The death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, an unarmed black man shot in August 2014 by a white police officer in Ferguson, spawned a series of legislative attempts to reform law enforcement in Missouri.
Almost two years later, none of the bills have become law.
"It shows Missouri is unwilling and unconcerned about the marginalized citizens here," said Rep. Brandon Ellington, D-Kansas City, and chairman of the Missouri Black Caucus.
In the 2015 and 2016 legislative sessions, lawmakers filed more than 100 bills to curb racial profiling and increase transparency in police agencies. March 1 and March 15 marked the last days for senators and representatives to file new bills for the 2016 session. Several bills related to ending employment discrimination were also filed.
Throughout both years, most of the legislation died in the House Committee on Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness. The rest stalled in other legislative committees. Two went to the House floor, and one went to the Senate floor in 2015.
Prospects of success for the legislation in 2016 seem dim.
On Tuesday, the Human Dignity and Economic Justice Coalition, based in Kansas City, sent an email to Rep. Shawn Rhoads, R-West Plains, chair of the public safety committee, expressing its concerns about the committee not hearing Ellington's police reform bills.
"The members of the coalition see no reason why these bills cannot be heard and receive a favorable vote. They need to be passed into law for the protection of the citizens as well as law enforcement," members of the coalition wrote in the email. "You and the committee should be as concerned as we are about these types of people wearing a uniform that represents public safety. Or at least they are supposed to."
In the email, the coalition urged Rhoads to vote the bills out of the committee and into law because, "It's fair, it's just, and it's the right thing to do."
"(Rhoads) is deliberately sitting on these bills," said Ester Holzendorf, a member of the coalition. "He does not take these bills seriously and does not feel we have the right to be heard. We will be taken seriously."
But Rhoads said he does not agree with the specifics of Ellington's bills, and he doesn't plan on talking with the coalition.
"I receive emails all the time in reference to the bills in my committee," Rhoads said. "Nobody from the coalition has come to me. They just said they want to have hearings. Representative Ellington sent letters to my office maybe four or five times wanting to hear the bills, but he hasn't come to me asking how they can be changed."
Calls for reform
The "Ferguson Commission" appointed by Gov. Jay Nixon in November 2014 said in its final report "our institutions and existing systems are not equal, and this has racial repercussions." The commission's purpose was to create a path forward to racial equality in Missouri. It compiled 189 proposals the commission didn't have the power to enact, including new use-of-force policies, officer training and a change in department culture, according to the Associated Press.
The commission released its findings in September 2015, stating: "We believe that if we attempt to skirt the difficult truths, if we try to avoid talking about race, if we stop talking about Ferguson, as many in the region would like us to, then we cannot move forward. ... Though some may be feeling "Ferguson fatigue,' we believe that Ferguson can, and should, represent a collective awakening to the issues that many in our region knew and understood but, for many others, were invisible. Now, they are not."
Reform came from outside of the Missouri Legislature this year when the U.S. Department of Justice sued the City of Ferguson based on the department's own investigation.
In February, the Justice Department sued the City of Ferguson for its patterns of racial bias in policing after the city rejected a plan by the department to overhaul its criminal justice system. On March 17, the city of Ferguson and the department filed a settlement agreement to resolve the lawsuit, according to the Associated Press. The agreement will be in effect until Ferguson achieves full compliance and maintains that status for two years. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch described the settlement as "one of the most comprehensive agreements ever to reform a police department and municipal court."
The Ferguson investigation found the city's criminal justice system was more interested in taking money from its residents through fines than promoting their public safety. The system also targeted African-Americans, who make up 67 percent of the population, for fines and arrests. African-Americans accounted for more than 90 percent of arrests.
The lawsuit resulted in a letter from the Justice Department to local courts across the nation, warning them to protect the civil rights of defendants and not use municipal courts for revenue, making a local issue a matter of national interest.
"The things that have happened in Missouri over the last two years have highlighted not only the racial tension in Missouri, but it makes it look like we are co-conspirators with bigotry and racism," Ellington said. "So I'm talking about the stuff that happened at Mizzou, stuff that happened in St. Louis, and we're reluctant to address that at all."
Proposed legislation
When the Missouri Legislature convened in January 2015, roughly five months after Brown's death, legislators filed more than 60 bills related to law enforcement reform or transparency.
