Missouri Democrats see scant progress on police oversight

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Taped on the office door of Rep. Brandon Ellington, the chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus, is a cutout of the House public safety chairman's smiling face, topped with the words "This is what bigotry looks like!"

The poster directs people to contact Republican Rep. Shawn Rhoads, a former detective with the West Plains Police Department whose panel deals with law enforcement legislation, to "tell him to prove that he is not a bigot" by holding a hearing on Ellington's bills to tighten oversight of the police.

With two weeks left in the legislative session, many Democrats say yet another year has passed without meaningful changes to Missouri's law enforcement policies, which the 2014 unrest in Ferguson thrust into the national spotlight. The bills close to passage -- tightening Missouri's unconstitutional use-of-force statute, limiting some municipal court fines and setting parameters for the release of body camera footage -- don't do enough to address the tension between some police departments and black communities, they say.

"I'm not sure what folks are afraid of -- why we can't have those hearings and have honest conversations," said Rep. Gail McCann Beatty, the assistant minority floor leader. She noted Ellington's bills won't have a committee hearing until five days before the session ends, "which we all know is too late to do anything," she said.

The August 2014 shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, by a white police officer in Ferguson set off weeks of protests and spurred calls for more law enforcement transparency in a city where many felt the largely white police department used excessive force against the majority black residents. Ferguson has agreed to outfit its officers with body cameras, and Brown's mother came to the Capitol in February to urge lawmakers to compel the state's largest cities to do the same.

The U.S. Department of Justice has cleared the Ferguson officer of wrongdoing, but it said the city's policing was often discriminatory and aimed at generating ticket revenue. The Legislature last year passed limits on how much revenue cities could generate from traffic tickets, and Republican House Speaker Todd Richardson said lawmakers are continuing to focus on restricting local governments' ability to fund themselves though citations.

"One of the things that we were very intent on addressing, going back to last session, was why do you have a situation in certain parts of the state where you have citizens that are so frustrated and distrustful of their government," he said shortly after the House passed further limits on municipal court fines.

What makes people lose confidence in the system is police violence, said Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, a Democrat from University City, adding Republicans aren't serious about addressing that problem.

"There's plenty of people playing the fake-out," she said. "They just want to say 'I tried."'

Rhoads said not much has changed in the Democratic proposals -- which include mandated use of body cameras for police statewide, more comprehensive racial reporting requirements and a broader system for tracking officer complaints -- since he gave them a hearing last year. He said Ellington's "childish behavior" isn't helping.

"Brandon has a lot to learn about how to be a legislator and how to treat people with respect," Rhoads said. "He knows why there's a hearing on the last week."

Lawmakers are finalizing proposals to restrict public access to the body-camera footage for the duration of an investigation. The language, which has passed each chamber in different bills, also would limit access to footage from body cameras and dashboard cameras under open records laws if the video depicts a nonpublic location.

Under those circumstances, those depicted in a video, their family members or their lawyers could access the footage. Others, including the news media, would need a court's permission.

Sen. Bob Dixon, the Springfield Republican who handled the legislation in the Senate, said a more concrete legal framework will encourage more departments to adopt the technology.

Lawmakers also are close to bringing laws on when police can use deadly force into line with a 1985 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which held police may not shoot at a fleeing person unless the officer reasonably believes the individual poses a significant physical danger to the officer or others in the community. Missouri's law does not specify that an officer must believe the fleeing suspect is dangerous.

Lawmakers have had more than 30 years to fix that discrepancy, Chappelle-Nadal said. The Legislature has been quick to tackle disasters such as tornadoes, she said, but "you put a black face on a human disaster, and they couldn't care less."