Federal judge gets update on Ferguson’s progress

ST. LOUIS – One day after Ferguson residents heard an update on racial reform efforts in their community, a federal judge got an update of her own.

U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry held a hearing Tuesday to hear about efforts to eliminate racial bias and create more diversity in the St. Louis suburb that came under scrutiny following the fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in 2014.

Perry took no immediate action.

Darren Wilson, the white officer who shot Brown, who was black and unarmed, was not charged. But the U.S. Department of Justice found significant racial bias in Ferguson’s police and municipal court.

The city and the Justice Department reached a settlement in April calling for major reforms now being overseen by monitors for the next several years.