Police Violated Rights of Residents in Majority-Black City: DOJ

The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Thursday that the city and police of Lexington, Mississippi, deprived its majority-Black population of their constitutional rights.
Following an investigation into the city, which began in November 2023, the DOJ discovered that the Lexington Police Department (LPD) unlawfully arrested people who could not pay fines or fees without assessing their ability to do so, used excessive force, retaliated against people who criticized the police and discriminated against Black people, among other violations.
“Today’s findings show that the Lexington Police Department abandoned its sacred position of trust in the community by routinely violating the constitutional rights of those it was sworn to protect,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement on Thursday.
Over the past two years, the LPD has made almost one arrest for every four people in the city, and most of those arrested were Black, according to the DOJ. It found that in 2023, Black people were 17.6 times more likely to be arrested by Lexington police than white people.
Most of these arrests were for low-level offenses and traffic violations, and many were for noncriminal conduct, such as owing outstanding fines and using profanity, according to the DOJ.
During these low-level arrests, LPD used tactics generally used for serious offenses, like when officers followed a man’s car to his home, forced their way into his home and tased him for 15 seconds while trying to arrest him for having a tinted windshield, the DOJ noted in Thursday’s press release.
Regarding Lextington’s handling of fines and fees, Garland said, “Being poor is not a crime, but practices like these amount to punishing people for poverty. People in that community deserve better, and the Justice Department is committed to working with them, the City, and the Police Department to make the City safer for all its citizens.”
Hundreds of people are indebted to the LPD because of its enforcement strategy, according to the DOJ. In total, there are over $1.7 million in outstanding fines owed to Lexington police in a city of about 1,200 people.
The DOJ said the police department “operates under an unconstitutional conflict of interest because LPD’s funding depends on the money it raises through its enforcement.”
The agency’s findings also show that the LPD conducts stops, searches and arrests without probable cause, imposes money bail with justification or assessment of one’s ability to pay the bail and jails people without prompt access to court. Additionally, people experiencing poverty who are accused of crimes in the city usually lack access to legal counsel.
According to the DOJ, the city of Lexington and its police department “cooperated fully with the investigation.”
“The City and LPD have committed to working cooperatively with the department to address the violations identified in the department’s findings,” Thursday’s press release said.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.