NCJ Number
95429
Date Published
1982
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This annual report of the Justice Department's Community Relations Service (CRS) for fiscal year 1982 describes its responsibilities, highlights the year's activities and accomplishments, and provides a sampling of cases involving racial or ethnic conflicts that the CRS helped resolve through mediation.
Abstract
The report first discusses provisions of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968 which address the responsibilities of the CRS, along with the agency's principal program areas. Agency priorities for 1982 were the cultivation of police-minority cooperation against crime, reduction of racial harassment from groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, and reduction of the risk of civil disorder. Statistics show that CRS provided conflict resolution assistance to communities in 1,096 cases, a 7.2 percent increase over the preceding year. The agency processed 1,996 new alerts or intake reports on race-related incidents, an increase of almost 30 percent over 1981. The report describes CRS's steps to improve its operational efficiency, including the establishment of a new organizational structure, introduction of a quality control system, and an update of the management information system. Other 1982 highlights described include reopening the Miami field office and publication of a handbook on conciliation in deadly force disputes. Over 25 selected cases illustrate the CRS's efforts to help communities resolve disputes involving citizen-police conflicts, school desegregation, school bilingual education programs and hiring practices, and refugee resettlement. Charts, a list of CRS offices, and a map are supplied.