A Justice Department report says blacks in Ferguson, Missouri, are disproportionately subject to excessive police force, baseless traffic stops and citations for infractions as petty as walking down the middle of a street.

City officials said on Tuesday they were reviewing the report. With scathing findings of a monthslong investigation being released, the St. Louis suburb will confront the question of how to fix racial biases that the federal government says are rooted in the police department, court system and jail.

The full report could serve as a road map for significant changes by the department, which drew international attention after a white officer shot and killed an unarmed black man, 18-year-old Michael Brown, last summer.

The officer, Darren Wilson, was not indicted by a grand jury.

Brown's death set off weeks of protests and initiated a national dialogue about the use of force by the police and officers' relations with minority communities.