Justice Dept. to probe Ferguson police force
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By Sari Horwitz, Carol D. Leonnig and Kimberly Kindy September 3 at 7:59 PM
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. will launch this week a broad civil rights investigation into the Ferguson, Mo., Police Department, according to two federal law enforcement officials.
The investigation, which could be announced as early as Thursday afternoon, will be conducted by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and follow a process similar to that used to investigate other police departments across the country, the officials said.
The announcement follows the shooting last month of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African American, by a white Ferguson police officer, who claimed he acted in self-defense. Brown, who was unarmed, was shot at least six times on the afternoon of Aug. 9.
Holder’s decision will represent the Obama administration’s most aggressive step to address the Ferguson shooting, which set off days of often-violent clashes between police and demonstrators in the streets of the St. Louis suburb.
The federal officials said the probe will look at not only Ferguson, but other police departments in St. Louis County. Some, like Ferguson, are predominantly white departments serving majority African-American communities. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a pending investigation.
The investigation is in addition to a Justice Department probe into whether Officer Darren Wilson, who fired the fatal shots, violated Brown’s civil rights. The new probe will look more broadly at whether the department employed policies and practices that resulted in a pattern of civil rights violations.
The Washington Post reported Sunday that five current and one former member of the police force face pending federal lawsuits claiming they used excessive force. The lawsuits, as well as more than a half-dozen internal investigations, include claims that individual officers separately hog-tied a 12-year-old boy who was checking his family mailbox, pistol-whipped children, and Tasered a mentally-ill man to death.
Under Holder, the Justice Department has initiated twice as many reviews of police departments for possible constitutional violations as any of his predecessors. At least 34 other departments are under investigation for alleged civil rights violations.
In April, for example, the Justice Department issued a scathing report concluding that the Albuquerque Police Department had repeatedly used deadly and excessive force in violation of citizens’ constitutional rights, when there was no imminent threat to them or the community. The assistant attorney general of the department’s civil rights division said at the time the department suffered from “inadequate oversight, inadequate investigation of incidents of force, inadequate training of officers to ensure they understand what is permissible or not.”
Federal “pattern and practice” civil rights investigations often end up in a lawsuit brought by the Justice Department against a local police department. Justice officials could also reach a settlement with the police department, which includes a consent decree and federal monitoring, as with the New Orleans and San Juan police departments.
Brown was stopped by Wilson as he walked down the middle of a neighborhood street with a friend. Wilson has told investigators that Brown reached for his gun while they had a scuffle at his car, law enforcement have told the Post.
Community witnesses say Brown was assassinated in the street. They say he had run from the officer after an argument at the policeman’s car, then turned around to surrender after being shot at and being frightened. The six shots in his body all appeared to enter his body from the front, including two in his head, according to an independent autopsy.
Justice Department spokesman Brian Fallon could not be reached for comment. Calls to Ferguson Mayor James Knowles were not immediately returned Wednesday. Emails to the Ferguson police department public relations firm were not immediately returned.
News of the expanded probe comes as community leaders in Ferguson say the Michael Brown case has brought scores of new allegations of local police brutality to their attention.
“I’ve literally had to pull my staff from Jefferson City and put them in Ferguson because of the number of people who are saying they’ve had past issues with the police,” said State Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, whose district includes Ferguson and says she is “fully supportive” of an expanded probe into the department.
“Because of the Michael Brown situation I have been getting other emails, and phone calls, and tweets about other individuals who have allegations of police brutality,” Chappelle-Nadal said. “The expansion of an investigation is by all means a great thing. I absolutely welcome this.”
Julie Tate, Wesley Lowery and Alice Crites contributed to this report.
