After a months-long probe, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced findings on Thursday alleging that a Mississippi police department violated the constitutional rights of its citizens in a majority-black town an hour north of Jackson, Mississippi.
According to the DOJ, the Lexington Police Department (LPD) unlawfully used excessive force, conducted illegal searches and seizures, detained people under “investigative holds” without probable cause, and discriminated against black people.
The investigation began in November 2023 with the cooperation of the LPD, the DOJ said.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said the LPD “abandoned its sacred position of trust” by infringing on the “constitutional rights of those it was sworn to protect.”
“Additionally, Lexington’s approach to fines and fees—including unlawfully arresting, jailing, and detaining people based on their failure to pay money without assessing if they can afford to do so—has been devastating for its residents,” Garland said. “Being poor is not a crime, but practices like these amount to punishing people for poverty.”
The Epoch Times contacted the LPD for comment.
In the last two years, the LPD arrested one person out of four people in the town for minor offenses such as traffic violations, which the DOJ said is over 10 times the per capita rate of arrests for the entire state.
Some of the arrests were for using profanity, while others were for outstanding fines.
The majority of the arrests were of black residents.
The LPD used high-level arrest tactics for low-level offenses, such as breaking down a man’s door and arresting him for swearing at a public official, and tasing a man for 15 seconds after an arrest attempt for having tinted windows.
On the day the DOJ opened the investigation, another man was chased and tased nine times for disturbing a business.
The DOJ said that the LPD has put the citizens it has arrested $1.7 million in debt to the department over outstanding fines.
The DOJ also found that the LPD lacked a “meaningful accountability system” as people accused of crimes aren’t given their full rights to an attorney.
“Lexington is a small, rural community but its police department has had a heavy hand in people’s lives, wreaking havoc through use of excessive force, racially discriminatory policing, retaliation, and more,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “In every corner of our country, police officers must respect people’s constitutional rights and treat people with dignity.”
In the report, the DOJ made several recommendations to the LPD, which included implementing new policies that uphold a citizen’s constitutional rights.
The DOJ said it will continue to work with the Lexington community to work toward solutions to the issue.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
