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US Justice Department finds racist, profit-driven law enforcement practices in Ferguson

Associated Press
Published | Updated
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    This photo taken Wednesday, March 4, 2015, shows the entrance to the Ferguson, Mo., Police Department. The Justice Department cleared a former Ferguson, Mo., police officer in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old, but also issued a scathing report calling for sweeping changes in city law-enforcement practices it called discriminatory and unconstitutional. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) (The Associated Press)

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    Memorials to Michael Brown at Canfield Green Apartments, in Ferguson, Mo., are maintained on Wednesday, March 4, 2015, more than six months after being shot to death by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9, 2014. The U.S. Justice Department will not prosecute Wilson, a white former police officer in the fatal shooting of Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old whose death in Ferguson, sparked weeks of protests and ignited an intense national debate over how police treat African-Americans. But the government released a scathing report Wednesday that faulted the city for racial bias. (AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, David Carson ) EDWARDSVILLE INTELLIGENCER OUT; THE ALTON TELEGRAPH OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT MBI (REV-SHARE) (The Associated Press)

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    Attorney General Eric Holder speaks at the Justice Department in Washington, Wednesday, March 4, 2015, about the Justice Department’s findings related to two investigations in Ferguson, Mo. The Justice Department will not prosecute a white former police officer in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old whose death in Ferguson sparked weeks of protests and ignited an intense national debate over how police treat African-Americans. But the government released a scathing report Wednesday that faulted the city for racial bias. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) (The Associated Press)

ST. LOUIS – A federal investigation into the police killing of an unarmed, black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri, lays bare what officials contend are racist, profit-driven law enforcement practices in the small St. Louis suburb.

The Department of Justice cleared Officer Darren Wilson of federal civil rights charges in the August death of Michael Brown. But it also called for sweeping changes in a city where officers trade racist emails, issue tickets mostly to black drivers that generate millions of dollars in revenue, and routinely use what investigators called excessive force on people stopped for minor or nonexistent offenses.

Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III said Wednesday that steps are already being taken to correct problems.

Separate federal investigations into the shooting and the police department began soon after Brown was killed.