Community Relations Service

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service (CRS) announced the retirement of Central Regional Director Atkins W. Warren. The Central Regional Office is located in Kansas City, Missouri and serves the states of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. Mr. Warren has served as Regional Director since August 27, 1990, and has worked for the Community Relations Service since 1984.

     "Using his more than 34 years of law enforcement experience before joining CRS, Atkins Warren has made an immense impact on police community relations involving racial issues throughout the Central Region and the Nation during his tenure. He is taking a well-deserved retirement after many successful years," said CRS’ National Director Sharee M. Freeman.

     "The key focus throughout his career has been racial conflict resolution through mediation and conciliation, often avoiding court litigation," Ms. Freeman said.

     During the past decade, Mr. Warren facilitated the development of an effective regional organization of chiefs of police to address issues of contemporary policing, violence, and race in their communities. The Central Regional Chiefs of Police held their 13th annual meeting in 2002. He facilitated a similar cooperative organization of regional school superintendents who met annually for 10 years. Through Mr. Warren’s leadership CRS field staff were deployed to assist hundreds of police departments, schools, and communities on racial and diversity issues in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska.

     During the Los Angeles riots in the 1990's he was handpicked to join the ranks of a select few chosen to directly communicate with the LAPD, the Governor’s office, Sheriff’s office and U.S. Attorneys and the Attorney General during an intensive on-site two month period.

     Mr. Warren joined the Community Relations Service in 1984 serving in a variety of positions at the National Headquarters Office in Washington, D.C. between 1984 and his appointment as Regional Director in 1990. These included: Special Assistant to the Director (1988 to 1990), Associate Director for the Office of Technical Assistance and Support (1987-1988), and Administration of Justice Specialist (1984-1986).

     Prior to joining the Community Relations Service, Mr. Warren was one of the first Black Chiefs of Police in a major city in the United States, serving as Chief of Police in Gainesville, Florida, from 1980 to 1984. He began his professional career on May 3, 1948 with the St. Louis, Missouri, Metropolitan Police Department, where he served in nearly all operational areas. Beginning as a patrolman, he rose through the ranks to become Lieutenant Colonel in charge of Internal Affairs, Inspection and Evaluation, and Watchman Divisions. He left to accept the Chief of Police position in Gainesville, Florida, in September 1980.

     Before joining the St. Louis Police Department he served in the U.S. Coast Guard.

     Mr. Warren received a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, cum laude, from Webster University in Webster Groves, Missouri, in 1975, and a Master of Arts in Public Administration from Webster University in 1979.

     A founding member of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), Warren served as its national president from 1981-1982. He is also a life-member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police; a member of the Police Executive Research Forum, the Missouri Police Chiefs Association, the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, and a former member of the Florida Police Chiefs Association.

     For more information about the Community Relations Service, a unique racial conflict resolution and prevention agency of the U.S. Department of Justice, please see its web site at: www.usdoj.gov/crs.

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