Justice Department to offer update on Ferguson progress

FERGUSON, Mo. – Residents of Ferguson, Missouri, are getting an update on how the St. Louis suburb is doing in its effort to reform police and court practices.

Officials with the city and the U.S. Department of Justice are hosting a meeting Wednesday night. Ferguson has been under federal scrutiny since Michael Brown, a black, unarmed 18-year-old, was fatally shot by a white officer, Darren Wilson, in August 2014.

Wilson was not charged and resigned in November 2014, but the shooting led to months of protests and prompted the Justice Department to file a civil rights lawsuit that was settled last year in a consent agreement overseen by a federal judge.

Justice Department attorneys told the judge in June that Ferguson was making progress in the effort to end racial bias among its police officers and in its courts.