Reforms to the controversial courts system in Ferguson, Missouri, where the fatal police shooting of an unarmed teenager led to intense protests last month, would actually allow authorities to collect and spend almost 50% more money from court fines next year than forecast for 2014.



A new rule, introduced by the city council at a bad-tempered meeting with residents on Tuesday evening, states that no more than 15% of Ferguson’s revenue may come from court fines. Residents have blamed the fines for raising tensions with Ferguson authorities, which were amplified by the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown in August.

A statement released by Devin James, a public relations executive recruited to help improve Ferguson’s image, said when the measure was announced that it “sends a clear message that the fines imposed as punishment in the municipal court are not to be viewed as a source of revenue for the city”.

Ferguson expected to collect about $2m in court fines in the 2014 fiscal year, according to its latest budget documents. This represents about 11.2% of the city’s $18.6m total annual revenues.

But under the new rule, Ferguson could collect 15% of the $20.2m total revenue that the city is expecting for 2015. This is more than $3m, an increase of $943,800 on the total taken in 2014 under the existing system that has caused such anger among residents of Ferguson. Court takings have risen by 44% since 2010 under a newly aggressive system of traffic policing, according to the city.

Dozens of protesters returned to Ferguson’s streets on Wednesday afternoon in an attempt to bring a nearby section of I-70, the interstate highway, to a standstill. Police formed a line across an entrance ramp and blocked their path.

Numerous arrests were made as officers from several forces clashed with demonstrators holding placards and chanting “hands up – don’t shoot,” the rallying cry of those demanding justice for Brown, who was trying to surrender, witnesses have claimed.

Some protesters were also calling for Robert McCulloch, the St Louis County prosecuting attorney who has been accused of pro-police bias, to be removed from leading the potential criminal case against the Ferguson police officer who shot Brown.

Police arrest a demonstrator during a protest along interstate highway 70 on 10 September near Ferguson, Missouri. Photograph: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Even before the killing, there was simmering anger over the level of fines for petty offences. Last year, Ferguson’s municipal court issued 24,532 warrants, mostly for minor traffic offences, an average of about three per household in a city of just 21,000 residents, according to a study by Arch City Defenders, a non-profit that provides legal representation to poor and homeless people. The court heard 12,018 cases, or 1.5 cases per household, issuing an estimated $275 fine for each guilty verdict.

About one in four people in Ferguson lives below the federal poverty line, according to a Brookings Institution study, which found the city’s poor population had doubled between 2000 and 2012. Unemployment rose from 7% to 13% during the same period, it found.

Some residents have described the courts regime as “taxation without representation” and complained of a cycle of punishment in which they were fined for not making it to court appearances set during working hours that they tried unsuccessfully to reschedule.

The offence of “failure to appear” is to be abolished under the new rules, along with a $50 “warrant recall” fine and $15 in other fees imposed on people who can not make court dates.

Many people in the city, which has a two-thirds black population and a police force that is 94% white, complain that the law enforcement system disproportionately targets black residents.

Figures published in 2013 by Missouri’s attorney general showed that seven black drivers were stopped by police in the city for every white driver. “I have three sons. And with two of them, it’s a back and forth of getting pulled over and tickets and fines,” one resident told the city councillors at Tuesday’s meeting.

“People feel preyed upon,” Patricia Bynes, a Democratic committeewoman for Ferguson, said on Wednesday. “It affects their incomes, their families and their lives. People have lost their jobs after being jailed when they could not pay”.

Bynes said there was widespread concern to ensure that the reforms were “relevant, not cosmetic”. She said: “The community expressed at Tuesday’s meeting that it does not know enough about these proposals. The city needs to slow down and take some input.”

Other minor justice system fines, such as the $25 fee for having a vehicle towed, are also due to be scrapped under Ferguson’s new rules, which are to be voted on by city councillors at their next meeting. More time is to be given to people having trouble paying outstanding fines.

The reforms also stated that any “excess revenue” collected above the 15% limit would be “earmarked for special community projects” rather than going towards running the city bureaucracy. James, the spokesman for the city, said that the limit would come into effect immediately if passed at the next city council meeting.

Ferguson became the site of days of unrest last month after Darren Wilson, a white police officer, shot dead Brown following an altercation after Brown and a friend were stopped for jaywalking.