WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department won't prosecute former a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer in the shooting death of an unarmed black 18-year-old, but in a scathing report released Wednesday faulted the city and its law enforcement for racial bias. 
 
 FILE - In this Nov. 26, 2014, file photo, nembers of Missouri National Guard stand outside of the Ferguson Police Department and the Municipal Court in Ferguson, Mo. A Justice Department investigation... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Nov. 25, 2014 file photo, police officers watch protesters as smoke fills the streets in Ferguson, Mo. after a grand jury's decision in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. A Justice Department... (Associated Press) 
 
 Federal officials concluded there was no evidence to disprove former officer Darren Wilson's testimony that he feared for his safety, nor was there reliable evidence that Michael Brown had his hands up when he was shot. 
 
 The decision in the August 9 shooting had been expected, in part because of the high legal standard needed for a federal civil rights prosecution. Wilson, who has said Brown struck him in the face and reached for his gun during a tussle, also had been cleared by a Missouri grand jury in November and later resigned from the department. 
 
 The report said blacks in Ferguson are disproportionately subject to excessive police force, baseless traffic stops and citations for infractions as petty as walking down the middle of the street. 
 
 Attention now turns to Ferguson as the city confronts how to fix racial biases that the federal government says are deeply rooted in the police department, court and jail. 
 
 Similar federal investigations of troubled police departments have led to the appointment of independent monitors and mandated overhauls in the most fundamental of police practices. The Justice Department maintains the right to sue a police department if officials balk at making changes, though many investigations resolve the issue with both sides negotiating a blueprint for change known as a consent decree. 
 
 "It's quite evident that change is coming down the pike. This is encouraging," said John Gaskin III, a St. Louis community activist. "It's so unfortunate that Michael Brown had to be killed. But in spite of that, I feel justice is coming." 
 
 Others said the federal government's findings confirmed what they had long known and should lead to change in the police department leadership. 
 
 Brown's killing set off weeks of protests and initiated a national dialogue about police use of force and their relations with minority communities. A separate report being issued soon is expected to clear the officer, Darren Wilson, of federal civil rights charges. A state grand jury already declined to indict Wilson, who has since resigned. 
 
 The findings of the investigation, which began weeks after Brown's killing last August, were released as Attorney General Eric Holder prepares to leave his job following a six-year tenure that focused largely on civil rights. The report is based on interviews with police leaders and residents, a review of more than 35,000 pages of police records and analysis of data on stops, searches and arrests. ||||| The parents of Michael Brown plan to file a wrongful-death lawsuit in the near future, their attorneys announced Thursday. They will sue the city of Ferguson and Darren Wilson, the former Ferguson police officer who fatally shot their son. 
 
 That news followed Wednesday’s release of the U.S. Justice Department report on its investigation into the shooting on Aug. 9. 
 
 The report concluded that it was reasonable for Wilson to be afraid of Brown in their encounter last summer, and thus the officer cannot be prosecuted for killing the unarmed 18-year-old. 
 
 A St. Louis County grand jury already declined to indict Wilson on any criminal charges. 
 
 The decisions by state and federal authorities not to charge Wilson have no legal bearing on a civil case, said Steve Ryals, a local civil rights attorney. 
 
 But, as a practical matter, the lack of charges could influence a jury. 
 
 “It’s going to be virtually impossible to find a panel that has not heard of this,” Ryals said. “In the mind of many people, the decision of federal government is the end.” 
 
 Brown’s parents — Lesley McSpadden and Michael Brown Sr. — said nothing as they stood behind their attorneys at a news conference Thursday at Greater St. Mark Family Church near Ferguson. 
 
 Brown family attorney Anthony Gray said the civil suit would “outline pretty much the same evidence” that state and federal prosecutors considered. 
 
 “However, you will get a more clear, more accurate picture of what took place that day,” Gray said. “We feel, as we’ve always felt from the very beginning, that Officer Darren Wilson did not have to shoot and kill Mike Brown Jr. in broad daylight in the manner that he did. That other options (were) available to him.” 
 
