The U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday it found a series of civil rights violations by a small-town Mississippi police department, accusing officers of routinely using excessive force and arresting people who owed fines for minor traffic offenses.

The police in the small city of Lexington, Miss., routinely made unjustified arrests, used excessive force and trampled on civil rights, investigators said.

The United States Justice Department announced today that they have found civil rights violations by the Lexington Police Department and the City of Lexington.