Justice finds pattern of race bias in Ferguson

In Ferguson, Missouri, bias has been so pervasive that city officials sometimes used racial slurs in their emails. President Barack Obama would not stay in office, wrote one city official, since “what black man holds a steady job for four years.”

Black residents were twice as likely as whites to be searched during a routine traffic stop, although they were 26 percent less likely to carry contraband. African-Americans make up 67 percent of the city’s population but constitute 93 percent of its arrests.


Municipal courts heavily favored whites in deciding if cases would be dismissed. And the city used heavy fines to send many impoverished black residents to jail, part of a system that created a debtors’ prison.

Those were among the harsh findings of a Department of Justice civil rights investigation set to be released Wednesday whose contents were previewed to POLITICO by a source familiar with the investigation.

After a six month inquiry, the DOJ found that the Ferguson Police Department (FPD) has routinely engaged in unconstitutional and unlawful activity that targets the city’s majority African-American population.

Though it remains unclear whether the investigation’s findings will lead to federal charges against the police department, experts believe that, at least they will be used to pressure the local police.

If the FPD does not reform its practices, the investigation’s findings would serve as potent evidence for a civil rights case against the city’s police department.

The department launched its investigation into the FPD after an unarmed African-American man, Michael Brown, was shot dead by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson, touching off protests and a national debate on race and policing. The issue weighed heavily on President Barack Obama and outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder, who vowed to complete the investigation before leaving office.

The so-called “pattern of practice” investigation has been the Justice Department’s tool for addressing persistent problems with discrimination in American cities.

In Ferguson, the department weighed whether it should bring federal civil rights charges against Wilson, but a separate report is expected to clear him on those grounds, the New York Times reported.

A law enforcement official familiar with the department’s civil rights probe found that the FPD frequently conducted traffic stops without reasonable suspicion and arrested individuals without probable cause. The source also said that the investigation found Ferguson police routinely employed excessive force and violated the free speech rights of the accused.

The investigation found multiple violations by police of Ferguson residents’ Fourth Amendment rights, as well as significant racial bias within the largely-white force in violation of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

In addition to violations by police, the DOJ focused on the city’s municipal court system, which amassed revenue through excessive ticketing of residents living in or near poverty. The investigation alleges that this practice encouraged police misconduct.

Over 16,000 of Ferguson’s 21,000 residents had outstanding arrest warrants, the majority of which were the result of cases involving minor traffic or housing code violations.

Holder signaled to reporters several weeks ago at the National Press Club that he agency’s civil rights division was nearing completion of its review.

The department’s investigation included hundreds of interviews with local residents and police, a review of tens of thousands of pages of police documents and data accompanying every police traffic stop.

As POLITICO reported, department lawyers had multiple meetings with a local non-profit group, Arch City Defenders, that brought a lawsuit against the city along with Washington, DC-based non-profit Equal Justice Under Law and lawyers at the St. Louis University law school. These groups are seeking class-action status for their suits against Ferguson, as well as a parallel suit against the neighboring city of Jennings.

Alec Karakatsanis, a lawyer at Equal Justice Under Law, said that the findings in the Ferguson case are indicative of larger issues with criminal justice systems around the country.

“The lesson isn’t that Ferguson is uniquely bad, the lesson is that we have an American problem that Ferguson is helping shed light on.”