The Missouri House or Senate will not consider any new bills to address concerns by the U.S. Justice Department over the operations of the Ferguson Police Department. That’s because it’s now too late to file any new legislation this year. Senate President Pro-tem Tom Dempsey says a few already-filed Ferguson-related bills are being worked on.
“You’ll see some debate on the floor and some other issues associated with the aftermath of Ferguson,” Dempsey said.
The Senate passed the first Ferguson-related bill this year, which would cap revenues cities and towns can derive from traffic fines at 10 percent in urban and suburban areas, and 20 percent in rural Missouri. Committees in the Senate and the House have debated other bills to regulate police procedures and use of body cameras but none has been passed yet. Meanwhile, the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus is calling on House Speaker John Diehl to change his mind about not have a, quote, “Ferguson agenda.”
