Why Does There Have To Be A Ferguson Police Department?

Read Time:3 Minute, 57 Second

The most fundamental question about the Ferguson Police Department is seldom asked, even by the angriest of protesters.

Demonstrations do continue in Ferguson, a few miles from here. They are peaceful. The Missouri National Guard is gone. The controversy remains. What, exactly, happened in the altercation between the teenager and the officer?

CALEA Accreditation Logo

For the audio version of this article please CLICK HERE.

Like an old Polaroid photo, the account of the police officer slowly comes into focus. The evidence so far does not contradict what we know of that account. But it is becoming an intellectual chore to reconcile the evidence with the unofficial/official story. Witness statements differ from each other just enough to be credible. Video evidence is indirect, starting just after the last shots were fired. New audio evidence could support more than one version, if it turns out to be the real thing.

The wider issue involves history that flows from structure. Statistics tell part of the story.

St. Louis County police are notably professional. There is only one organization in the world, the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, that accredits police departments. Only 7 percent of US police forces are able to get that accreditation. St. Louis County is one of those. That commission has a special award, the Tri-Arc Award. Only 6 police departments in the history of the world have ever gotten that award. The St. Louis County Police Department is one of those 6.

Every part of St. Louis County can get protection from that highly professional police department. So why do so many small municipalities have their own departments? Why the additional layer of protection?

Turns out the answer is money. Ferguson, and other little municipalities, don’t really pay for their additional layer of police protection. The small police departments pay them. They bring in more money than they cost. They get that profit mostly from traffic fines. Court costs also generate revenue, since they are imposed on defendants. Defendants who can’t pay are arrested and go to jail.

Ferguson has a population of a little more than 20,000. 32,975 arrest warrants were issued last year, mostly in traffic court. Ferguson issues more traffic tickets, and collects more fines, than there are residents in that small jurisdiction.

Traffic fines fall disproportionately on minorities and on poor people. At family gatherings, we sometimes talk about what detours to take to avoid time consuming random traffic stops that are not really so random.

When you travel through the northern part of St. Louis County, you will occasionally find yourself trying to get around a driver going exactly the speed limit or a little less. Cell phone users who imagine they are multitasking compose part of this small annoyance. Elderly drivers who compensate with care for a declining reaction time are also part of it.

Often the slow driver is a black commuter, keenly aware of which vehicle operators municipal police are likely to target. The police treatment that we expect to receive does affect what we do.

When the community sees itself as the natural prey of the police who are nominally assigned to protect, little reaction is possible that does not involve caution combined with resentment.

When the practical purpose of a department is more collection than protection, a few officers can see themselves as natural predators.

Nationally, the percentage of police officers accused by the public of excessive force is less than 1 percent. In Ferguson the rate is 13 percent. There is a multiplying effect in both of those rates. Some of those officers are accused of multiple instances of excessive force. For a few, there were accusations before coming to Ferguson, while they were with other police departments.

A friend of mine in another small municipal police department died from a heart attack a few months after my loved one and I were married. He looked forward to meeting her. I looked forward to introducing them. She and I attended his funeral.

He had introduced revisions in standards of conduct in his own department. He pushed for their enforcement. He was popular among his colleagues. I not only would like to believe that most area police officers have similar personal standards, I do in fact believe that.

The issue, the real issue, is not whether most police officers are professional. The issue is not even one of bad apples. The issue is structural.

Unless these small subdivisions, these little municipalities, are prohibited from using the police as profit centers, police professionals will face a hard struggle if they want a better answer to the most existential question. It is a question that especially applies to Ferguson, Missouri.

Why does this police department even exist?

About Post Author

Burr Deming

Burr is a husband, father, and computer programmer, who writes and records from St. Louis. On Sundays, he sings in a praise band at the local Methodist Church. On Saturdays, weather permitting, he mows the lawn under the supervision of his wife. He can be found at FairAndUNbalanced.com
Happy
Happy
0 %
Sad
Sad
0 %
Excited
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
Angry
0 %
Surprise
Surprise
0 %
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of

