WASHINGTON – The Justice Department launched a broad investigation Thursday into the police department in Ferguson, Missouri, following the shooting last month of an unarmed black 18-year-old by a white police officer.

The investigation, which goes beyond an existing federal probe into the Aug. 9 shooting, will look for patterns of discrimination within the predominantly white department and focus on how officers use force, search and arrest suspects and treat inmates at the city jail.

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Attorney General Eric Holder pauses during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington on Thursday, where he announced that the Justice Department’s civil rights division will launch a broad investigation in the Ferguson, Mo., Police Department. The Associated Press

The police department said it welcomed the investigation.

In announcing the action, Attorney General Eric Holder, who visited the St. Louis suburb two weeks ago, said he heard repeated and consistent concerns from community members about general police practices and a lack of diversity on the police force.

That experience influenced the decision to seek a wide- ranging probe into the department.

“I heard from them directly about the deep mistrust that has taken hold between law enforcement officials and members of the community,” Holder said, adding that other evidence reviewed so far – including traffic stop data – appeared to validate community concerns.

The inquiry is part of a broader Justice Department effort to investigate troubled police departments and, when pervasive problems are found, direct changes to be made.

The department says it has investigated 20 police departments for a variety of systemic misconduct in the past five years, more than twice the number of cases opened in the previous five years.

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