--- description: A scathing report finds a pattern of racism and excessive force title: U.S. Faults Ferguson Police for Racial Bias image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59770da64a09e158/698781f9e20a87cab7a85640/ferguson-mirror-cops.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [justice](/tag/justice/) ## justice Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # U.S. Faults Ferguson Police for Racial Bias  by [Massimo Calabresi](/author/massimo-calabresi/)  ## Massimo Calabresi Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Calabresi is TIME’s Washington bureau chief. Mar 3, 2015 11:22 PM CUT  Protesters drop a mirrored casket in front of a line of police officers in front of the Ferguson Police Department in Ferguson, Mo., on Oct. 10, 2014 Protesters drop a mirrored casket in front of a line of police officers in front of the Ferguson Police Department in Ferguson, Mo., on Oct. 10, 2014Robert Cohen—St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Getty Images  by [Massimo Calabresi](/author/massimo-calabresi/)  ## Massimo Calabresi Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Calabresi is TIME’s Washington bureau chief. Mar 3, 2015 11:22 PM CUT The violent protests in Ferguson last August were driven by the indelible image of an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, lying in the street after a white police officer, Darren Wilson, shot him dead. But the outrage in Ferguson, and the national debate that accompanied it, were also about something harder to see: racism, and the allegation that Ferguson’s largely white cops were deeply, systematically and violently prejudiced against black residents. Now, as one of his last acts as U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder has painted a picture of Ferguson’s entrenched racism that is clear and unmistakable. A Justice Department investigation opened after Brown’s shooting [has found](http://time.com/3730618/ferguson-racial-bias/ "undefined") routine patterns and practices of racism in Ferguson, including the excessive use of force and unjustified arrests, officials said Tuesday. The findings are[ scathing in their detail](http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/justice-dept-review-finds-pattern-of-racial-bias-among-ferguson-police/2015/03/03/27535390-c1c7-11e4-9271-610273846239%5Fstory.html?hpid=z1 "undefined"): --- > “” --- The investigation also turned up bigoted emails, like one from November 2008 that reportedly said President Obama wouldn’t complete his first term as President because “what black man holds a steady job for four years.” The St. Louis _Post-Dispatch_ [reported](http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/ferguson-police-acted-in-patterns-of-racial-bias-department-of/article%5Fde3bf2a4-816d-5a55-af63-b6db8e997eb5.html "undefined") another racist message, from May 2011, reading: “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.'” ### See 23 Key Moments From Ferguson  On Aug. 9, 2014, unarmed teenager Michael Brown was fatally shot by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. This image provided by KMOV-TV shows investigators inspecting Brown's body. Tiffany Mitchell—AP  Lesley McSpadden, Brown's mother, is comforted by her husband, Louis Head, on Aug. 9, 2014, after her son's death Huy Mach—St. Louis Post-Dispatch/AP  A fire burns at a QuikTrip store in Ferguson on Aug. 10, 2014, as protests turned violent one day after Brown's death. The night marked the first violent turn for the protests. David Carson—St. Louis Post-Dispatch/AP  Heavily-armed police advance on a protester on Aug. 11, 2014\. Law enforcement's tactical response, which included military-grade weapons, tanks and SWAT teams, touched off a debate over the militarization of local police forces. Whitney Curtis—The New York Times/Redux  A protester takes shelter from billowing smoke during demonstrations in Ferguson on Aug. 13, 2014\. Such scenes were relatively common during the first week of protests. David Carson—St. Louis Post-Dispatch/AP  A demonstrator throws back a tear gas container after tactical officers worked to break up a group of bystanders on Chambers Road near West Florissant in Ferguson on Aug. 13, 2014. Robert Cohen—St. Louis Post-Dispatch/MCT/Zuma Press  Captain Ron Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol addresses the media in Ferguson on Aug. 15, 2014\. