A US police department is investigating after officers handcuffed 11-year-old twins and a 17-year-old family friend at gunpoint.

The Grand Rapids Press posted police body camera footage of the August 26 encounter along a street in the Michigan city of Grand Rapids.

Officers responding to a report of juveniles with a handgun arrived at the scene shortly after, surrounding the trio, who were standing on the pavement outside a house at the time.

Each boy was handcuffed and searched.

Bodycam video of one of the twin’s arrest shows the boy being ordered onto his knees by police and weeping as he is handcuffed.

All of the boys were later released without being charged.

Grand Rapids police chief David Rahinsky said officers followed department policy on interacting with youth and that "when the allegation is someone has a firearm, the response has to be appropriate".

Chief Rahinsky also said the handcuffs were removed when no gun was found and that a grandfather was contacted.

Juanita Ligon, the mother of the twins, claims that her boys were racially profiled. All three boys are black.

"My 11 yr old boys were racially profiled by officers placed in cuffs and guns drawn!" Ms Ligon wrote on social media.

"This nonsense has to stop! Thank God they know how to respond to officers but they still was afraid."