For the City of Ferguson, 2017 was a year of both solid accomplishment and essential foundation building. As a city, we ended the year with a 22 percent reduction in “Part One Crime” – an FBI category for serious crimes that occur with regularity in all areas of the country and are likely to be reported to police – and we achieved a 14 percent reduction in violent crime, despite substantial personnel shortages created by historic levels of attrition.
Like cities across the nation, we have also experienced a slight uptick in homicides, which more often involve direct relationships between the victims and offenders and are more difficult to prevent.
We are working to continue these decreases in crime through a combination of increased community engagement, new and innovative approaches to crime reduction, and good old-fashioned police methods.
We have also successfully policed numerous public events including demonstrations, the Ferguson Concert Series, the Annual 5K Twilight Run, the Street Fest and the Northern Lights Parade.
The greatest indicator of the positive direction of the City of Ferguson is the increase in applicants for the position of police officer, and the strengthening of the working relationship between the members of the United States Justice Department team, the new independent monitor, and City of Ferguson, who are all striving to create worthwhile and lasting reforms for the Ferguson Police Department. To appreciate these accomplishments, it is worth looking back at where we were just a few years ago.
For nearly four years, the national image of the Ferguson Police Department had been largely formed by stories about adversarial encounters between our officers and members of the public and the civil unrest that followed the shooting death of Michael Brown. These incidents dominated the news coverage of the Police Department, overshadowing the hard work of the men and women of the department that had resulted in significant crime reductions.
It has now been a few months shy of two years since I became chief of police in Ferguson. On the very day that I was sworn in, two opposing factions’ staged rallies in front of police headquarters that were a clear indicator of the deep divide that this city has worked so hard over the past few years to overcome.
In the months preceding my hiring, the U.S. Department of Justice had initiated an investigation into a number of practices that were cause for concern. The issue of civil unrest was a constant theme in the local, national, and international media. Recently, a number of surrounding cities experienced demonstrations similar to those of 2014, but the two in Ferguson were largely without incident and they were a vast departure from some of the events in our past.
Since coming to Ferguson, my primary concern was to demonstrate the Police Department’s commitment to integrity and professionalism. To this end, we have been working with the community, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the independent monitor to implement what I believe will be the most progressive policies in the region when it comes to training, police accountability, hiring standards, and use of force.
We are also working diligently to equip all of our police officers and dispatchers with the latest and most effective tools available, and we have completed a total retooling of our internal investigations process to include a review by the Ferguson Civilian Review Board, which was established a little over a year ago. This board is made up of concerned citizens who are tasked with reviewing law enforcement actions and citizen complaints to make sure that the Ferguson Police Department remains both accountable and responsible to our citizens.
As we continue to move forward with our reforms, we need the community’s continued assistance, patience and understanding. We take our commitment to serve and protect our city very seriously, and these reductions in crime are proof that we are working to do everything we can to live up to the challenge of making Ferguson one of the safest cities in the nation.
Delrish L. Moss is chief of police for the City of Ferguson Police Department.