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon appointed NIxon to coordinate law enforcement's response after local departments were criticized for fanning the flames. Lucas Jackson—Reuters  Darren Wilson at a Ferguson city council meeting on Feb. 11, 2014\. The image was the first widely-circulated photo of Wilson after the shooting. City of Ferguson/AP  Tear gas rains down on a woman kneeling in the street with her hands in the air during a demonstration in Ferguson on Aug. 17, 2014\. The "hands up, don't shoot" pose became the defining gesture of the protests. Scott Olson—Getty Images  Police in Ferguson fire tear gas in the direction of bottle-throwing crowds on Aug. 18, 2014. David Carson—St Louis Post-Dispatch / Polaris  Law enforcement officers look on during a protest on West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson on Aug. 18, 2014. Michael B. Thomas—AFP/Getty Images  U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder appeared with Capt. Ron Johnson at Drake's Place Restaurant in Ferguson on Aug. 20, 2014\. Holder's visit was meant to calm tensions after almost 10 days of protests. Pablo Martinez Monsivais—Pool/Getty Images  An anguished Michael Brown, Sr. yells as his son's casket is lowered into the ground at St. Peter's Cemetery in St. Louis, Mo., on Aug. 25, 2014. Richard Perry—Reuters  Members of the Ferguson Police Department wear body cameras during a rally on Aug. 30, 2014, in Ferguson. Like a number of departments around the U.S., Ferguson police began using the wearable cameras after Michael Brown was killed. There are no video recordings of the incident involving Brown and officer Darren Wilson. Aaron P. Bernstein—Getty Images  A fire on Sept. 23, 2014 burned a memorial for Michael Brown on the site where he was killed. The memorial was later rebuilt. Jacob Crawford—AP  Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson, left, addresses protesters in front of the Ferguson Police Department, on Sept. 25, 2014\. Protesters have called for Jackson to resign. Robert Cohen—St. Louis Post-Dispatch/AP  Demonstrators participate at a rally on the campus of St. Louis University on Oct. 13, 2014\. Citizens around St. Louis continued to demonstrate throughout October, including during a performance by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and at a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game. Scott Olson—Getty Images  Academic Cornel West is taken into custody after performing an act of civil disobedience at the Ferguson, Mo., police station on Oct. 13, 2014. Charles Rex Arbogast—AP  Lesley McSpadden, Michael Brown's mother, attends a press conference addressing the U.N. Committee Against Torture, in Geneva, Switzerland, on Nov. 12, 2014\. Brown's parents testified in front of the committee about their son's death. Martial Trezzini—EPA  After the announcement that the grand jury brought no charges against Darren Wilson, police officers and protesters faced off on a tense night in which cars and buildings were burned by protesters and tear gas thrown by police, in Ferguson, Mo. on Nov. 24, 2014. Jim Young—Reuters  On March 4, 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice released two reports clearing Officer Wilson of any civil rights violations when he shot and killed Brown but found a pattern of explicit racism and unfair treatment of minorities by Ferguson police officers and local officials. Carolyn Kaster—AP  Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson stepped down March 11, 2015, after a federal report harshly criticized the police department, becoming the sixth Ferguson official to resign since the investigation. Scott Olson—Getty Images  Two police officers were shot outside the Ferguson Police Department March 12, 2015, during a demonstration that followed the resignation of the agency’s embattled police chief. The two officers—one from Webster Groves, Mo., the other from St. Louis County—were seriously injured. Lawrence Bryant—St. Louis American/Reuters The Justice Department spent 100 days in Ferguson collecting such details, and the report is an end in itself, putting an official stamp on the town’s problems that some had found easy to dismiss. But when it comes to fixing the harsh reality of racism in Ferguson, it’s not clear transparency will be enough. The [question](http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/changing-police-practices-ferguson-could-have-bigger-impact-indicting-officer-wilson "undefined") now is whether the report will deliver reform in the beleaguered St. Louis suburb. The Justice Department under Holder has significantly increased the number of pattern or practice investigations, and some past settlements with police departments have led to dramatic improvements. But others say the department’s lack of enforcement powers mean reform depends on local politicians, and worry Ferguson’s leaders won’t bring change. Under the 1994 [law](http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/spl/police.php "undefined") authorizing such “pattern or practice” investigations, the Justice Department has little enforcement power to fix the problems it finds. As a rule, it enters into contracts with the offending force, which agrees to increase transparency and data collection and to provide better training and supervision. Police officials and their unions often resist reform, several studies have shown. The Justice Department has “very few sticks they can use,” to get past such obstacles, says Elliot Harvey Schatmeier, a lawyer at the New York City office of Kirkland & Ellis and the author of one such study. Others say that in many cases, the attention brought by the investigations is enough. In Pittsburgh, New Jersey and Los Angeles, Justice Department investigations led to successful reforms, says Chris Stone, president of the Open Society