JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — In the wake of a Department of Justice report which ripped the City of Ferguson for its biased police practices, Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, D-St. Louis, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) came together today to tout a new bill aimed at prohibiting biased enforcement of the law.
Sarah Rossi, Director of Advocacy and Policy with the ACLU of Missouri, said that the problems laid out in the damning DOJ report are problems for all of Missouri, not just Ferguson.
“These are not Ferguson-specific problems,” Rossi said. “These are problems you can find basically anywhere in this state.”
Rossi and the ACLU crafted much of the language in SB 559, which Chappelle-Nadal agreed to sponsor on their behalf. The bill seeks to reduce the number of what Chappelle-Nadal calls “racially motivated” traffic and pedestrian stops. Chappelle-Nadal said that the disturbing number of African-Americans subjected to pedestrian stops was one of the few parts of the DOJ report that “shocked” her.
State law requires law enforcement agencies to keep basic demographic information on anyone stopped in a traffic violation. SB 559 would add pedestrian stops to that requirement, require a minimum of 8 annual hours of anti-bias police training, force departments to adopt written policies clearly prohibiting biased policing and create community and law enforcement partnerships.
“I don’t want the state to engage in uncalled for behavior,” Chappelle-Nadal said. “What happens to Ferguson happens to the entire state and we need to understand that.”
Chappelle-Nadal’s district contains the city of Ferguson, and the black lawmaker has been one of the state legislature’s loudest voices on the issue. Chappelle-Nadal has sponsored several pieces of legislation directly linked to the events in Ferguson, which made her the ACLU’s ideal choice for SB 559.
The bill is expected to be heard before the Senate Committee on Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety.
Collin Reischman was the Managing Editor for The Missouri Times, and a graduate of Webster University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.
