| The FBI is the only federal
entity with responsibility for investigating allegations of federal
civil rights violations and abuses. In pursuit of this mission, the FBI
investigates violence and hate crimes by individuals and/or members of
racist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan. The FBI also investigates
allegations of misconduct on the part of law enforcement officers,
including physical abuse, infliction of summary punishment, an
deprivation of rights through fabrication of evidence.
Other areas of emphasis are as follows: 1) enforcing the Freedom of
Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which bars conduct that would obstruct
access to reproductive health facilities; 2) investigating
discrimination in housing, which ensures that individuals have freedom
from discrimination in the occupation, purchase, sale, rental, and/or
financing of housing on a basis of such issues as race, color, religion,
and sex.; 3) enforcing the Equal Credit Opportunity Act; and 4)
non-organized crime related exploitation (involuntary servitude/slavery)
of women and children.
The FBI, pursuant to guidelines established in cooperation with the
Department of Justice's (DOJ's) Civil Rights Division, requires each
field office to initiate a civil rights investigation whenever
information is received from any source not known to be unreliable. The
FBI has the mission to investigate allegations of civil rights
violations pursuant to federal statutes. Final prosecutive authority
rests with DOJ's Civil Rights Division. |
