User:Geo Swan/Thomas Jackson (Longwood Police Chief)

Thomas S. Jackson was a police officer in Florida. Jackson served as Chief of Police of Longwood, Florida from 1997 to May 2010. After his resignation in Longwood, Jackson became Chief of Police of Belle Isle, Florida, resigning in August 2010.

Questions had been raised by Jackson's decision to hire and promote Samer Majzoub, a convicted felon, as a Longwood police officer in 2009. According to Orlando television station WFTV convicted felons like Majzoub, are not eligible to serve as police officers in Florida. WFTV reports that, under's Jackson supervision, Majzoub was promoted to the rank of Commander. WFTV cited Grand Jury indictments that accused Jackson of hiring Mazjoub in return for tens of thousands of dollars in bribes. WFTV reported Jackson helped Majzoub obtain weapons which the terms of his probation prohibited him from acquiring.

In March 2003 Jackson testified into an inquiry into the police shooting of Jay Scott Duff. Duff was a disraught, 32 year old, former minor league baseball player whose death was ruled a suicide by cop. Heavily armed elements of the Longwood Police Department and the Seminole County Sheriff's department had surrounded Duff's house. The standoff ended with Sheriff's department riflemen who said they thought Duff had opened fire gunning him down with 48 bullets, most fired from military surplus assault rifles on full auto. After his death police found that Duff was not armed with a real gun, that they had been fooled into thinking he was armed by a toy gun. Forensic experts found that Jackson and all the other Longwood officers had held their fire.

In 2007 Jackson's suspension of his second in command, Lieutenant Troy Hickson, was reported in the Sanford Herald. An inquiry by an officer from a neighboring police force confirmed that Hickson had subjected subordinates to racial and sexual slurs. Hickson, in turn, claimed that other officers, from Jackson down, used similar slurs.

In May 2010 the New York Times chose Jackson as a source for an article on internet cafes that specialize in serving gamblers.