Penalty system in Missouri municipality, where police killed Michael Brown, was seen as unfair on black people

The city of Ferguson, Missouri, where days of unrest followed the fatal shooting last month of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, is to reform the system of court fines that residents have blamed for raising tensions with authorities.



A new rule dictating that no more than 15% of the city’s budget may come from court fines is scheduled to be introduced at a meeting of the city council on Tuesday. Any excess revenue is to be “earmarked for special community projects” rather than running the city bureaucracy.

“The city believes that this ordinance 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,” said a statement issued by Devin James, a public relations representative for Ferguson.

According to its annual budget the city expects to collect $2.7m in court fines this year, which is more than 21% of its $12.5m annual “general revenues” and second only to sales taxes as the biggest component.

The budget states that “due to a more concentrated focus on traffic enforcement, municipal court revenues have risen about 44% or $623,000” since 2010-11.

Residents have complained that the system targets black residents disproportionately. 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.

Last year, Ferguson’s municipal court issued 24,532 warrants, mostly for minor traffic offences, which averages about three per household in a city of just 21,000 residents. The court heard 12,018 cases, or 1.5 cases per household, issuing an estimated $275 fine for each guilty verdict.

The statement, which was issued on Monday evening, said that the city would also abolish the offence of “failure to appear” in the municipal court, which can lead to fines and other punishments. Other fees, such as the $25 fine for having a vehicle towed, are also due to be scrapped and more help provided for people having trouble paying outstanding fines.

The statement also said that a citizen review board was to be convened to provide “oversight and guidance for the police department” from the public in the suburb of St Louis, where relations with residents were troubled even before Brown was shot dead by officer Darren Wilson.

“The overall goal of these changes is to improve trust within the community and increase transparency, particularly within Ferguson’s courts and police department,” city councillor Mark Byrne said in a statement. “We want to demonstrate to residents that we take their concerns extremely seriously.”