Indianapolis — The Indiana Civil Rights Commission occupies a large section of the Indiana Government Center North's first floor. Yet many residents don't know they exist.
With this being the agency's 50th year, it's looking to change that. The ICRC is undergoing a rebranding of its image and a concerted effort to let Hoosiers know their rights and that they're here to protect them.
"By law everyone's civil rights are protected, and we are the agency that enforces that protection," said ICRC Executive Director Jamal Smith. "We want to get out beyond just downtown Indianapolis to every crook, corner, and alleyway of Indiana. We are the state's civil rights agency, not just Indianapolis.'"
That endeavor is spurred in part by statistics like the following: Only 1 percent of housing discrimination cases in the state are reported. Smith attributes that, in part, to people's general lack of knowledge about their civil rights or the existence of the ICRC.
In fact, a U.S. citizen has civil rights in employment, housing (including renting and lending), public accommodations, and education. Protected classes include race, disability, religion, national origin, gender, and familial (like having a lot of children). Age is protected federally.
Smith says race is probably the No. 1 area in which they see discrimination, followed closely by disability. Housing is especially the case in the latter.
"In many cases, it's just a matter of accommodations," Smith said. "If you have someone in a wheelchair, by law you have to accommodate that disability like with a ramp. In some cases, landlords don't want to provide those because they are an added expense. But by law they have to have it.
"The idea is to just resolve it so we can provide the accommodations for whomever has the disability, and not drag it out so either side incurs and extensive expenses."
Another part of the ICRC's rebranding is educating providers - like employers and landlords - what's expected of them so they don't have to deal with civil rights complaints.
"If they're more educated about what an individual's rights are, then they know how to adjust to make sure they don't find themselves in some sort of lawsuit," said Smith, who's been in his post a year now and also serves as one of the governor's senior advisors.
On staff the ICRC has what's called the intake unit, which processes all the original claims and decides what needs further study. Ones that do get the green light are passed on to investigators, who gather all relevant information and determine whether civil rights were violated. Attorneys also are on staff if the case can't be mediated and has to go to court.
Smith says the majority of complaints the ICRC receives can't be acted upon because there's no probable cause.
"If your boss is a jerk, there's nothing illegal about being a jerk, assuming he's a jerk to everybody," he said as an example. "It sucks to work for him, but it's not illegal."
Of the ones they do have jurisdiction over, all are remedied somehow. Smith says they're able to keep up with the workload by establishing relationships with non-profit agencies throughout the state that work with individuals commonly associated with discrimination.
"In many cases they're our eyes and ears on the ground," Smith said. "They're the people who may live next door to the person who's complaining."
He won't quantify how many discrimination cases exist in Indiana, or how the state ranks in that category with other states.
"One is too many," Smith said. "This agency is in the business of putting itself out of business. In a perfect world, you'd obviously want there to be no discrimination. We work to decrease it to the point where it's zero."
He is privy to the occasional horror story.
"Some of them you sit back and go, 'Wow, I can't believe that happened, or people think that way or do those things,'" Smith said.
But ultimately he finds the job rewarding, like recently when the ICRC helped the Fort Wayne Burmese community with communication barriers.
"We're all, by definition, public servants," Smith said of the government. "Helping people is what we do; it's what we're supposed to do. There's satisfaction in knowing, at the end of the day, regardless of how long it may have been, that someone is better off because of the work you've done."