Community Relations Service: a catalyst for calm

FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin,The, Feb, 1995

Racial conflicts in communities can result in widespread violence and even death. Small incidents easily escalate into community-wide disturbances. In the wake of the Los Angeles riots in April 1992, community leaders and police administrators across the country renewed the search for effective means to settle disputes and reduce racial tensions before they become violent confrontations. An often-overlooked resource available to communities, organizations, and individuals to help resolve such conflicts is the Community Relations Service (CRS), a component of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Origin and Mission

The 1964 Civil Rights Act(1) established the Community Relations Service and charged it with providing assistance to settle disputes that involve allegations of discriminatory practices throughout the United States. The CRS has 10 regional and 4 field offices located in major cities nationwide. Conciliation specialists in those offices aid civic leaders, police administrators, business executives, and school administrators in addressing race-related problems. They help organizations assess racial tension, perceptions of disparity, and problems related to discriminatory practices based on race, color, or national origin. These trained conciliation specialists provide an impartial presence in mediation and conciliation of conflicts. In addition, the CRS staff offers educational programs and materials that cover a range of related topics, including cultural awareness, community-oriented policing, and communication skills.

Requests for Assistance

The 1964 Civil Rights Act authorizes the CRS to offer assistance in two ways. First, in the reactive mode, CRS personnel respond to requests for assistance made by individuals or organizations. Second, based on awareness of a potential conflict, CRS staff may take the initiative to offer assistance. In both cases, the criterion used to determine if CRS will provide assistance is simply whether the conflict falls under the agency's jurisdiction, i.e., whether it involves allegations of discriminatory practices based on race, color, or national origin.

Conflicts addressed by CRS can be internal to a particular organization (public or private), municipal department, or school system or involve allegations from outside the department or organization. CRS mediation often proves useful as an alternative to litigation or arrests. All casework is confidential in order to protect the integrity of the process and the neutrality of the mediators.

Because of the limited number of staff members (an average of only four per region), conflicts that impact the most people in a community tend to take precedence over less widespread problems. However, the agency does address issues on a smaller scale whenever possible.

Problem Assessment

CRS has developed a systematic way to evaluate racial tension in a community. The Distant Early Warning Signs (DEWS) system provides municipal leaders with 21 indicators for measuring tension in a community. The indicators include general media reports on discrimination or racial tension, major population shifts in a community, the number of interracial assaults, the extent of racial graffiti, and even projected weather conditions. (For example, a long, hot summer or particularly cold winter may exacerbate perceptions of a lack of city services.) CRS' 30 years of experience has shown that these indicators affect tension levels, which can lead to violence if left unchecked.

Using the DEWS model, community leaders decide which indicators are important to them, based on their unique and intimate knowledge of the community. Then, given the relative value that they place on the various indicators, the community leaders determine whether a conflict is at hand. If so, they can focus on resolving the specific issues using a variety of local resources. Local leaders make all decisions about their own situations; CRS staff members do not dictate the solutions but do provide guidance if requested. The DEWS system is available free upon request and can be used independently or with the assistance of CRS experts.

In addition, CRS has developed a method to assess community problems involving police-community relations. Designed for community leaders and law enforcement administrators, this program promotes community involvement, helps to develop problem recognition, and suggests some useful problem-solving tools.

A similar program has been developed to help school systems address issues affecting the students' learning environment. The Student Problem Identification/Resolution Program (SPIR) facilitates conflict resolution among student leaders, faculty, parents, and community representatives. It brings all groups together to prioritize issues and solutions and to create a general plan for addressing issues of racial tension and violence.

Training

CRS also provides training in several areas related to racial conflicts. Training programs can be as short as 1 hour or as long as a week, depending on the needs of the requestor. Usually directed to a particular audience as the result of a specific conflict, CRS training generally addresses certain key areas: Racial tension assessment and reduction, conciliation and mediation, cultural awareness, and communication skills.