The Justice Department is preparing to sue the Ferguson Police Department for racial discrimination in its policing if it does not make changes to correct the problem voluntarily, CNN reports. The warning from the DOJ comes as it prepares to release the findings of its investigation into the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson and the alleged use of discriminatory tactics by the force as a whole.

“In weighing whether to bring discrimination charges against the Ferguson Police Department, the Justice Department has been ‘seriously examining’ allegations that the city’s enforcement of minor offenses discriminated against minorities and often led to jail time and to fines that lined the city’s coffers,” a law enforcement official confirmed to POLITICO on Tuesday. “Justice Department lawyers handling the investigation have repeatedly met with lawyers for a St. Louis nonprofit that filed a federal lawsuit last week alleging that the city of Ferguson and its neighbor, Jennings, were running what amounted to modern-day debtors’ prisons, people familiar with the meetings said.”