James Knowles III, the mayor of Ferguson, said last week that he did not know what the Justice Department had found or would conclude. But he criticized Mr. Holder for saying recently that wholesale change was needed in Ferguson’s police department. 
 
 “How come they haven’t told us there is something that needs to be changed as they found it?” Mr. Knowles asked. “Why have they allowed whatever they think is happening to continue to happen for six months if that’s the case?” 
 
 Mr. Holder has stood by his remarks, saying they were based on his deep understanding of the case. “The reality is, I’ve been briefed all along on this matter,” he said at a news conference recently. 
 
 The Ferguson case will be the last in a long string of civil rights investigations into police departments that Mr. Holder has directed during his tenure. Since he became attorney general in 2009, the Justice Department has opened more than 20 such investigations and issued strong rebukes of departments in Cleveland and Albuquerque, accusing them of excessive force and unwarranted shootings. 
 
 The Ferguson report, however, is expected to more closely resemble last summer’s report into police activities in Newark. There, as in Ferguson, the police stopped black people at a significantly higher rate than whites. “This disparity is stark and unremitting,” the Justice Department wrote in that report, which concluded that African-Americans “bear the brunt” of the city’s unconstitutional police practices. 
 
 In some cities investigated by the Justice Department, such as Albuquerque and Portland, Ore., city officials have said they are open to making changes and quickly reaching an agreement with the department to fix problems. Others have taken a more confrontational approach, did not settle and faced a federal civil rights lawsuit. The Justice Department has four such lawsuits open, including one against Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz., and another against Sheriff Terry S. Johnson of Alamance County, N.C. ||||| Attorney General Eric Holder called the need for “wholesale change” in the Ferguson, Missouri, police department as being “pretty clear” and “appropriate.” His comments on Wednesday came in light of revelations from local and federal officials that a plan is in the works to shakeup the police department, including a possible resignation of Chief Thomas Jackson and potential dismantling the department. 
 
 “I think it’s pretty clear that the need for wholesale change in that department is appropriate. Exactly what the form of that change will be, I think, we’ll wait until we complete our inquiry,” Holder said in an interview with Jonathan Capehart during the Washington Ideas Forum on Wednesday. 
 
 RELATED: St. Louis police spend big money on riot gear, just in case 
 
 MSNBC reported early Wednesday morning that local, state and federal officials were working on plans for major change in the department. According to sources with knowledge of the plans, new developments could include the resignations of Chief Jackson and Officer Darren Wilson, whose shooting and killing of an unarmed black teenager in August sent the city spiraling in unrest. 
 
 Close video Eric Holder: 'Wholesale change' needed in Ferguson police department Eric Holder talks about the report of a deal being worked out that would remove the Ferguson police chief and Officer Darren Wilson, who fatally shot Michael Brown. share tweet email save Embed 
 
 Another source with direct knowledge of the plans described them as “extremely delicate” and said the details are still being hashed out in closed-door meetings between Ferguson city and St. Louis County officials. Federal officials tell msnbc that the Justice Department is also being consulted. 
 
 Jackson’s resignation could come as early as next week, three sources said. As part of the plan, the resignation would be the first move ahead of a complete takeover of the department by the St. Louis County police. A source within the Obama administration confirmed with msnbc that plans for a shakeup of the Ferguson Police Department were in the works, but said that details have not been fully worked out. 
 
 When Holder was asked about the reports, the attorney general declined to comment, citing the Justice Department’s pattern and practice investigation of the police department. The Justice Department is conducting a civil rights investigation into the shooting death of teenager Michael Brown Jr., as well as the entire department for allegations of past discriminatory practices. 
 
 Jackson told NBC News late on Tuesday night that “I have not been asked to resign, I have not been fired, and I will not be resigning next week. If I do resign, it will be my choice.” Multiple sources told msnbc on Wednesday that it was unclear if Jackson had been aware of the back-channel conversations that included him being removed from his position. 
 
 Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III denied plans for Jackson to resign, telling the St. Louis Post-Dispatch via text that “He’s stayed strong with us till this point. Don’t see that changing.” Knowles also said that the city had not been asked by federal officials to contemplate dismantling the police force. Close video Eric Holder: Sources of Ferguson leaks need to 'shut up' Attorney General Eric Holder talks about the recent “tsunami of leaks” from the Michael Brown investigation. share tweet email save Embed 
 
 Shortly before news of the plans were first published by media outlets, the Ferguson City Council passed resolutions calling for state reforms to the process of investigating deadly force by law enforcement. One resolution called for the general assembly to enact legislation that would “establish a clear process for investigation of an response to cases involving a law enforcement officers use of deadly force.” Another would require state police agencies to report annually their use of force data, including the number of incidents and the circumstances surrounding them. 
 
 The resolutions were passed without opposition, and are the latest moves by the city council to patch what many black residents describe as a criminal justice system that has been rigged against them. 
 
 RELATED: St. Louis police spend big money on riot gear, just in case 
 
 News of the behind the scene efforts to restructure the Ferguson police force comes as community leaders and residents anxiously await a grand jury’s decision as to indict or not to indict Officer Wilson in Brown’s death, and amid a string of recent leaks from the grand jury and investigation. 
 
 Holder on Wednesday called the leaks inappropriate and expressed his discontent with what he described as an attempt to shape public opinion in the case. 
 
 “I’ve said I’m exasperated. That’s a nice way of saying I’m mad, because that’s just not how things should be done,” he said. “Whoever the sources of the leaks are need to shut up.”
– Black drivers in Ferguson, Mo., are pulled over much more for traffic stops than white drivers—and this imbalance is the crux of a forthcoming and damning Justice Department report, the New York Times reports. The nearly finished findings, according to law enforcement officials who say they've been briefed on it, are expected to show how systematic discriminatory actions helped stoke tensions in the period before Michael Brown's shooting death last summer by officer Darren Wilson. The report is also said to suggest that ticket fines are used to keep the city's budget in line, the Times notes. If those issued a ticket can't pay it, they can keep going to jail for the unpaid fees, which has proven lucrative for the city: "Fines and public safety" are Ferguson's second-largest revenue source (sales tax is the first), per the Times. Although blacks in Ferguson only make up 63% of the population, they were involved in 86% of the city's 2013 traffic stops, per Missouri AG info cited by the Times. And the search rate for blacks after a stop was twice that of whites during that time period, though whites were significantly more likely to have "contraband." Mayor James Knowles III has already taken umbrage with the alleged findings and for recent statements by AG Eric Holder, who said in October that "wholesale change" was needed in the Ferguson PD. "How come they haven't told us there is something that needs to be changed as they found it?" Knowles told the Times last week. "Why have they allowed whatever they think is happening to continue to happen for six months if that's the case?" Also said to be included in the report: a racist joke believed to have been emailed among city officials, law enforcement officials tell the Times.