Ferguson is likely to be a key theme during the Missouri Legislature's 4 1/2 -month session that opens this week.
Bills in the hopper as a result of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in August would further limit municipal traffic ticket revenue, require police officers to wear video cameras and set new rules for police officers who use deadly force.
More broadly, the Ferguson narrative is expected to come up in debates over everything from school transfers to job training. And it could get noisy.
At some point, "I think they're going to move the protests from Ferguson in front of the police station to the Capitol," said Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis. "It's going to be chaotic."
The session will kick off at noon Wednesday with ceremonial first-day proceedings. All 163 House members and half the 34 senators will be sworn in for the terms they won in November. Sen. Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles, is slated to be installed for a second term as Senate president pro tem, while Rep. John Diehl, R-Town and Country, will take the helm as House speaker.
Republicans strengthened their grip on the Legislature in the midterm election and will control both chambers with veto-proof majorities. The split in the House is 117-45, with one vacancy; the GOP rules the Senate 25-9.
While most of the Ferguson-related bills have been filed by Democrats, Republicans say they plan to examine systemic problems spotlighted by the Brown killing and its aftermath. They say they are focused on long-term solutions, such as improving educational and economic opportunities.
"We won't have a Ferguson agenda, but we will have legislation that gets to some of the societal and governmental problems in Ferguson and a number of North County communities," Dempsey said.
High on that list is how to rein in municipal courts that have been described as debtors' prisons that force the poor to pay hefty fines for minor offenses. The proposals vary, from lowering the cap on how much cities can raise from traffic ticket revenue to abolishing all 21 villages in St. Louis County.
Meanwhile, a joint House-Senate committee will ramp up its investigation into how Gov. Jay Nixon handled the unrest that followed the grand jury's announcement in November that no criminal charges would be filed against Darren Wilson, a former Ferguson police officer, who is white, for killing Brown, 18, who was unarmed and black.
Legislators in both parties want Nixon and his administration to explain why the Missouri National Guard didn't protect businesses that were looted and burned the night of the grand jury decision. Nixon had declared a state of emergency in advance of the decision and said violence would not be tolerated.
Though united in their discontent with Nixon's handling of Ferguson, legislators could have a harder time agreeing on law enforcement changes.
"We need to be very careful not to be anti-police or anti-law enforcement," Diehl said of the bills tightening the deadly force statute. "I don't believe this situation is the fault of police and prosecutors."
His goal, he said, is to help young people find "meaningful employment," including making sure state universities "develop curriculum that provides job skills to jobs that are out there now."
The issues raised by unrest in Ferguson are "decades in the making," Diehl said. "It's not something that can be fixed by one General Assembly in the course of a couple of months. It's not something you can just throw money at willy-nilly and fix problems."
Indeed, bills often take several years to make their way through the legislative process. And some of the Ferguson-related changes are already sparking stiff opposition.
Brown's death Aug. 9 set off riots, with anger aimed at police and city officials. A report released later that month by ArchCity Defenders, a nonprofit group, described part of the underpinning for the fury.
The report blasted the municipal court system in Bel-Ridge, Florissant and Ferguson for issuing tickets for petty violations and jailing clients who couldn't afford to pay fines.
Republicans and Democrats alike have called for court reforms.
"Some cities are using citizens as ATMs for bloated government," Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Glendale, tweeted last week.
He sponsors a bill that would allow municipalities to fund a maximum of 10 percent of their budgets with revenue generated from traffic tickets. Currently, the traffic ticket income is capped at 30 percent of a municipality's budget. Anything more must be sent to the state to spend on education.
Nasheed would go further, getting rid of all villages in St. Louis County, which she says would be a step toward eliminating abusive court practices.
Six of the 21 villages in St. Louis County were among the cities sued recently by Attorney General Chris Koster for allegedly violating the state law that caps profits cities can take from traffic cases.
Mayors in the small towns say the village form of government isn't to blame. They say residents would lose services if villages were eliminated.
"It is a ridiculous bill," Greendale Mayor Monica Huddleston said. "We don't need people telling us that we don't need to exist. We're bending over backwards to make sure we do things right."
A hamlet with a population of 651 near the University of Missouri-St. Louis campus, Greendale is a fourth-class city, so it would not be eliminated under Nasheed's bill. But many neighboring municipalities would disappear. And that would disrupt a partnership that has benefited the 24 municipalities that make up the Normandy School District, Huddleston said.
By working together, they have saved taxpayers money on everything from trash pickup to the purchase of salt for roads in winter, she said. As for allegations that police issue unnecessary traffic tickets, she said Greendale contracts with Normandy for police services and the revenue received falls well under the state cap.
Schmitt's bill tweaking that cap is likely to get more attention than the village measure, because he chairs the Senate committee that will handle the court reforms.
Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, D-University City, would like to change how revenue is defined in the municipal court bill. Currently, the law does not take into account money from a municipality's revenue pot that must be put into a domestic violence reserve fund, for example.
Sen. Scott Sifton, D-St. Louis County, also filed a bill aimed at ticket revenue. Although his bill would keep the cap at 30 percent, it would require municipalities collecting more than half their revenue from traffic violations to forfeit their portion of St. Louis County's sales tax pool.
Rep. Sharon Pace, D-St. Louis County, wants to require law enforcement officers to wear video cameras, attend diversity and sensitivity training and undergo a psychological evaluation every three years. She was unsure how her bill would fare with Republicans.
"I hope they give it some consideration," she said. "These are good deals, and they work out for everybody."
At least two other lawmakers -- Chappelle-Nadal and the chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus, Rep. Brandon Ellington, D-Kansas City -- also have filed bills that would require law enforcement to wear body cameras. Chappelle-Nadal said people are more accepting of that concept.
And when it comes to the cost of body cameras, likely a hang-up for some lawmakers, Chappelle-Nadal said people need to consider "what it would cost the state in liability" without them.
"What's wrong with transparency?" she said. "This is America."
Chappelle-Nadal's "omnibus law enforcement" bill also would deploy social workers, counselors and psychologists when the governor announces a state of emergency. The measure would specify that tear gas would only be used during such emergencies and only if a third party, such as Amnesty International, was in the area to make sure it was humanely used.
Both Chappelle-Nadal and Nasheed want to change the state's "deadly force" law.
Nasheed said the current statute allowing an officer to use deadly force against a fleeing suspect is "way too broad." She wants to limit it to instances where the officer has tried other methods of apprehension first, and believes that the person being arrested is attempting to escape and possesses a deadly weapon.
Nasheed met with St. Louis Police Officers Association business manager Jeff Roorda to negotiate the bill's details. Roorda said police are "willing to come to the table and work with legislators on statutes that make sense but still allow officers to protect themselves and citizens."
Other bills take aim at St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch, who was criticized for the way he handled the grand jury inquiry into Brown's death.
Chappelle-Nadal's measure calls for the immediate appointment of a special prosecutor in all officer-involved shooting deaths.
She has at least one Republican ally: Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City.
Barnes said requiring prosecutors to recuse themselves in officer-involved shootings "is not a statement about Bob McCulloch. The point is, even where there is an appearance of impropriety, there ought to be a recusal. Appearances matter."
Tim Fischesser, who lobbies for the St. Louis County Municipal League, said many of the Ferguson-related measures seem to be rough drafts. "Right now, it seems like a lot of people are throwing stuff at the wall to see if it might stick, as opposed to having a clear idea of where this is going."
Alex Stuckey of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
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