The police chief of Ferguson, Missouri, resigned Wednesday, effective March 19, in the wake of a scathing Justice Department report prompted by the fatal shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old by a white police officer.
Jackson had previously resisted calls by protesters and some of Missouri's top elected leaders to step down over his handling of the August shooting of Michael Brown and the weeks of sometimes-violent protests that followed.
Jackson will receive a severance payment and one year of health insurance, the city said Wednesday in a statement. The statement said it planned to launch a nationwide search for a new police chief.
Several text and phone messages left with Mayor James Knowles III and Jackson were not returned.
Jackson, 57, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he felt it was time for the city to move on.
"I believe this is the appropriate thing to do at this time," Jackson said. "This city needs to move forward without any distractions."
The Department of Justice last week issued a report that cleared Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson of civil rights charges in the shooting, but found a profit-driven court system and widespread racial bias in the city police department.
Since then, two police officers, a court clerk, the municipal judge, and the city manager have been fired or resigned.
Reports said Jackson was not pushed out or fired. Protesters have called for his removal since the Brown's shooting last summer.
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