A Philadelphia man claiming he was beaten by city police and subjected to a racial slur during an interrogation has lost his civil rights suit against the department.

Jermaine Hill's lawsuit, alleging the Philadelphia Police Department violated his Fourth Amendment rights, didn't point to a specific departmental policy that allowed the police to allegedly beat him, U.S. District Judge C. Darnell Jones of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled.

A municipality or police department can be held liable only if its policies or customs are considered constitutionally violative, according to the decision.