DETROIT, MI -- A group that protests instances of police brutality is advocating against a proposed end to federal oversight of the Detroit Police Department.

The U.S. Justice Department and the city earlier this month jointly asked a federal judge to end costly monitoring that has been in place for the past 10 years.

Complaints over excessive use of force and improper detention of witnesses by the Detroit Police Department led to a 2003 federal consent judgement that still stands, forcing the city to employ a court monitor at $87,825 a year and to focus public safety resources on strict compliance.

The city cited reductions in officer-involved shootings and other uses of force in the motion. (View the full court document here.)

Detroit police have been involved in 17 fatal shootings in the past five years, compared to 47 in the five years before federal oversight of the department began in 2003, according to court documents.

But the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality doesn't view the improvement as sufficient.

The group on Monday called for federal oversight to continue, citing recent shootings and the questionable June arrest of an 11-year-old boy.

"The national heightened awareness regarding police brutality and militarism which has grown out of the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri calls attention to what the Coalition has been saying for a decade: that there continues to be unresolved cultural issues between the Detroit Police Department and the citizens of the City of Detroit," said the group's spokesperson Ron Scott.

Federal and local officials in Ferguson, Mo. are investigating the Aug. 9 shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed, black 18-year-old, by officer Darren Wilson, who is white.

That case has sparked widespread protests and intensified tension in Detroit between police and residents.

"As we look at the potential for citizen-police confrontation, this is no time to back away from Federal oversight," said Scott, "and money should not be a factor. Lives are always more important than money."

A hearing on the motion to end oversight is scheduled for Aug. 25, 10 a.m. before U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn.

Meanwhile, the local chapter of the National Action Network on Monday announced plans to "engage Detroiters in supporting the Ferguson family and further shed light on the issue of police brutality in southeastern Michigan."

"Not only do we plan to engage in supporting the Ferguson case but we will also lift up the issues of brutality in Michigan, these cases can not go unchecked," said the group's leader, Rev Charles Williams II in a statement.