In a news conference on Thursday, Mayor Paul Young said that the city has been taking steps to address police abuses but is sceptical of entering a binding agreement with the federal government, known as a consent decree.

“We believe we can make more effective and meaningful change by working together with community input and independent national experts than with a bureaucratic, costly and complicated federal government consent decree,” Young said.

The Justice Department released the investigation, carried out by its civil rights division, on Wednesday.The 73-page report found that Black people in Memphis are arrested or penalised for loitering and curfew violations at 13 times the rate for white people. Local law enforcement also cites or arrests Black people for disorderly conduct at 3.6 times the rate for white people.

Most notably, the investigation concluded that Memphis Police Department (MPD) officers “regularly escalate” situations involving nonviolent offences.

“MPD officers resort to force likely to cause pain or injury almost immediately in response to low-level,nonviolent offenses, even when people are not aggressive,” the report explained.

But the report added that police officers accused of beating people in restraints or handcuffs face little accountability from supervisors.

The Justice Department’s investigation was initiated after a video emerged of Memphis police beating a 29-year-old Black man named Tyre Nichols in 2023.Nichols was pulled from his car during a traffic stop, and when he broke free and fled, five officers pursued him into a residential neighbourhood where his mother lived.

They pulled Nichols to the ground, hitting and kicking him while he called out to his mother for help.

That beating is one of several instances of police abuse that have sparked nationwide protests and calls to address discrimination in the US policing and the criminal justice system.

In October, a federal jury convicted three police officers of charges related to the beating. An autopsy found Nichols died from repeated blows to the head.

Black residents of the city and criminal justice activists say they had been expressing their frustration with police practices for years before the fatal beating of Nichols.

But city officials have sought to walk a line between acknowledging the thorny issues around policing and committing to enforceable changes.

Memphis City Attorney Tannera Gibson said in a letter to the Justice Department that the city is not ready to discuss potential reforms with the police department, stating that authorities need time to look through the findings.

Gibson also suggested that the investigation had been rushed, since it “only took 17 months to complete, compared to an average of 2-3 years in almost every other instance”.

In a news conference on Thursday, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division called the probe “comprehensive and exhaustive”.

“The people of Memphis deserve a police department and city that protects their civil and constitutional rights, garners trust and keeps them safe,” said Clarke.

This includes unnecessarily escalating encounters with some of the city’s “most vulnerable” residents, Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general, said on Thursday.

The justice department began investigating the police force for the Tennessee city in 2023, after the death of Tyre Nichols, who was brutally beaten by police during a traffic stop.

In its report from the investigation, released on Wednesday, the department said Memphis police “must correct these issues” that it said were part of a “pattern” of civil rights violations.

In response to the justice department’s report and calls for change, the mayor of Memphis, Paul Young, said on Thursday that the city has already enacted reforms.

While the report acknowledged these changes, it also said there are “additional remedial measures” needed “to fully address” the listed issues.

On Wednesday, the city of Memphis sent a letter to the justice department, suggesting that the investigation concluded too soon.

Signed by Chief Legal Officer Tannera Gibson, the city’s letter said the investigation “only took 17 months to complete, compared to an average of 2-3 years… implying a rush to judgement”.

In the press conference on Thursday, Ms Clarke called the investigation “comprehensive and exhaustive”.

The investigation included interviews with dozens of police, residents, and city officials, she said, and reviews of thousands of documents and hundreds of hours body-camera footage.

It found that, along with using excessive force, the Memphis police “stop, search, and arrest people unlawfully” and “discriminate against people with behavioural disabilities”, Ms Clarke said.

It also found “their policies have a discriminatory effect on black people”, she said.In one instance, she said, officers tackled a man and held him down by his neck for littering in a park.

The justice department sent a consent decree to Memphis city officials on Wednesday, which would require federal oversight to ensure changes are made. Memphis so far has not signed onto the agreement.In its response letter, city officials said they did not have “adequate time or opportunity to review” the justice department’s findings before agreeing, local news reported.

The city “can make more effective and meaningful change by working together with community input” rather than a “costly and complicated federal government consent decree”, Mayor Young said.

Ms Clarke said on Thursday that the justice department could sue the city if it refuses to comply.

“The people of Memphis deserve a police department and city that protects their civil and constitutional rights, garners trust and keeps them safe,” Ms Clarke said.Video footage of the 7 January 2023 incident involving Tyre Nichols shows police officers using Tasers, as well as kicking and punching Mr Nichols after he was pulled over whilst driving.

He died three days later in hospital. An autopsy report said the cause was blunt force injuries.

Five former Memphis police officers involved were fired and later charged with federal civil rights violations over Mr Nichols’ death.Two officers pled guilty and the other three were found guilty by a jury.

Mr Nichols was black, as are the former officers.

His death led to national outcries for police reform and drew intense scrutiny towards Memphis’s police department, where more than 50% of officers are black.

Roughly 64% of Memphis residents are also black.