USDOJ: CRS: FY 1998 Annual Report of the COMMUNITY RELATIONS SERVICE

Executive Summary

FY 1998 Highlights

Assistance to Law Enforcement with Community Racial Incidents. CRS assisted law enforcement and local elected officials in addressing community racial tension following alleged excessive use of force (EUF) and racial hate incidents, and in providing contingency planning assistance for large minority student gatherings. As part of the Attorney General's Initiative on Hate Crimes, Hate Crime Working Groups were formed in U.S. Attorney's offices across the country. CRS helped to ensure minority community participation in this effort. CRS and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Hate Crime Unit worked closely with the Attorney General's Working Group on Hate Crime to develop four new model training curricula for patrol officers, detectives, management-level officers, and departmentwide personnel.

Assistance to Schools. CRS offered several programs to individual schools and school districts to help them manage multicultural conflicts:

Conflict resolution services, such as assistance in developing student conflict resolution or peer mediation teams (Inglewood, Long Beach, Los Angeles, and Paramount, California; Cortez, Colorado; Newark, New Jersey).
Student Problem Identification/Resolution Program (SPIR) (Berkeley, California) or Student Problem Identification and Resolving It Together (SPIRIT)--when police are included (Glendale, California).
Conflict management and cultural/diversity awareness training for school staff (Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts; Jasper, Texas).
School dialogues (Los Angeles, California).

Assistance to Tribal Government and Native American Nations. CRS assisted tribal councils with disputes between the tribes and local officials over tribal sovereignty, on- and off-reservation law enforcement jurisdiction and cooperation, Native American remains, and environmental issues.

Assistance to Communities with Large Demographic Shifts. CRS provided conciliation assistance to many communities across the country experiencing racial tensions over response to changing demographics, new immigrants, illegal immigrants, and ethnic migration. As part of this work, CRS facilitated communication between minority communities and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and U.S. Attorneys. This interaction addressed community tension over

Makah tribal members bring whaling canoe ashore with many visitors on the beach for Makah Festival. CRS provided coordination and communication between Washington National Guard, State and local police and tribal police to prevent violence or incidents between whaling protestors and tribal members.

Photo: R Diane Schneider, CRS