Community Relations Service CRS

Title X of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 created the Community Relations Service, originally in the Commerce Department, to help communities resolve disputes arising from racial discrimination without violence. It moved to the Justice Department in 1966. Nicknamed America's Peacemaker, it has no law enforcement or investigative power. It works through confidential mediation, facilitated dialogue, and training.

CRS mediators have worked in communities after school desegregation clashes, police shootings, hate crimes, and civil unrest, from the 1960s through Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 expanded its mandate to conflicts involving gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, and disability. It is one of the smallest components of the Justice Department, with a budget of a few million dollars.

Because its work is confidential, its impact is hard to measure, and it has periodically faced proposals for elimination. In 2025 the administration proposed eliminating the office in its budget request and reduced its staff sharply, a move supporters described as removing a redundant program and critics described as dismantling a low-cost tool for preventing violence.