 Gray and another family attorney, Daryl Parks, told reporters that although the evidence was largely the same, a civil action had a different burden of proof than for prosecutors considering criminal charges. 
 
 The burden for a civil action is a “preponderance of the evidence,” Parks said. Basically, that means there is just enough evidence to make it more likely than not that the allegations brought in the suit are true. 
 
 “Really what it means is you have to tilt the scales greater than 50 percent,” Ryals said. 
 
 Meeting the standard in a criminal case of “beyond a reasonable doubt” is a far greater burden. 
 
 Gray said that the case would be presented to a civil jury of “reasonably minded people” and that he expected the suit to be filed “very shortly.” 
 
 Wilson’s attorney, Neil Bruntrager, agreed that the standards in civil and criminal cases were different, but that he believes the evidence gathered by state and federal prosecutors “overwhelmingly demonstrates that the events of Aug. 9 were lawful and reasonable under the circumstances.” 
 
 “The change in the standards is not going to change what happened that day,” Bruntrager said. 
 
 Bruntrager said settlements were often against municipalities and not individual officers. 
 
 “They’re usually more concerned about the municipality because that’s the deep pocket,” he said. 
 
 The Department of Justice released a report accusing the Ferguson Police Department of racially biased policing, along with a report clearing Wilson of any criminal wrongdoing. 
 
 In a speech Wednesday about the investigations, Attorney General Eric Holder reiterated his belief that the police department was in need of wholesale change. 
 
 “There should be no unanswered questions here and we certainly shouldn’t leave any question about what happened that day on the table,” Bruntrager said. “My biggest argument with the attorney general is that he should have said that this is an exoneration of Darren Wilson, and instead he used the phrase, ‘No prosecutable conduct.’ 
 
 “Does that mean there was bad conduct, but we can’t prosecute? His duty was to make sure people understand that there was no crime committed because if you want people to heal and get back into the mode that you can have confidence in all of the agencies that looked at this, you’ve got to say there was no crime.” 
 
 At Wednesday’s news conference, Parks said the family and legal team didn’t accept that Wilson acted in self defense. Parks indicated the suit would include others, but declined to elaborate. 
 
 A second report released by the Justice Department on Wednesday accused the Ferguson Police Department and courts of unfairly targeting African-Americans, searching people without probable cause, abusing authority to quash protests and routinely violating civil rights. 
 
 Parks said the “only encouraging part was what they found” in that report, as opposed to the department’s finding that Wilson could not be prosecuted. 
 
 Wilson resigned in November. 
 
 MORE ON FERGUSON 
 
 Ferguson officer did not violate Michael Brown’s rights, DOJ finds 
 
 Ferguson emails reveal racial bias, DOJ says 
 
 SPECIAL REPORT: Post-Dispatch special report on Ferguson 
 
 TIMELINE: The events as they unfolded 
 
 PDF: Justice Department report on Ferguson Police Dept. 
 
 PDF: Justice Department report on Michael Brown shooting investigation
– Former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson won't face federal charges in the shooting death of Michael Brown, the Department of Justice announced today, ending what the New York Times calls a "lengthy investigation" since the teen's death in August with an expected outcome. In so doing, federal investigators rejected the theory that Brown had his hands up and was surrendering to Wilson. "There is no evidence upon which prosecutors can rely to disprove Wilson's stated subjective belief that he feared for his safety," reads the report. "Some of those accounts are inaccurate because they are inconsistent with the physical and forensic evidence; some of those accounts are materially inconsistent with that witnesses' own prior statements with no explanation." The report pulled no punches, however, in what the AP calls its "scathing" assessment of the city's police force and the racial bias rampant within it. "It is time for Ferguson's leaders to take immediate, wholesale, and structural corrective action," says outgoing AG Eric Holder in a statement, per the Times. He's expected to speak this afternoon. While Wilson won't be charged—which was unlikely given the high legal threshold for civil rights violations, notes the AP—pressure is on the police force to make changes or face a DoJ lawsuit. "It's quite evident that change is coming down the pike. This is encouraging," a St. Louis community activist tells the AP. "It's so unfortunate that Michael Brown had to be killed. But in spite of that, I feel justice is coming."