The Department of Justice announced Thursday it is opening a civil rights investigation into potentially racist policing practices within the Rankin County Sheriffs Office in Mississippi.

In April, five deputies from Rankin County were sentenced to prison for violating the civil rights of two Black men. Self-styled as the Goon Squad, the five white deputies beat and tortured Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker during a no-warrant home raid in January 2023.

The five Rankin County Goon Squad deputies who assaulted Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Parker are in prison. But our prosecution of the goon squad deputies does not mean that the inadequate practices that may have fostered it have ended, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said at a news conference in Washington. Our investigation will answer that question.

Clarke said the department will investigate whether deputies in the sheriffs office practice excessive force, unlawful traffic stops, searches and arrests along with racially discriminatory policing practices.

The Justice Department has initiated several investigations into law enforcement departments across the country over the last four years, including in Louisville, Kentucky; Memphis, Tennessee; and Phoenix. Earlier this year, the department launched an investigation into the police department in Lexington, Mississippi, a town in Holmes County thats about an hour from Rankin County.