Ferguson, Missouri, became a flashpoint for civil rights after the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager, by a white police officer.
The incident ignited nationwide protests and transformed the Black Lives Matter movement from a hashtag into a leading force for social justice. It also galvanized a political coalition that led to the election of Black leaders across St. Louis, including a prosecutor, a congresswoman, and the city’s first Black female mayor, Tishaura Jones.
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Yet, nearly a decade later, the reforms sparked by Brown’s death have stalled, and some argue the state is moving backward. This summer, Missouri became the only state to enact a “law enforcement bill of rights” since George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis. The law, drafted by an attorney representing state police unions, received little public attention but significantly hinders police accountability. It restricts access to misconduct records, complicates disciplinary actions, and allows courts to block police budget cuts proposed by officials like Mayor Jones.
While Floyd’s death and the killing of Breonna Taylor in Louisville drew national attention, similar cases in St. Louis have been largely overlooked. Nicholas Gilbert died in 2015 of asphyxiation while handcuffed and restrained by six officers in a St. Louis police holdover. Don Ray Clark, a 63-year-old Army veteran, was killed in 2017 during a SWAT team’s no-knock raid on his home, despite having no criminal record. The city continues to defend these actions in court, despite publicly condemning similar incidents elsewhere.
This contradiction has not gone unnoticed. Jared Boyd, chief of staff to Mayor Jones, recently said the city plans to appoint a new city counselor to review its legal stance on police cases. The move is part of a broader reform effort that includes the creation of an Office of Public Accountability. This office would employ independent investigators with subpoena power to handle serious allegations of police misconduct, insulating investigations from police influence.
These steps are aimed at correcting the failures of past reforms. The St. Louis Civilian Oversight Board, established after Ferguson, did not review any of the 21 police killings in the city from 2016 to 2019, nor has it investigated the vast majority of non-lethal complaints. Similarly, the Force Investigation Unit, created to bring more transparency to police shootings, has released less information than before its inception.
Names of officers involved in fatal shootings are often withheld, and details of incidents are sparse. Civil rights lawyers say Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, elected with support from Ferguson activists, has not issued prosecutorial judgments on any of the more than 20 police killings currently under review by her office.
The lack of accountability has been compounded by racially charged incidents. In 2017, white officers mistakenly assaulted Black undercover officer Luther Hall, believing he was a protester. Text messages revealed a disturbing eagerness among some officers to use force against demonstrators and racist sentiments directed at Gardner, the city’s first Black prosecutor. Convictions in these cases have been rare, highlighting the challenges of prosecuting police misconduct under federal civil rights laws that require proving willful intent.
Racial tensions also pervade the relationship between the police and the community they serve. Gardner has placed approximately 60 officers on a “Brady list,” meaning her office will not call them to testify due to concerns over credibility and past misconduct. The predominantly white St. Louis Police Officers Association has been at odds with Gardner and has publicly blamed her for rising crime rates, a narrative echoed by some conservative media outlets.
Despite the election of reform-minded officials, the path to meaningful change remains fraught. The law enforcement bill of rights, coupled with the entrenched power of police unions, presents new hurdles to accountability. As the city grapples with these challenges, many are left questioning whether the promises of the Ferguson movement will ever be fully realized in St. Louis.
Seven years after Brown’s death, the city remains a battleground for police reform, with no clear resolution in sight.
