well it wasn't a single incident but a culmination of complaints about the Trenton Police Department that's prompting a federal investigation New Jersey's us attorney's office on Tuesday launched a probe into the capitol city and its police officers focusing on alleged use of force Federal authorities say they've received serious and credible reports of officers making illegal stops searches and arrests and the investigation is intended to root out possible civil rights violations senior correspondent Joanna gagas reports there are people being pulled over again you know just stopped and there's no justification in it there are incidents where abuse occurs where officers are putting their hands on Citizens Community Advocate Darren Freedom green says these instances of police misconduct even abuse happen weekly in Trenton they just punched him in all look at it in response to the community's outcry the Department of Justice yesterday announced it's opening an investigation into the Trenton police department and the City of Trenton there may be ongoing constitutional violations with how members of the Trenton Police Department operate this is why we are starting a civil rights investigation of the police department in the city of Trenton to determine whether there is a pattern or practice that deprives individuals of their rights us attorney Philip singer made the announcement after holding a town hall call recently where he heard these concerns directly from Trenton residents this investigation will focus on two core areas first whether the Trenton Police Department is engaged in a pattern or practice of using excessive force and second whether the Trenton Police Department is engaged in a pattern or practice of unlawfully stopping searching and arresting individuals traveling on foot or by car Singer's office reviewed countless public records and Trenton police body camera footage we can see you know numbers alone with the racial disparities already show there's a problem we have a city that's 49% black and yet 75% of all arrested are black individuals the force um used by law enforcement we know because the depart um New Jersey Office of the Attorney General in their use of force database we see that about 76% of all use of force report courts um were against individuals black individuals Trenton mayor Reed Gora met with the US attorney's office this morning to discuss the investigation which is one of more than 10 the doj has conducted we welcome any kind of uh scrutiny uh uh we we uh have to the priority is that constitutional um uh stops are conducted uh that there aren't any uh improp proper uh police Behavior behaviors so we welcome the scrutiny but he thinks the focus should be on crime in Trenton what the public demands is that we address the crime problem I'd rather have the our us attorney focus on the number of guns that are coming into the state and then we won't even need police all of this could result in a federal monitor being put in place to oversee structural changes to the police department just like Newark saw in 2015 green wants that kind of oversight when you look at history and all the issues that have often times taken place it has not until it reached the federal level that change and transformation from a policy Place often times impact the state and local level the US attorney will continue holding public feedback sessions as the investigations carried out over the next year I'm Joanna gagis NJ Spotlight news