Ferguson police chief Tom Jackson will resign Wednesday, a high-ranking city official confirmed to CBS News.
The development comes a week after a Department of Justice report heavily criticized the Ferguson police department for bias against African American citizens.
The report charged that police disproportionately use excessive force against blacks and that black drivers are stopped and searched far more often than white motorists, even though they’re less likely to be carrying contraband.
Jackson was rumored for several months to be resigning, but it was never confirmed. Just three weeks ago in an interview with CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds, Chief Jackson said he had no plans to resign.
Jackson’s departure comes seven months after the shooting death of 18-year-old African American teen Michael Brown by Darren Wilson, a white police officer who was later cleared of criminal charges by a grand jury and the Justice Department.
On Tuesday, the Ferguson city manager left his position after a vote by the city council.
The manager John Shaw, who originally hired Jackson, denied that he was complicit in anything the Justice Department’s findings highlighted.
“My office has never instructed the police department to target African Americans, nor falsify charges to administer fines, nor heap abuses on the backs of the poor,” Shaw said in a statement.
Last week two police commanders resigned and the city court clerk was fired after the Justice Department report revealed racially charged emails between city employees.
At a press conference also last week, Ferguson mayor Mayor James Knowles III said that the Justice Department’s findings allow his administration to focus on racial problems in Ferguson and in the St. Louis region as well (cont’d)
