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MO Gov. signs bill reforming municipal courts, policing, tickets

Missouri’s Gov. Jay Nixon this week signed a municipal court reform bill that serves to limit court revenue from traffic related tickets. The bill is a response to the troubles related to Ferguson where a large section of North County’s poor population were being subjected to what many have called predatory practices.

The bill goes into effect Aug. 28, but municipalities have three to six years to comply with some provisions. The bill is designed to restore trust between communities and their local governments and police agencies. Municipal courts in St. Louis County generated more than $52 million in 2014.

The legislation prohibits failure to appear charges for missing a court date, reduces certain fines, and bans jail as a sentence for most minor traffic offenses. Part of the bill limits how much of a cities’ general operating revenue can be collected from court fines and fees.

Cities will soon be required to provide financial reports annually to the state auditor. Each municipal judge then must certify that the court is complying with required procedures.

Addressing concerns on the law enforcement side of the reform, police departments must seek accreditation, along with developing written policies on use of force and pursuit of suspects. Finally, all city ordinances will have to be made available to the public. The Missouri Supreme court has been required to review and overhaul its ethical rules of conflicts of interest in the court system.

In March, a U.S. Department of Justice report criticized Ferguson police and courts, saying that they operated with the primary goal of maximizing revenue instead of meting out justice and protecting the rights of the accused.

The way the state’s court systems are designed, allows for people who can afford lawyers to get their tickets amended to minor infractions, while others in power allegedly can call in favors to get cases dismissed. Meanwhile, the poor are sometimes jailed if they miss court or can’t afford to pay.

The Ferguson Commission, created last year after Ferguson protests, sees these reforms as first steps, according to its co-chaired Rich McClure. The commission has been researching and debating plans to make other recommendations.

Some recommendations include recalling around 490,000 existing warrants that have been issued in St. Louis County for failing to appear, treating minor ordinance violations as civil violations and having the Missouri Supreme Court consolidate the area’s 81 municipal courts. These recommendations will soon be passed on with the advisory that many of them were strongly disagreed upon by members of the commission.

Nixon signed the bill at the Eastern Court of Appeals in the Old Post Office Building in St. Louis. The campaign to reform the courts gained traction after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson last August and many months of protesting throughout the St. Louis Metropolitan area.

Lawsuit tackles bond and jailing policies in City of St. Ann

A local legal defense organization has sued the City of St. Ann for jailing poor defendants because they cannot pay their bond.

The lawsuit, brought by ArchCity Defenders and Washington-based Equal Justice Under Law, was filed this week in federal court and seeks class action status.

If defendants cannot pay bond amounts ranging between $150 to $350, they have to spend several days in jail, the suit alleges. It further states that St. Ann does not release people on their own recognizance or with an unsecured bond – an allegation the city has denied.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Kellen Powell. Powell was arrested in St. Ann after being pulled over for allegedly failing to display a license plate and driving with a suspended license. The suit states that Powell was told to pay $300 to be released or he would have to stay a week in jail. At the time, Powell was working a job that paid him very little.

As of September 2014, St. Ann had more than 14,000 outstanding warrants, yet its population is only 13,000 residents. The city had filed over 28,000 ordinance violations in 2013.

ArchCity Defenders recently filed a similar suit in nearby Velda City, and federal lawsuits in Ferguson and Jennings alleging that they were run like debtors prisons. Several other suits have been filed against nine other St. Louis County municipals.

Consolidate St. Louis municipals, says new study

A new study of St. Louis municipals calls for a consolidation of 18 cities in the North County region. The study, commissioned by a local nonprofit Better Together, proposes that these select cities should centralize their police enforcement, training, communications, data collection, and oversight. At the same time, the report acknowledges that political opposition to consolidation is likely to harm progress and cooperation already underway among many of the cities. The report comes at time when the state legislature is debating a cap of 15 percent on the amount of a municipals’ revenue that can be generated from traffic ticket violations.

Consolidating police services in north St. Louis County will save money but politically would be difficult, a new research report says.

A Washington-based consulting group, Police Executive Research Forum, issued its findings Monday, according to a news report by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The report recommends centralized training, communications, data collection, and oversight for the St. Louis metropolitan area.

Specifically, the report calls for 18 municipal police departments in north St. Louis County to consolidate.

The report, called “Overcoming the Challenges and Creating a Regional Approach to Policing in St. Louis City and County,” points out that there is a duplication of services and costs that can be better managed and saved by working towards consolidation.

The report added that attempts towards changing current police structures is likely to be met with strong community opposition, possibly undermining cooperation that already exists between governments.

The report proposed three major consolidations: The University City Police Department should take over services for Pagedale, Pine Lawn, Uplands Park, Velda City, Beverly Hills, Hillsdale, Northwoods, Velda Village Hills and Wellston.

St. Louis County Police would serve the municipals of Berkeley, Calverton Park, Ferguson and Kinloch, while Bellefontaine Neighbors, Country Club Hills, Flordell Hills, Moline Acres and Riverview could be folded into the county police department’s Jennings precinct.

The report was commissioned by Better Together, a St. Louis-based nonprofit studying possible benefits of regional cooperation.

The report’s release comes at a time when the state legislature began debating a bill in Jefferson City that would cap the percentage of revenue that municipals could generate from ticket revenues.

The proposed bill states that fines from minor traffic violations could produce no more than 15 percent of a city’s operating revenue in St. Louis County. The rest of the state, however, would have a 20 percent revenue cap on ticket revenue.. The new caps would start Jan. 1, 2016.

The bill, currently in the Senate, needs another committee’s approval before moving to the House floor. Under the House version, people who miss court dates would no longer face additional charges. Failure to appear fines can run from $75.00 or more in some municipals.

Those with minor traffic charges would not have to pay more than $200.00 in combined fine and court costs.

Minor traffic violations include those not involving commercial motor vehicles, accidents or injuries, and which result in four points or less assessed against a person’s driver’s license. Exceptions to minor traffic violations would include exceeding the speed limit by more than 19 miles per hour or violating traffic laws in a construction or school zones.

Make sure your attorney knows the law.

In Missouri there in no constitutional right under Missouri Implied Consent law to speak with an attorney, but there is a limited right to seek the advice of an attorney. If you request to speak with an attorney, the officer is required to give you 20 minutes within which to contact one. This applies either before or after you are given the Implied Consent Warning. If you are not given 20 minutes without abandoning your search, the breath or blood results are inadmissible.

The Western District recently handed down an opinion regarding this issue in Sless Shaleen Riley vs. Director of Revenue, WD73956. In Riley vs. DOR, Riley requested to speak with an attorney several times but did not reaffirm her request after the Implied Consent Warning was read to her. The officer did not permit her to consult with an attorney and had her blood tested for alcohol.  The court found that the BAC results from the blood test would have been inadmissible but for the fact that her attorney did not object to the admission of the results on any basis. Once evidence is properly admitted it can be used for any purpose. The objection has to be made to keep evidence out.