Ferguson Police Chief Resigns a Week After Justice Department Report
— -- Embattled Ferguson police chief Tom Jackson resigned today from his post in the wake of the Justice Department's report on widespread racial bias in the Missouri city's government, according to a city spokesman.
Jackson's resignation, which was announced this afternoon by city spokesman Jeff Small, makes him the sixth person who has been fired or forced to resign since the report was released March 4 detailing what it described as rampant racial bias in policing in the St. Louis suburb.
The letter announcing Jackson's resignation described it as "a mutual decision by both the Police Chief and the City's administration."
Lt. Col. Al Eickhoff will take over as the acting Chief of Police starting Thursday as the city launches a national search for a new chief of police, the letter stated.
Ferguson Mayor James Knowles said tonight that Jackson's one-year severance will be on par with his salary, which is roughly $100,000.
"The chief is the kind of honorable man that you don't have to go to, he comes to you when he knows this is something we have to seriously discuss," Knowles said.
Knowles added that the decision came "after a lot of soul searching" but that Jackson "felt this was the best thing to move forward."
Jackson had initially came under fire in August for his department's handling of the shooting death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown. In November, Jackson told ABC News that he had no plans to resign.
"I do not intend to resign or step down," he said at the time. "I'm going to see this through."
Knowles said that Eickoff joined the Ferguson police force in early August before Brown's shooting.
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