The story
From the name of the city of Ferguson, Missouri. The term was coined by police chief Doyle Sam Dotson III and popularized by a Wall Street Journal opinion piece by Heather Mac Donald.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Ferguson effect
Today it means: The idea that increased scrutiny of police following the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, has led to an increased crime rate (or sometimes murder rate) in major US cities. Full definition →