CBS News Highlights DOJ’s “Missed Opportunity” in Closing CRS as Protests Widen Across the Nation
"Talk about some terrible timing," said Scott McFarlane of CBS News on WCCO, a CBS station in Minnesota, as he reported on the shuttering of CRS on January 12, 2026, as protests against ICE’s aggressive enforcement actions escalated across the U.S. "Any number of former Justice Department officials will say this is a missed opportunity," MacFarlane continued in the 3 minute, 14 second segment. "This is a problem that could bear itself out not just in our area, but in cities nationwide in the years to come."
Earlier, on January 11, 2026, McFarlane published a CBS News article entitled “As protests build in Minneapolis and Portland, Justice Department has scrapped its ‘Peacemakers’ office,” highlighting the harm resulting from the absence of CRS’s peacemaking work after the Justice Department closed the agency in 2025.
The January 11 article included the following statements from former CRS and DOJ officials:
Julius Nam, a former Justice Department prosecutor and Community Relations Service specialist told CBS News the office "has had a neutral, impartial role. That is so important in these situations, in which there is deep distrust of law enforcement by protesters and community groups."
Bert Brandenburg, who used to work in the Community Relations Service, told CBS News, "When we sideline peacemakers, we all pay the price." "Minnesota is not the first and not the last city where you'd want peacemakers on the streets." Brandenburg said that through its 60-year history, the office was effective in its work to ensure independence and trust among police, local government leaders and communities during conflicts. He said the Community Relations Service would help de-escalate tensions and build up sufficient trust to get both sides of a conflict into a room for discussion and reconciliation.
"The Community Relations Service was designed to help de-escalate tensions like those we see in Minneapolis and Portland, and for decades it succeeded in that mission," said Stacey Young, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Justice Connection, a group organized in 2025 to help represent and serve ousted Justice Department employees. Young said, "For no logical reason, the administration discarded the experts who were best positioned to keep budding conflicts from turning violent. We're seeing the consequences of that fateful decision."
Nam, the former Community Relations Service specialist, told CBS News he expects the Trump administration will shift some of the office's responsibility to its 93 U.S. attorneys' offices nationwide. He said the mission risks failing – or falling short – if it operates out of prosecutors' offices. And he added that the Community Relations Service was effective, in part, because it was not connected to law-enforcement agents, and was best positioned to build relationships with people in American communities. Nam told CBS News, "Those people could have gone to Minneapolis immediately this week.”