Two school resource officers employed by the Ferguson, Mo., police department to work in the city's schools engage in "police action that is unreasonable for a school environment," the U.S. Department of Justice found in an investigation of law enforcement practices in the St. Louis suburb.
The Justice Department released its review, which was completed as a response to last summer's police shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown, yesterday. Investigators' core finding about the agency—that officers engage in unfair, excessive practices and disproportionately target black people—trickles into all areas of the department, including its actions in schools, the report says.
"[Ferguson Police Department's] approach to policing impacts how its officers interact with students, as well, leading them to treat routine discipline issues as criminal matters and to use force when communication and de-escalation techniques would likely resolve the conflict," the report says.
[For more of this story, written by Evie Blad, go to http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek...department_says.html]
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