The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] on Wednesday released a report [PDF] on racial bias committed by the San Francisco Police Department in traffic stops, searches and killings. The research was conducted by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) [official website] at the request of San Francisco city officials and found [AP report] that, “police use force against blacks more often than other racial groups and pull over African American drivers at a disproportionately high rate[.]” The COPS report is meant to serve as a “road map” for police reform in the city and includes 272 suggestions for improvement.

The use of racial profiling by law enforcement officials has been an ongoing topic of discussion in the US. Earlier in October a US District Judge dismissed [JURIST report] a lawsuit filed by participants of the Ferguson riots that alleged police abuse. The complaint alleged that police were unlawfully violent when quelling riots in the wake of the 2014 Michael Brown killing. In April of last year the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that Arizona Sheriff Arpaio engaged in practices of racial profiling when conducting traffic stops, and in June a judge for the US District Court for the District of Arizona issued [JURIST reports] a pre-trial order accepting the other court’s finding of racial profiling. The case against Arpaio is on going and in October he was charged [JURIST report] for violating a court order that required him to end his immigration patrols.