Ferguson officials outline progress and remaining work on police consent decree

City staff presented a progress briefing on the police department’s consent decree work and monitoring status, highlighting completed steps, outstanding items and next steps for training and community oversight.

The city reported that monitors are evaluating more than 200 subsections across eight major areas. Staff said most sections are being addressed, but several discrete items remain "not yet implemented" because policy finalization, orientation and documentation are still in progress. Body-worn camera policy review alone included 23 discrete areas; staff reported three of those areas as completed and two as "easily rectified," leaving additional items to address.

Officials said they have appointed members to a civilian review/force-review board and are working with those appointees to finalize policies, meeting schedules and orientation. The city is also establishing a public dashboard to share consent-decree metrics and is piloting quarterly training modules that must be reviewed by the Department of Justice monitor. Staff emphasized the difference between "not in compliance" and evidence of deliberate misconduct, noting that some monitor findings reflect missing documentation rather than intentional policy violations.

City staff described efforts to use subject-matter experts for training development and said the goal is to reach full compliance and, ultimately, exit monitoring when required thresholds are met. Officials requested patience as they finalize documentation and implementation steps and invited public feedback on the dashboard and training schedule.