Jackson West

Officer **Jackson West** was a main character on *The Rookie*. He was a Police Officer I assigned to the Mid-Wilshire Division. His training officer was Angela Lopez during Seasons 1-2. His training officer in Season 3 was Doug Stanton during episodes 2-5. Quigley Smitty also routinely filled in as his training officer whenever Lopez was not available. In "Amber", West was promoted to Police Officer II. West and his training officers usually worked the 7-Adam-07 beat. West's badge number was 33356. He was portrayed by Titus Makin.

## Biography

### Season 1

In "Pilot", West considers himself the most prepared rookie officer in the history of the LAPD. He appears to have most penal codes and procedures memorized. His father, Percy West, is also the head of internal affairs in the LAPD.

He is assigned to Lopez as his Training Officer, and he initially struggles with firing his weapon, as he is afraid of doing so. Lopez covers for him when Captain Andersen asks him why he didn't fire his weapon, as she doesn't want to be blamed for his failure.

In "The Switch", West is assigned to Bradford, who learns of his struggles when he freezes during a shootout. Bradford angrily confronts Lopez, as she let him go on patrol with a "broken rookie".

Bradford later takes West to a man who has not left his apartment since a hate crime occurred against him and the man helps West overcome his fears. West later saves Bradford's life during a shootout at a supermarket involving several drug dealers, impressing Bradford.

In "Redwood", it is revealed that West is estranged from his mother, as she has never forgiven him for "choosing the job over family". In "Heartbreak", he meets a nurse named Gino Brown, with whom he later is shown in a relationship. They later break up in "The Shake Up" after having several disagreements.

In "Caught Stealing" it's obvious that West sticks to the letter of the law, rather than the spirit; Lopez schools him on being more flexible.

In "Manhunt", a prisoner tells Jackson that he knew Percy West years ago and that Percy messed with evidence in order to get the prisoner convicted. Jackson doesn't believe him, but when he confronts his dad in "Homefront", the latter says he "did what we had to do" and Jackson rejects Percy's excuses.

In "Free Fall", West makes up with Percy, as Percy sees how brave he was when he and Lopez cornered and killed terrorist Brendan Mitchell after Mitchell threatened to expose everyone on the bus to the deadly virus.

### Season 2

In Season 2, West receives his score on the mid-term exam and is dismayed to find it close to failing. As a result, Grey tells West that he'll still be supervised and subject to daily reports until Grey is satisfied with his performance. This also means he will have to return to wearing long sleeves.

In "The Night General", West's landlord is arrested on drug charges and West must find a new place to live in short order. After he's endured a couple of undesirable options, Chen comes to his rescue and they become roommates.

In "Tough Love", West finally earns Grey's trust after flipping a confidential informant from an FBI special agent. As a result, West can now wear short sleeves.

In "Clean Cut", West is exposed to a unknown substance during a traffic stop and begins hallucinating, which worries Lopez, as the man they arrested had a prior conviction for possession of PCP. However, after West and Lopez visit Grace Sawyer at Shaw Memorial, she later tells him that he had been exposed to a combination of horse vitamins and caffeine and had been experiencing the symptoms of being high due to an allergic reaction to the substance. With West finally good to go, he receives a special award from the deputy chief along with Bradford.

In "Breaking Point", West meets Sterling Freeman, a male actor on a major procedural television show (Hot Suspect) which West is a fan of. Grey assigns West and Lopez to help with the show and to teach the actors proper police procedure. West and Freeman begin dating at the conclusion of the episode after falling for one another.

In "Now and Then", West pretends to break up with Freeman due to Freeman's celebrity status, he is forced to do this because of an incident at a previous call. They are still together, despite the public now believing that they had broken up.

In "Hand-Off", West solves a murder on his own after being stuck at the station because Lopez had gone to testify at the parole hearing of the man who nearly killed Sgt. Grey. When Grey returns to the station that evening, West is eager to tell him what had happened, and Grey is impressed.

In "The Q Word", West is devastated following the death of Chris Rios, because the two had been close friends. Chen later comforts him in their apartment and West becomes determined to find Rios's killer; he eventually arrests Serj Derian in "The Hunt".

### Season 3

In "Consequences", Lopez is promoted to Detective, which means that West will need a new training officer.

In "In Justice", West gets a new T.O. for his last month as a rookie. The T.O., Doug Stanton, is blatantly racist, which prompts West to enlist help from Sergeant Grey to bring Stanton up on report.

West seems to have a steady boyfriend in Sterling Freeman, whom he meets in "Breaking Point", until West finds out Freeman has been lying about his past in "True Crime", at which point West says they have "gone their separate ways."

In "Lockdown", West gets badly beaten by four suspects; it is found later that his T.O., Doug Stanton, failed to come to West's aid, but allowed him to get beaten while he remained in hiding. Stanton is then relieved of duty and headed for disciplinary action. He was later fired from the LAPD.

In "Amber", West is promoted to Police Officer II. In the episode "Man of Honor", he and Lucy Chen rode together while on patrol.

In "Triple Duty", West was interviewed by Fiona Ryan, Nolan's college professor and gives his story on why he wants change in the police force because of his experience with Stanton. He was later dismayed to find Stanton was successful in appealing his termination and is reinstated in the LAPD, albeit a demotion to Officer II and stripped of his FTO role and seniority, while transferred to the Hollywood Division. West went to Ryan about this and she wanted him by going public with this but Grey convinced Hollywood Division's Watch Commander, Sergeant Stella Porter, to show this bodycam footage to the division. As the video is being played, the officers opinion of Stanton changed, giving him looks of disbelief and disappointment. When Stanton tries to squeeze his way out, a satisfied West assures him they now know his true colors.

He later attends Angela and Wesley's wedding, but the ceremony is disrupted when Sandra de la Cruz' men kidnap him and Lopez.

### Season 4

In "Life and Death", the squad watch camera footage where Jackson is revealed to have been shot in the back and killed by one of Sandra de la Cruz' men while trying to escape capture. However, Jackson was able to scratch his assailant, getting some of his DNA. Sergeant Grey then reveals the DNA was processed and matched. Grey later arrests Jackson's killer, Armando, admitting that he would love to kill him in retribution for Jackson's death. However, he takes him into custody, knowing Jackson wouldn't approve.

At the end of the episode, Angela Lopez is seen at Jackson's grave, paying her respects and it is revealed that she named her newborn son after him.

## Legacy

Following his death, Chen asks Tamara Colins to move into his old room as her roommate. While both women have mixed feelings about the transition (Chen still trying to come to terms with his death and Tamara feeling that she is erasing his memory), both agree that West would want something good to come out of his death, if it meant Tamara was able to finally have a place to call home.

## Memorable Quote

* *"They do now."* *(Season 3 Episode 13 "Triple Duty", after his bodycam footage was shown to the squad)*

## Trivia

* He was the first LGBTQ character to appear on *The Rookie*.
* In "Safety" he says that he's 26 years old.
	+ In "Lockdown" Officer Bradford says that West is 24 years old either by mistake or by continuity error.
* In "La Fiera" he says that he's a graduate of University of California, Los Angeles.
* In "Triple Duty", he reveals most of his family are cops such as his uncles, two aunts, and several of his cousins.
* His gravestone, seen at the end of "Life and Death", features an LAPD badge and reads "Beloved son, Faithful friend, Fierce protector".
* It is unknown how his family reacted to his death, as they have not been seen after Season 3.
* He was a football star in high school.