Foundations and a criminal-justice scholar. More important, Stone says, “They’ve established a national standard for what good policing looks like.” Holder’s Ferguson findings, Stone says, have the potential to lead to a similar blueprint for smaller, suburban police forces around the country, which have typically been hard to reform. By the same token, though, a failure in the high-profile Ferguson case could set back the effort to reform small police departments. Holder has established with clarity the problem in Ferguson. But without local political buy-in, the town that came to symbolize 21st century police racism in America could end up symbolizing its resistance to reform too. ### 25 Key Evidence Photos From the Ferguson Grand Jury  Officer Darren Wilson's vehicle is shown at the scene of the confrontation in this undated evidence photograph made available by the St. Louis County prosecutors office St. Louis County  A bracelet was found near where Officer Darren Wilson fatally shot unarmed teen Michael Brown on Aug. 9, 2014 St. Louis County  The cap 18-year-old Brown wore the day he was shot by Officer Wilson St. Louis County  This photograph shows a casing from a bullet fired from Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson's gun. St. Louis County  A blood-stained sheet covers the body of 18-year-old Michael Brown. St. Louis County  Brown's blood is spattered on the ground near where his body lay after being shot by Officer Wilson St. Louis County  Another bullet casing from Officer Wilson's gun, which was fired a total of 12 times that day in August St. Louis County  This photo shows shattered glass from Officer Wilson's car window, which was shot out during a struggle between Wilson and Brown, according to grand jury testimony St. Louis County  The interior of Officer Wilson's police vehicle. Wilson says he used the radio to call for backup after the shooting St. Louis County  Another bracelet discovered near Officer Wilson's vehicle following the shooting St. Louis County  A close up of the exterior of Wilson's vehicle following the incident St. Louis County  Evidence left following the incident on the exterior of Officer Wilson's police car St. Louis County  Handprints mark the rear window of Wilson's vehicle. St. Louis County  A traffic cone and police tape mark the scene near where Brown was shot on Canfield Drive in Ferguson, Mo. in August St. Louis County  Officers fetch a bullet from a hole left in the side of a building near the scene St. Louis County  A bullet fired by Wilson's gun St. Louis County  The uniform Officer Wilson wore the day he shot and killed Michael Brown St. Louis County  Officer Darren Wilson St. Louis County  Wilson says he feared for his life during an altercation with Brown, leading him to use deadly force. St. Louis County  Evidence left on the breast pocket of Wilson's uniform following the shooting of Michael Brown St. Louis County  This image shows Wilson soon after the shooting. At the time, the officer underwent a medical examination St. Louis County  During the medical examination, bruising was discovered on Wilson's cheek where he says Brown punched him in the face St. Louis County  Medical examination also found cuts on the back of Officer Wilson's head St. Louis County  The gun Officer Darren Wilson used when he shot and killed Michael Brown St. Louis County  A bullet found in Officer Wilson's weapon after the shooting of Michael Brown St. Louis County ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3730894/ferguson-investigation-justice-racism/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3730894/ferguson-investigation-justice-racism/"},"headline":"U.S. Faults Ferguson Police for Racial Bias","datePublished":"2015-03-03T23:22:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:05:15.638Z","description":"The report is scathing, but the big question is what comes next","url":"https://time.com/3730894/ferguson-investigation-justice-racism/","keywords":["justice","Racism","Eric Holder","Department of Justice","Ferguson topic","Michael Brown","darren wilson"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59770da64a09e158/698781f9e20a87cab7a85640/ferguson-mirror-cops.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Massimo Calabresi","jobTitle":"Calabresi is TIME’s Washington bureau chief.","url":"https://time.com/author/massimo-calabresi/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59770da64a09e158/698781f9e20a87cab7a85640/ferguson-mirror-cops.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Protesters drop a mirrored casket in front of a line of police officers in front of the Ferguson Police Department in Ferguson, Mo. on Oct. 10, 2014.","caption":"Protesters drop a mirrored casket in front of a line of police officers in front of the Ferguson Police Department in Ferguson, Mo. on Oct. 10, 2014.","creditText":"Robert Cohen—St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/justice/","name":"justice"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3730894/ferguson-investigation-justice-racism/","name":"U.S. Faults Ferguson Police for Racial Bias"}}]}] ```