The Department of Justice sued Ferguson, Missouri, on Wednesday to force an overhaul of the beleaguered city’s criminal justice system.

Ferguson mired in sweeping racial discrimination, federal report finds Read more

US attorney general Loretta Lynch moved swiftly to file a civil rights lawsuit following a decision by Ferguson’s city council on Tuesday to challenge several measures in a draft reform agreement that the city had negotiated with federal officials.



“We intend to aggressively prosecute this case, and we intend to prevail,” Lynch said at a press conference in Washington on Wednesday.



The lawsuit, which was filed to federal court even before Lynch began speaking, alleges that Ferguson is guilty of a “pattern or practice” of law enforcement actions violating the first, fourth and 14th amendments of the US constitution and federal civil rights laws.

“The residents of Ferguson have suffered the deprivation of their constitutional rights – the rights guaranteed to all Americans – for decades,” said Lynch. “They have waited decades for justice. They should not be forced to wait any longer.”



Jeff Small, a spokesman for Ferguson, said in an email that officials there had only learned of the action through media reports and that they were not ready to comment.



The agreement, which was reached over a painstaking months-long process, was aimed at remedying racist practices in the courts and policing of the St Louis suburb, which erupted into unrest twice in 2014 over the fatal shooting by a white police officer of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old.

A pattern of serious problems was detailed in a scathing report published last year after an inquiry by Justice Department investigators. It concluded that residents routinely had their constitutional rights violated through unjustified arrests, traffic stops and other actions. “These violations were not only egregious, they were routine,” Lynch said on Wednesday.



On Tuesday, the city of Ferguson outlined seven objections to the Justice Department’s proposed agreement, which would have forced it to pay for a federal monitor to oversee the running of city’s criminal justice system and spend money on salary raises for police officers and other city employees. It also required the city to agree to basic principles of constitutional policing.

James Knowles III, the city’s part-time mayor, has repeatedly warned that the costs of implementing the reform agreement – known as a “consent decree”, could be financially ruinous. The city of 22,000 people has seen its budget suffer after it agreed to reduce the amount of revenue it collected in fines and fees for minor offences from poverty-stricken residents.



The city’s new proposals include a requirement that the terms of the agreement not extend to other agencies in Ferguson who take over current city operations. Such a change would nullify much of the agreement should the city disband its police force. The original agreement was applicable to any policing agency in Ferguson.

In addition, city councillors insisted that the agreement remove a mandate for additional salary for city employees. Ferguson’s city council voted unanimously for this conditional approval, and said the Department of Justice must agree to all seven conditions for the agreement to take effect.

Ferguson lawsuit The Department of Justice has opened a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Ferguson.

City officials released the proposed agreement in January, and have held three public meetings since then to discuss its provisions. In a statement on Tuesday evening, city officials cited concerns about the cost and “comprehensive and far-reaching scale” of the agreement as reasons for the amendments.



A provision in the federal criminal justice reforms of 1994 gives the justice department wide-ranging authority to investigate regional law enforcement agencies. In situations where federal officials find a pattern or practice of constitutional violations, as in Ferguson, city officials can sign a reform agreement or risk a lawsuit. Should the DoJ’s suit prevail, federal officials can force reforms in Ferguson.

A lawsuit filed by the justice department against Colorado City and neighboring Hildale, Utah, over alleged discriminatory policing practices is currently in trial.



The Alamance County sheriff’s department in North Carolina is the only agency to have beaten the DoJ in a pattern or practice case since 1994. A federal judge sided with the local agency in August 2015 and ruled that the justice department had failed to prove its allegations of discriminatory policing. The DoJ is appealing the judge’s verdict.

