The Ferguson City Council agreed unanimously to accept the proposal of the US Justice Department to renew its embattled municipal court system and St. Louis police force.
According to ABC News, elected officials in the suburb of St. Louis, where the infamous police shooting of Michael Brown sparked the Black Lives Matter movement, voted to consider the Justice Department's consent decree.
In late January, Ferguson and the Justice Department reached a tentative deal, but the council rejected the proposal in February due to cost concerns. The Justice Department then filed a lawsuit against the council the next day.
NPR reported that the city officials defended the decision made by the council with Ferguson Mayor James Knowles, arguing that there was no deal between the DOJ and the city. The mayor also questioned the DOJ's findings of the violation pointed at the police officers about citizen's civil rights.
Leaders of Ferguson City said they expected to consider the agreement after being assured the city won't be forced to provide its police officers with an increase in salaries, a provision which they think could bankrupt the city. An analysis made by the city suggested that the implementation cost could reach about $4 million in the first year alone, says KSDK.
Head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, Vanita Gupta, suggested that Ferguson could receive both the grant money for its efforts and the technical assistance. Judge Gupta also added in a letter to Mayor Knowles and the council that if they accept the deal, the lawsuit would be dropped.
The consent decree, which is composed of 131 pages, intends to overhaul and correct problems identified in a scathing DOJ report last year that found patterns of racial bias throughout Ferguson's criminal justice system. The deal calls for the hiring of a monitor to make sure that the city follows the requirements. Police officers will also undergo a new diversity training and a software will be purchased and staff hired to analyze records of arrest.
All patrol officers, jail workers, and supervisors will be outfitted with body cameras within 180 days.