The bills, none of which passed, would have:
• Mandated independent investigations for officer-involved deaths,
• Required police to use body cameras,
• Specified the circumstances during which an officer can use deadly force,
• Created mechanisms, including task forces, to study and end racial profiling, and
• Started citizen-review boards for law enforcement, cultural competency training and other subjects.
In 2015, Rep. Rochelle Walton Gray, D-Black Jack, introduced the most bills dealing with law enforcement reform. All the bills were referred to the House Public Safety Committee, but none were heard.
Walton Gray refiled all her bills this year, and all but one were referred again to the House Committee on Public Safety. None have received public hearings.
"Republicans are in charge," Gray said, referring to the Legislature's Republican supermajority. "They kind of decide what bills are heard. I don't really fault them to an extent because they're the supermajority, and they want to allow their persons to get the most of the hearings. Our bills, as Democrats, are not being heard and not getting voted on."
Peverill Squire, a political science professor from MU, said Republicans might be disinterested in the policy changes because they don't want to appear unsupportive of police, especially during an election year.
"I don't think (Republicans) want to leave themselves vulnerable to any charge that they're somehow not supportive of law enforcement," Squire said. "It's an easy way for a Republican challenger in a primary to attack them. Their constituents are going to be more supportive of law enforcement than they are concerned about police abuses."
Last year, former House Speaker John Diehl, R-Town and Country, said House Republicans weren't interested in hearing a "Ferguson agenda." Diehl resigned last year after exchanging sexually suggestive text messages with a Capitol intern.
More than half the filed bills were referred to the House Public Safety Committee, but only nine were given public hearings.
"I think we have a unique situation in which we have ex-law enforcement officers as legislators, and they want to do everything they can to preserve the police departments as they operate currently," Ellington said. "It should be a conflict of interest."
The majority of the 12 members - nine of whom are Republicans, including the chair and vice chair - were at one point involved in law enforcement, according to their biographies on the House website.
"That doesn't create public safety," Ellington said. "That creates a monolithic mindset, which is why we're having a hard time getting bills that will require law enforcement to have accountability. If you have everybody that's had the same job, they're all going to think alike to some extent."
Rhoads, who worked as a detective with the West Plains police department for 11 years, is on his second year as chairman of the House committee. When asked about the negative effects of ex-law enforcement as committee members, he said he sees none.
"That's just smart government," Rhoads said. "Education committee is made up of teachers and school administrators and people like that that actually lived it and know how each bill would affect."
Rhoads said the House speaker helps set some of the priorities for the committee, and Public Safety Director Lane Roberts offers weekly advice to the body. Clarity on the Sunshine Law for body cameras and police use of force have been the committee's priorities this year and last, he said.
This year, the public safety committee passed HB 2344 sponsored by Rep. Kenneth Wilson, R-Smithville, that would require police footage in nonpublic locations remain closed during police investigation except to anyone involved in the footage. The bill was also passed by the House Select Committee on State and Local Governments but has not been scheduled for another hearing.
Ellington said it doesn't make sense to introduce bills on restrictions of body cameras when there are no body camera laws.
"As opposed to actually working on common sense initiatives, we're passing legislation that would restrict video and audio equipment when we don't even have a video and audio equipment law. Why are we creating restrictions?" Ellington said.
The Senate Committee on Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety heard Senate Bill 628 sponsored by Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis. The bill would require police officers to wear body cameras. No executive session has been scheduled to vote on the bill.
Legislative obstacles
In February, Lesley McSpadden, Michael Brown's mother, testified in support of Senate Bill 628 that, if implemented sooner, would have given transparency to Brown's death.
"It has been 557 days since the murder of my son," McSpadden said, who is still looking for clarity on what led to her son's death.
Riots protesting biased police practices overtook Ferguson after Brown's death. After a grand jury's decision not to prosecute the police officer who fatally shot Brown, Ferguson erupted in larger protests. Police cars were set on fire, 80 businesses in and around Ferguson were damaged and 20 were destroyed. Police officers responded to the crowds with armored vehicles and tear gas, according to the Associated Press.
Following the unrest, Diehl and Rhoads discussed Sunshine Laws on body cameras and police use of force as the committee's priorities.
Rhoads said only a few post-Ferguson bills were heard in the committee last year because many of them were repetitive, and he expressed concerns about mandating laws like body cameras and racial profiling from Missouri's Capitol.
