(Reuters) - The shooting death of teenager Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer prompted the U.S. Justice Department's most significant investigation of policing practices since the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement. The DOJ also pointed out that “police departments in surrounding municipalities and the County” have practices similar to Ferguson, although that issue was “beyond the scope” of the investigation. In fact, federal officials even considered opening another investigation of the St. Louis police department for similar problems, Reuters reported in October 2020. Ferguson officials expressed concerns that the reforms required to stop exploitative policing in their city would “cripple city finances,” Reuters reported in March 2016. (A measure to institute a modest property tax increase to fund the reforms didn't get the required two-thirds majority vote.)

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