DOJ Civil Rights Division Creates New Public Reporting Portal Record System
AI-generated summary for informational purposes only. Not legal advice. See the original source for the authoritative text.
This notice creates a new Privacy Act system of records for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division reporting portal. It lets the public submit civil rights complaints online or through mail, phone, email, or fax, and lets CRT staff store, search, review, route, and track those reports in one database. The practical impact is mostly on people who file complaints and on CRT employees who handle them. The system collects contact details and incident information, may use AI tools and cloud storage, and allows some sharing with law enforcement, courts, other agencies, contractors, and Congress under listed rules. People can request access to their records, ask for corrections, and comment on the routine uses by May 29, 2026.
AI-generated summary. May contain errors. Refer to official sources for legal decisions.
Key Changes
- Creates a new DOJ Civil Rights Division system of records called the Civil Rights Division Reporting Portal.
- Lets the public submit civil rights violation reports through a web form and through non-web channels like mail, phone, email, and fax.
- Sets rules for storage, retention, sharing, access, and correction of report data, including cloud storage and limited disclosures.
Obligations
What this law requires
The Department of Justice Civil Rights Division must allow the public to submit comments on the routine uses of the new Civil Rights Division Reporting Portal system of records during the 30-day comment period after publication.
The Department of Justice Civil Rights Division must establish and maintain the Civil Rights Division Reporting Portal as a Privacy Act system of records for public civil-rights complaints.
The Civil Rights Division must allow the public to submit comments on the routine uses of the new system of records by mail, fax, or email.
The Civil Rights Division must maintain the reporting portal as a system of records and include it in the Division’s inventory of record systems.
CRT must retain records only while current and required for official Government use and dispose of them in accordance with NARA-approved records retention schedules; records linked to a specific matter or case must be incorporated into that case file and follow the applicable schedule.