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By Julia Edwards and Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON, Nov 26 (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told civil rights activists the Justice Department would aggressively investigate police practices in Ferguson, Missouri, after a grand jury declined to indict a white officer who shot dead an unarmed black teenager, two of the activists said on Wednesday.

In a phone call late on Monday, Holder, the country's top law enforcer, said the Justice Department was "moving strongly" in its investigation of police patterns and practices, said Barbara Arnwine, executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, who was on the call.

Laura Murphy, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington legislative office, who was also on the call, said Holder is "very conscious of it needing to move quickly."

A Justice Department spokesman on Wednesday confirmed a call took place.

Police have arrested more than 400 people nationwide in two nights of protests that erupted after St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch announced on Monday the decision to not indict officer Darren Wilson in the fatal Aug. 9 shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

Should the Justice Department conclude that Ferguson police systematically violated citizens' rights, it can take action under a 1994 federal law that prohibits officers from engaging in a "pattern or practice" that deprives people of their constitutional rights.

The law gives the Justice Department considerable leverage in requiring police departments to institute reforms, such as installing an independent monitor or adopting new training policies. Police departments facing such claims usually enter into a settlement with the Justice Department. A settlement may be enforced by a federal judge if the two parties agree.

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