"I'm not up here so I can armchair quarterback "em. That's not fair for me to do," Rhoads said. "It's not fair for me, from 150 miles away, to say, "You need to do this.' Because, I don't know, I'm not there. I don't live there."
Cost was another issue in mandating laws like body cameras, for which municipalities should pay, Rhoads said.
"They have a tax increase or that kind of thing," Rhoads said. "Does everybody in Missouri pay for cameras in Ferguson or St. Louis County or wherever?"
Nasheed, who has tried to pass two bills mandating the use of body cameras for police officers, said the best solution to cost is a public and private partnership. Corporations who want to see a healed relationship between the community and law enforcement would be "ready, willing and able" to fund the endeavors, she said.
"I think if we want to see change, everyone should be willing to roll up their sleeves from a local, federal and state level to bring about change and progress in the areas that have been hit the hardest as a result of the unrest in Ferguson," she said.
Reform from outside the legislature
From state and national levels, some law enforcement and court reforms have been implemented in Missouri.
A change Lane Roberts, director of public safety, has overseen was reform of the Peace Officer Standards Training in Missouri, which he said was influenced by the Ferguson Commission proposals. The training has been around since 1979, but this is one of its first substantive changes.
Starting in 2017, police officers will have to receive education training on legal studies, technical studies, interpersonal perspectives, firearms skill development, officer well-being, fair and impartial police practices, handling persons with mental health and cognitive impairment issues, and tactical training on de-escalation techniques, crisis management, critical thinking and social intelligence, according to the DPS site.
Officers with the authority to enforce motor vehicle or traffic violations will have to receive training regarding racial profiling, according to the same website.
"There's a misconception that somehow this is all a direct result of Ferguson," Roberts said. "I won't say Ferguson didn't bring about the dialogue. It's something that should have happened anyways. Ferguson was a catalyst."
Missouri law enforcement agencies acquired $1,167,000 from the Department of Public Safety for the Peace Officer Standards Training fund in 2015, according to the department's website. Roberts said the department is trying to make the training affordable for all officers, but the cost is always an issue.
"Any time you increase training or hours there is a fiscal impact," Roberts said. "From the very beginning, we have been trying to be sensitive to the limited resources of smaller agencies."
As director of public safety, Roberts said he has no direct influence on the public safety committee's actions but acts in an advisory role.
"I think Rep. Rhoads is one of the most dedicated in terms of public safety. He's a gentleman who really believes in what he's doing," Roberts said. "He has given me the courtesy of holding discussions with him occasionally."
At a national level, the Justice Department implemented criminal justice reform by suing Ferguson in February for its unethical court and police practices.
The civil-rights lawsuit alleged Ferguson violated residents' rights and misused law enforcement to generate revenue, according to the Associated Press. The Justice Department opened the Ferguson investigation in September 2014.
On March 15, the Ferguson City Council voted to accept the changes to its courts and police department recommended by the Justice Department, according to AP. The recommendations were listed in a 131-page report to correct the pattern of racial biases in the city's criminal justice system. The changes will cost Ferguson about $1 million in the first year, Ferguson City Manager De'Carlon Seewood told the Associated Press.
The city of Ferguson is proposing a development sales tax and property tax increase to pay for the reforms required in the settlement, according to the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
Finding a solution
Roberts said anger in Missouri has dwindled since Brown's death.
"From the time that Ferguson occurred, there was a lot of emotion, fear, anger, misunderstanding," he said. "What I have seen over this past year is that has begun to diminish, instead there's a sense of rational thinking and rational solutions to replace emotions."
Squire suggested law enforcement reform might have to be "marketed differently" to Republican lawmakers.
"I think the way probably to get the Missouri General Assembly to deal with these issues is to broaden them to larger questions about the police response to citizens and the powers of government, something that resonates more with the Republicans than just categorizing it was Ferguson and its consequences," Squire said.
Missouri legislators are persevering with last year's bills to reform law enforcement, re-filing more than 20 this year and introducing several more.
But the clock is running out on the current session, which ends May 13, and legislators are focusing on the upcoming elections, Squire said.
"This is an election year, and so members are really going to be thinking very much about their own contests, and for Republicans that important contest is the August primary," Squire said. "They're not going to do anything now that is going to jeopardize their prospects for getting their nomination and getting re-elected."
There aren't many incentives for Republican state lawmakers to focus on these policy areas right now, he said.