Ferguson city manager leaving in response to DOJ report

The city manager of Ferguson, Missouri, has resigned in the wake of a U.S. Justice Department probe that found a range of systemic racially biased practices by the police and municipal court, the city said on Tuesday.

Ferguson City Council voted unanimously at a meeting on Tuesday to accept the resignation of City Manager John Shaw effective immediately. The city manager is the highest-ranking, non-elected municipal official and oversees the police department.

Shaw was among several individuals heavily criticized in the Justice Department report issued last Wednesday. Shaw had held the position in the St. Louis suburb since 2007.

The Justice Department launched its investigation into Ferguson's police department and municipal court after the Aug. 9 shooting death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by a white police officer. federal law." 

The officer, Darren Wilson, was not charged by the DOJ in the shooting that triggered nationwide protests and widespread complaints of mistreatment of blacks by police, both at the time of the killing and the decision of a St. Louis grand jury not to charge Wilson.

Shaw's resignation from the post that paid $120,000 a year came after Ferguson Municipal Judge Ronald Brockmeyer, also criticized in the Justice Department report, resigned on Monday.

The Justice Department said it found that the mostly white police force in the mostly black community routinely targeted African-Americans for arrests and ticketing, in part to raise revenue for the city through fines and fees.

The department also found officers had a pattern of using excessive force, illegally arresting people without cause, deploying attack dogs and tasers on unarmed people.

The federal report said the city made it clear to the police chief and municipal judge that revenue generation must be a priority.

Central to Shaw’s resignation was his support for Brockmeyer, who was singled out in the DOJ report for his role in turning the courts into a money-making enterprise that heightened tensions among residents.

The DOJ report, in one instance, showed that Shaw responded to an email from Police Chief Tom Jackson about a record-setting month for court revenue — nearly $180,000 in February 2011 alone — with the exclamation, "Wonderful!"

And when Jackson told Shaw in January 2013 that municipal court revenue had exceeded $2 million the previous year, the city manager was similarly excited.

"Awesome!" he said, according to the federal inquiry.

But in a statement issued after the announcement of his departure, Shaw said his office "never instructed the police department to target African Americans, nor falsify charges to administer fines, nor heap abuses on the backs of the poor. Any inferences of that kind from the report are simply false."

Some protesters, business leaders and state and federal officials have also called for the ouster of Police Chief Tom Jackson.

"We have had all the eyes of the world on us in this tragedy," said Joe Reagan, chief executive of the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association. "We have to focus on restoring trust in the justice system. Leadership changes are needed."

A news release from the city on Tuesday evening said the Council had reached a "mutual separation agreement" with Shaw, effective immediately. The statement also said a nationwide search for Shaw's replacement would begin right away.

"I believe that the city of Ferguson has the resolve to overcome the challenges it faces in the coming months and emerge as a stronger community for it," Shaw, 39, said in a statement included with the release.

Since Brown's death seven months ago, Mayor James Knowles, a part-time officeholder who earns less than $5,000 annually, has been the public face and voice of Ferguson's city government.

Shaw was Ferguson's city manager for eight years. He had previously worked as city clerk and assistant to the city administrator in Shrewsbury, another town in St. Louis County.

Shaw has not spoken publicly about the shooting, protests, grand jury inquiry or Justice Department investigation.

Wire services