ST. LOUIS _ Officers in two specialized city police units, and cadets, will receive training on the rights of the news media and public as part of a lawsuit settled this month with journalists arrested during the protests two years ago in Ferguson.
The suit, filed in federal court in St. Louis in March 2015 against city and county police leaders and officers, claimed that the journalists were falsely arrested, held without probable cause and subjected to false imprisonment and battery.
The plaintiffs are Ryan Devereaux, a reporter with the Intercept/First Look Media; Ansgar Graw, senior U.S. political correspondent for Die Welt and Welt am Sonntag; Frank Herrmann, the U.S. correspondent for a group of German regional papers; and freelancer Lukas Hermsmeier.
In addition to requiring training for Civil Disobedience Team and SWAT officers and cadets, city attorneys also settled with the journalists for a total of $12,500.
The city was given 90 days from the Oct. 10 settlement to begin the training, but it has already begun, and the department already has an internal policy regarding the recording of police at work, said city spokeswoman Maggie Crane.
"We expect all officers to know and abide by policy," Crane said in a statement. "This policy in particular is not new, but under the settlement agreement, we affirmed that CDT and SWAT officers would be explicitly trained and that new cadets at the academy would also receive training on this particular topic."
In May, the St. Louis County Police Department settled its lawsuit with the same journalists.
County counselors agreed to pay $75,000, including legal costs and attorneys' fees. The settlement also required that county police undergo mandatory training as well as enact a policy to allow the recording of police activity, something that did not exist before the Ferguson protests.
The claims were disputed by St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson, County Police Chief Jon Belmar and officers named in the suit, and they did not admit fault in making the settlement.
The suit says Devereaux and Hermsmeier were going by car to a designated media area on the night of Aug. 18, 2014, when they spotted protesters on West Florissant Avenue, north of Canfield Drive, and got out to conduct interviews. This was after police issued a "final warning" for everyone to disperse.
The protesters left after police fired tear gas in their direction, but the journalists were unable to reach their car because of police activity on West Florissant. When approached by a police armored vehicle, the suit says, they put their hands up, held up their press identifications and announced that they were journalists.
Police fired nonlethal projectiles, hitting both men, and later handcuffed them, held them for several hours and charged them with refusal to disperse, the suit says. It says Hermsmeier's left hand was numb for several weeks and Devereaux's right hand remains numb.
Graw and Herrmann were at a gas station on West Florissant that Aug. 18 when Herrmann questioned an officer about a requirement to "keep moving" or face arrest. The unidentified officer ordered others officers to arrest the pair, the suit says.
It claims another officer tightened the plastic cuffs to "deliberately inflict pain on both journalists." Both were charged, held for several hours and denied water, the suit says. Both of Herrmann's hands were swollen after being released and his left hand was numb for several weeks, the suit says. Graw had numb hands for several hours.
