The Justice Department has launched a preliminary review of the Seattle Police Department to determine whether its officers have engaged in a pattern of unnecessary force, particularly against minorities.

The federal review is in response to a request last month by the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington (ACLU) and 34 other community groups that asked the Justice Department to investigate police use of force in several recent high-profile incidents, including the fatal shooting of John T. Williams.

U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan said Monday she met last week with officials from the Police Department and the office of Mayor Mike McGinn, representatives of the City Council and some of the community groups pushing for the investigation.

Durkan said attorneys from the federal department's Civil Rights Division in Washington, D.C., will travel to Seattle in early February to begin the process.

The review will be broad and include Justice Department scrutiny of instances of alleged criminal civil-rights violations by individual officers as well as a "global" look at the department to determine whether, as the ACLU and others allege, there exists a "pattern and practice" of civil-rights violations by officers.