11 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Bill Formby
9 years ago

As I understand it, and I may, and probably am, wrong, but Ferguson was began as part of the “white flight” from the city of St. Louis and was a beautiful serene little town. However, urban creep began to catch up with it and there was another “white flight” from Ferguson to other areas which were newer, nicer, and more expensive. It happens everywhere. There are whites, particularly those who lean toward a segregationist view, who simply do not want to live in communities, neighborhoods, or even cities with people of color. And, until we run out of land, or they run out of money, that is perfectly within their rights. But “white flight” leaves a vacuum of space and housing which is then filled by the less affluent including minorities. As is often the case, like Ferguson, the police, and other public service workers, are left behind by those who flee. So what was once a white, well off, little community is now beginning to be a mixed race community. More white flight and more minorities and middle and lower middle economic class moves in, and the public service workers are still stuck there. The tax base begins to fall because of the lower income of the residents and it becomes more difficult of public servant workers to pay good wages and properly equip the departments. Ferguson is a pristine example. A lot of white cops are now policing a predominantly minority city plus even the whites are not even the same caliber people. It is a great recipe for disaster. Police have never adapted to the new population and the population have no understanding of the way the police operates. It is like taking James Q. Wilson’s “law and order style of policing” and turning it loose on a “watchman” type of town. There needed to be an intervention between the two groups long before now so they could begin to understand one another. The dynamics of two subcultures who are more alike than different can actually come to terms with each others and support one another. That is the sad part. No one is trying to get responsible people on each side to sit down with a mediator and talk and work through the things. The minorities want law and order just as much as do the whites, bu they want it carried out in an equal and impartial way. They are not the enemy of the police as a community. The police have a tough job to do and they can not realistically do it with out the support of the public they police, other else they are the same as an occupation army. Meeting with and discussing the issues will allow the police to understand that people are just people. Most are goo, but some are bad. The goal is to get rid of the bad. In my forty some odd years of studying the criminal justice system I can say that the police cannot do anything alone.

Reply to  Bill Formby
9 years ago

Well said Bill. I agree with every word and that’s just how things happened in Ferguson.

Shelly King
9 years ago

I lived in Ferguson all my life and before the black people took over it was a beautiful, quiet little town. Our police were great. Then THEY came with their guns, their drugs, loud music and demands to be treated better than everyone else. The blacks ruined this town like they’ve ruined so many others. I hope that cop gets an award, and I wasn’t racist until I knew what the BLACK race could do to good people.

Reply to  Shelly King
9 years ago

We have to be careful not to put everyone in one category. There are good people and bad people in the world. I’ve no doubt that the people who moved into Ferguson had the same complaints you did Shelly. Not all persons of color are bad, on the contrary. It’s a minority just like with everyone else.

Reply to  Shelly King
9 years ago

Ferguson sounds a bit like Hayes Town in England although in our case it’s Asians and particularly Muslims.

Mike is right though Shelly. I have Asian and Muslim friends who agree with me. There’s good and bad in everyone eh?

newageluddite
9 years ago

Thanks for the correction, Mike.

newageluddite
9 years ago

There certainly seems to be trouble in paradise, in regards to the Ferguson PD. Mr. Deming points out the percentage of police officers accused by the public of excessive force, over an unspecified time period, is 13%, or 130 times the national average. I reprinted an article a couple weeks ago describing 4 officers suspended during the Ferguson protests/rioting for inappropriate conduct or public utterances (with links to articles describing each incident in detail). And apparently merely Driving While Black has been a punishable offense in Ferguson as recently as 2009.(See link below.)
When I first heard that some of the protesters were seeking to have the Ferguson PD dismantled, I thought that was ridiculous. That was before I knew about the St. Louis County Police Force. Maybe it’s time for an initiative petition in Ferguson.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/08/15/ferguson-police-beat-a-man-then-charged-him-with-the-crime-of-bleeding/

Reply to  newageluddite
9 years ago

Keep in mind the officers suspended during the protest were not Ferguson officers. One was a St L County officer and two others were from neighboring municipalities. I wasn’t aware of a fourth. If what happened as indicated in the Addicting Info article, every officer involved needs to be arrested and charged. It’s that kind of shit that tarnishes the badge of every officer in the nation.

Admin
9 years ago

It should be pointed out that all agencies within St Louis County are required to have the same basic law enforcement training as the county police. The fact that St L. County has achieved National Accreditation and the Tri-Arc award is impressive. As the former commander of the Professional Standards division of a large Florida Sheriff’s office I know how difficult it is to become accredited. That being said I don’t think anything would have changed that day in August had Ferguson been accredited.

Timmy Mahoney
9 years ago

Ferguson exists because back in the day, before it became 63% black, the people in tiny Ferguson, which borders the largest municipality, Florissant, wanted ownership of their own police department. St. Louis County campaigned heavily for annexation but when put to a vote of the people they voted overwhelmingly not to be annexed by St. Louis County.

9 years ago

That’s enlightening. Back in the 90’s, there was a scandal in an affluent Illinois suburb when a long-time officer went public with a story about how the department had a policy of keeping minorities out of the downtown shopping area by making many and sometimes ridiculous traffic stops. It was corroborated by local business who observed that they could not hire minority people because they would get stopped on the way to and from work and were chronically late because of it. Indeed, my wife was stopped constantly and I never was despite my flashy sports cars and somewhat impatient driving style.

I have no doubt that this is not unique and this, along with civil forfeitures, which I think are unconstitutional, seems to finance police departments even in places that can well afford anything. It makes policemen a bit like pirates and freebooters and it can’t fail to affect morale and how the public sees the police.

Previous post Global Pandemic: Scientists Predict Deadly New Virus in Near Future
Next post If You Want To Lose Weight Keep Eating Fats
11
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x