson Police Department includes 72 personnel including 54 commissioned officers and 18 civilian support staff.[1] The officers are all police academy graduates and are certified peace officers by the Missouri Department of Public Safety.[1]

Three supervisors as well as the chief are graduates of the FBI National Academy.[1] Many officers have bachelors or advanced degrees.[1] All officers participate in advanced continuous training in numerous areas of law enforcement.[1]

In addition to uniformed patrols of policemen and criminal investigation detectives, the department is supplemented with 4 K-9 officers, bicycle patrol, and a traffic unit.[1] The department has its own correctional facility, maintains evidence and property, and on-site indoor firearms range.[1]

The department's relationship with the community is enhanced by commitment of personnel to the positions of community relations, business liaison, N.E.T., Drug Abuse Resistance Education ("DARE"), and school resource officers.[1]

Equipment

Vehicles

Weapons

Body cameras

In late August 2014, Ferguson police officers began wearing body-mounted video cameras donated by Safety Visions and Digital Ally. Fifty cameras were donated and made available to each officer.[10]

On December 1, 2014 President Barack Obama announced that the federal government will spend US$75 million on body cameras for law enforcement officers, as one of the measures taken in response to the shooting in Ferguson.[11]

Incidents

2009 Henry Davis incident

In September 2009, officers mistakenly arrested Henry Davis based on an outstanding warrant for another man with the same name. While in custody, Davis was allegedly beaten by four officers. Davis was charged with "property damage" supposedly for bleeding on the officers' uniforms.[12] Davis was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence. Davis later pled guilty to two reduced charges and filed a lawsuit against the officers and the department. The lawsuit was dismissed.[13]

Hiring issue

Between July 2009 and December 2010, the department hired a police officer who had previously been fired from the St. Louis County Police Department after being accused of assaulting two minors, one a 12-year-old girl, with his service weapon. The officer was acquitted of the charges in 2010.[14] A state commission found the man had committed "a criminal act".[15][16]

2011 death of Jason Moore

In September 2011, a Ferguson police officer used a TASER device on Jason Moore, a man who had a mental illness. After Moore ran down the street yelling and pounding on cars, the officer used the TASER device on him. When Moore tried to get up from the ground, the officer used the TASER twice more and Moore then stopped breathing. He died of a heart attack.[17] His family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Ferguson Police Department for the death of Mr. Moore.[9][17]

2014 shooting of Michael Brown and unrest

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Main articles: Shooting of Michael Brown and Ferguson unrest

On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager, was fatally shot by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson while on duty.[18] While Chief of Police Tom Jackson claimed in a news conference[19] that Brown had been a suspect in a "strong-arm" robbery, but later stated that the robbery was not connected to Officer Wilson's interaction with Brown.[20]

Peaceful protests and civil disorder broke out the day following Brown's shooting and lasted for several days. As the details of the original shooting event emerged from investigators, police grappled with establishing curfews and maintaining order, inciting further unrest amongst the Ferguson community. Members of the Ferguson community demonstrated in various ways in the vicinity of the original shooting. The protests began the day after the shooting. On August 10, a day of memorials began peacefully, but some crowd members became unruly after an evening candlelight vigil.[21] Local police stations assembled approximately 150 officers in riot gear.[21]

Tom Jackson at a press conference in Ferguson, Missouri

Chief of Police Tom Jackson drew criticism for his department’s release of information about Brown's death, which was described by the Associated Press as "infrequent" and "erratic", as well as for the aggressive response of his police department to the unrest at Ferguson in the days immediately after the shooting.[22]

Jackson said that his top priority in Ferguson was race relations and committed to reach across the racial, economic, and generational divides in the community to find solutions, and said he welcomes the Justice Department training on racial relations between police and the residents, in which two-thirds of the residents are black and all but three of the police force's fifty-three officers are white.[23]

Six weeks after the incident, a press relations firm released a video in which Jackson apologized to Brown's family for taking too long to remove Brown's body from the street, and to the peaceful protesters who felt they couldn't exercise their constitutional rights, saying that "For any mistakes I've made, I take full responsibility". He also said that he was truly sorry for the loss of their son. An attorney for Brown's family responded that the apology came at a time in which trust in Jackson "has reached an irreversible low".[24]

On October 24, Amnesty International published a report declaring human rights abuses by Ferguson police. The report cited the use of lethal force in Brown's death, racial discrimination and excessive use of police force, imposition of restrictions on the rights to protest, intimidation of protesters, the use of tear gas, rubber bullets, and long range acoustic devices, restrictions imposed on the media covering the protests, and lack of accountability for law enforcement policing protests.[25][26]

A grand jury declined to indict Wilson which led to further protests, some of which were violent.[27][28] This incident and the aftermath resulted in world-wide criticism of police tactics and highlighted racism in the United States.[28]

Justice Department investigation and report

On September 2014, the United States Justice Department initiated a civil rights investigation to examine concerns about the Ferguson Police Department's practices, as well as reviewing its internal investigations of use of force during the preceding four years.[29][30] Jackson said he welcomed the investigation.[30] The DOJ investigation concluded that police officers in Ferguson routinely violated the constitutional rights of the city’s residents by applying racial stereotypes and discriminating against African-Americans.[2] Internal City of Ferguson e-mails indicated that town officials have been viewing the department as a revenue source.

An article in The Washington Post[31] highlighted key insights gleaned from the report, which they describe as "scathing", including:

  • The city’s practices were shaped by revenue rather than by public safety needs.
  • A single missed, late or partial payment of a fine could mean jail time.
  • Arrest warrants were “almost exclusively” used as threats to push for payments.
  • The 67% of African Americans in Ferguson account for 93% of arrests made from 2012–2014.
  • The disproportionate number of arrests, tickets and use of force stemmed from “unlawful bias,” rather than black people committing more crime.
  • Officers used canines in law enforcement, but in every dog bite incident reported, the person bitten was black.
  • From October 2012 to October 2014, every time a person was arrested because he or she was "resisting arrest," that person was black.

The Los Angeles Times published a piece addressing a municipal code called "manner of walking along roadway” described in the report. This code is designed to require pedestrians to walk on the sidewalks or on the side of the road, but according to the report, Ferguson police used the code to harass blacks, with African Americans accounting for 95% of "manner of walking along roadway" charges from 2011 to 2013.[32] The town imposes the highest fines in the region for violations of "manner of walking."[33]

VOX summarized key findings in the report, including police and municipal officials sending racist emails, police arresting black residents when they were trying to care for loved ones who were hurt, officers abusing their power and disregarding the law as part of the department's culture while supervisors supported them, and the police department's using race to dictate who would be stopped and the level of force used against them.[34]

Chief Jackson resigned on March 11, 2015, following the release of the Justice Department report and the firing of five Ferguson city officials and police officers. His resignation becomes effective March 19, when Lieutenant Colonel Al Eickhoff taking over as acting Chief.[35] The decision to let Jackson resign rather than be fired is controversial, particularly since his contract was to expire in March anyway and his resignation guarantees him one year of pay and one year's continuation of his paid health insurance.[35]

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 John Eligon and Michael S. Schmidt, "In Ferguson, Scrutiny on Police Is Growing", New York Times, August 20, 2014.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Matt Sledge, "Ferguson Hired Officer With History Of Allegedly Hitting Children", Huffington Post, August 19, 2014.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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