Ferguson mired in sweeping racial discrimination, federal report finds

Black residents of Ferguson, Missouri, routinely had their constitutional rights violated through unjustified arrests, traffic stops and other actions carried out by a racially biased police department, the US Department of Justice has concluded.

A federal review of Ferguson’s police force found officers disproportionately used excessive force against black people, who were also subject to arrests without probable cause and stops when driving without reasonable suspicion, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the department’s findings.

Racist emails sent by Ferguson officials – including one doubting Barack Obama’s ability to serve a full term as president because “what black man holds a steady job for four years?” – were also unearthed and are expected to be released to the public.

According to the law enforcement official, the department detected in Ferguson a pattern of racial bias in violation of federal laws and the 14th amendment to the US constitution, which guarantees equal protection under the law.

These police practices are blamed by the Department for causing serious distrust between residents and police officers. Investigators found that law enforcement was widely viewed as illegitimate and in some areas was effectively nonexistent.

The inquiry into Ferguson’s policing was prompted by unrest following the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, who was shot dead on 9 August by Darren Wilson, a white police officer. The shooting revived a national debate on policing and race in the US.

A spokesman for the city of Ferguson said in a statement on Tuesday evening that its leaders would not be commenting until the Justice Department released its report. Publication is expected on Wednesday.

Ferguson’s population is 67% African American, according to the 2010 census. Yet Justice Department investigators found that between 2012 and 2014, 93% of all arrests were of black people and almost nine in 10 uses of force were against African Americans. In all 14 bites by police dogs when racial information of the person bitten was available, that person was African American.

The review found 95% of people detained at the city jail for more than two days between April and September 2014 were black. During the same period, black defendants were found to be 68% less likely than others to have their cases dismissed by judges in the city’s controversial municipal court system.

The review also found that 85% of all drivers stopped by police were black, and that African American drivers were twice as likely as white drivers to be searched during these stops but yet more than 25% less likely to be found in possession of illegal substances or goods. Black drivers were sharply more likely than their white counterparts to be cited for driving offences when these were observed by police officers in person rather than detected by radar or similar technology.

Police officers were found to have overwhelmingly charged African Americans with “petty offences”, according to the law enforcement official. Black people accounted for 95% of charges relating to walking on roads, 94% of “failure to comply” charges and 92% of all charges of disturbing the peace.

The federal investigators were said by the law enforcement official to have conducted hundreds of interviews and reviewed some 35,000 documents over six months. They spent 100 days in Ferguson and observed four court sessions.

The law enforcement official said racist emails unearthed during the review were taken as evidence of illegal bias against and stereotyping of African Americans.

In addition to the email about Obama, another message written by a Ferguson official in May 2011 stated: “An African American woman in New Orleans was admitted into the hospital for a pregnancy termination. Two weeks later she received a check for $5,000. She phoned the hospital to ask who it was from. The hospital said, ‘Crimestoppers’.” The authors of the emails were not identified.

The reported findings by the Department of Justice drew sharp criticism even from staunch defenders of the police. Ron Hosko, the president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, told the Guardian that Tom Jackson, Ferguson’s police chief, should resign if the findings were accurate.

Hosko said the apparent conclusions suggested “flawed, failing police work that infects the relationship between law enforcement and the community”.

“People ought to be terminated and new leadership brought in,” he said.

Details of the report’s findings emerged as senior Justice Department officials presented their findings to civil leaders of Ferguson – including Jackson and Mayor James Knowles III – at a meeting in St Louis on Tuesday.

Ferguson’s leaders are expected to be forced to negotiate a settlement known as a “consent decree” with the Justice Department under threat of a civil rights lawsuit. This settlement would allow the federal government to continue monitoring Ferguson’s police department.

Consent decrees agreed with other police forces in the US in recent years have detailed new training requirements for officers or established tighter internal regulations on the use of force.

Speculation has mounted since August that Jackson’s position as police chief, and even the continued existence of his department, may be untenable following the Justice Department’s findings. It has been suggested that Ferguson’s police force could disbanded and their authority handed to St Louis County, which led the response to protests after Brown’s death.

A spokesman for St Louis County police said in an email that the department was not involved in Tuesday’s discussions.

A St Louis grand jury decided in November not to bring state charges against Wilson over the shooting of Brown. The FBI and officials from the Justice Department’s civil rights division have been investigating the shooting in a separate inquiry to the review of Ferguson’s policing. Officials are widely expected to announce soon that Wilson will not face federal civil rights charges.