Ferguson - Leaders in the city of Ferguson
introduced a new interim police chief on Wednesday, tasking the black police
commander with building trust between residents of the predominantly black St
Louis suburb and its mostly white officers, nearly a year since the death of an
unarmed African-American teen roiled racial tensions.
Michael Brown's death at the hands of a
white police officer who was never indicted sparked riots in Ferguson and
touched off a national "Black Lives Matter" movement seeking changes
in how police deal with minorities.
Andre Anderson, a 50-year-old Army veteran
with a quarter century in law enforcement, starts in Ferguson on Thursday.
Touted for his knack for community outreach
in policing, Anderson arrives in Ferguson as it is still working to get its law
enforcement house in order after a scathing US Department of Justice report in
March pressed for reforms.
That critique cited racial bias and
profiling in policing as well as a profit-driven municipal court system that
frequently targeted blacks, who make up about two-thirds of Ferguson's
populace.
Resigned
Thomas Jackson, Ferguson's police chief for
five years, resigned just days after that report. His top commander, Lieutenant
Al Eickhoff, hired by Ferguson just days after the black, unarmed Brown was
fatally shot last August 9 by a white officer, was named his interim
replacement. Both Jackson and Eickhoff are white.
Neither Anderson nor Ferguson Mayor James
Knowles III, who is white, addressed specifics of the Justice Department report
during a news conference on Wednesday.
But Anderson acknowledged that efforts to
mend fractured relations between Ferguson residents and their police, and
improve the police force's diversity may take more than the six months he has
been granted a leave from his Arizona job.
Anderson pledged to foster within
Ferguson's department the "respect, cultural awareness and the
professionalism this community deserves," and he asked the populace to
help him "set a course in the history books that clearly proves that peace
prevails." New officers, he said, should "reflect the demographics of
the community."
Several of Ferguson's top officials,
Jackson, the city manager and the municipal judge among them resigned after the
Justice Department report investigation initiated after the 18-year-old Brown
was shot by Ferguson officer Darren Wilson.
A St Louis County grand jury last November
declined to indict Wilson, who later resigned. The Justice Department also
declined to prosecute Wilson, announcing that decision at the same time it
released its report critical of police and court practices.
Knowles said on Wednesday that in recent
months Ferguson has adopted reforms, including hiring a new interim judge and
revamping the municipal court system. He said Ferguson police were among the
first in the St Louis region to equip officers with body cameras in the wake of
Brown's death.
