5 Reasons We Won't Miss Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson

After five years as the chief of the Ferguson Police Department, Thomas Jackson announced his resignation this week.

The excoriated chief headed the department as the U.S. Department of Justice found a "pattern of unconstitutional policing" as well as procedures that prioritized bringing in revenue over providing security.

Jackson will stay on as chief until March 19 and then will receive about $96,000, his annual salary, in severance pay. He is the sixth Ferguson official to leave after the justice department report.

See also: 30 Shameful Stories About Ferguson Police from the Department of Justice Report

In honor of Jackson's imminent departure, Daily RFT looks back at some of his best worst moments:

The Silence

Jackson's resignation is the first time the police chief has made a peep since the justice department's release of its scathing 102-page report a week ago. Despite receiving advance notice of the report's findings, Jackson declined all interview requests after its release and failed to show up to Ferguson mayor James Knowles' press conference, where Knowles announced disciplinary actions against three employees associated with racist emails revealed in the report.

"The poor mayor," CNN's Anderson Cooper said Friday. "He's the one in front of the camera. The chief is running away like a cockroach."

Jackson, whose resignation doesn't take effect until March 19, did not even show up to the press conference announcing his resignation.

Solid. Sources say #Ferguson plans to announce the resignation of police chief Tom Jackson today. Mayor says chief is "out of town."

— Craig Cheatham (@CheathamKMOV) March 11, 2015

The Apology Video

When Jackson wasn't being obtusely silent, he made some bizarre and half-baked PR moves, like the apology video he released seven weeks after the police shooting that killed unarmed teen Michael Brown.

See also: Ferguson Police Chief Apologizes to Brown Family, Protesters: "I Feel Responsible"

On paper, Jackson's apology reads as sincere and direct. He apologizes both to the Brown family and to protesters in Ferguson.

"Please know that the investigating police never intended disrespect to Michael, to the Brown family, the Canfield neighborhood or the African American community," Jackson says in the video. "If that is the way it appeared to you or anyone else at the time, I personally apologize for that."

But the video's poor production cast Jackson, literally, in a bad light, which, combined with Jackson's ruddy complexion and crimson polo, make him look like an awkward, throbbing whitehead begging to be popped. The video conceived by Devin James -- who was fired from managing Ferguson's PR when news broke he was convicted for fatally shooting an unarmed man in 2004 -- makes Jackson seem agitated and overly concerned with his overnight ignominy.

Plus, the apology came nearly two months after Brown's death.

"Had it come weeks earlier, perhaps [the apology video] could have been the start of a much-needed reconciliation process in Ferguson," the Washington Post reported.

Instead, as Ferguson Democratic committeewoman Patricia Bynes put it, it was "too little too late."

Chief Jackson's apology to the Browns and the St. Louis community shouldn't be in the form of a scripted video, but in a resignation letter.

— Antonio French (@AntonioFrench) September 25, 2014

The Clusterfuck

Jackson wasn't done after that apology video. In a one-two punch of ineptitude, Jackson, again dressed in plain clothes, attempted to join the protesters who'd gathered in Ferguson to demand Jackson's resignation.

Jackson accepted a clergy member's offer to march with the protesters, apparently as a way to show solidarity and humility. But Jackson obviously hadn't consulted police officials tasked with securing the city he'd lost control of. With Jackson suddenly engulfed by a furious clusterfuck of a crowd that had been calling for his resignation for weeks, riot police burst into the crowd, creating a panicked frenzy and leading to four arrests.

For the record: This is the second riot this police chief has incited. He needs to resign. https://t.co/HBIxtcLPsU #Ferguson

— Antonio French (@AntonioFrench) September 26, 2014

"I don't think he was marching with the protesters more than 30 seconds before the riot cops came out into the crowd and tried to get themselves closer to him and protect him," said alderman Antonio French to NBC News. "Just them being out there pushing started stuff -- it's a complete misread of the situation. His very presence agitated the crowd."

Continue to the next page for more "highlights" from Chief Jackson's time in Ferguson.