May 23, 2018
The Citizens Research Council originally was established in 1916 as the Detroit Bureau of Governmental Research. The Bureau played an important role in helping Detroit become a world class city by serving as an independent, nonpartisan agency for keeping Detroit residents informed about city operations and helping the state government understand the needs of the state’s largest city.
Even when the Citizens Research Council grew into a statewide organization in the 1950s, it remained committed to helping and influencing the development of public policy in Detroit. The importance of our work is highlighted by the role our financial analyses played in helping policy makers navigate the city’s bankruptcy and the school district’s restructuring.
We recreated the Detroit Bureau in 2021 to be an arm of the Citizens Research Council dedicated to public policy research focused on Detroit and to the dissemination of accessible research and analysis to Detroit-based stakeholders who can affect policy change.
Through its research, analysis, and communication, the Detroit Bureau will provide facts and data to assist Detroit’s majority Black population, and the organizations and municipal leaders who serve that population, and to address structural racism and other systemic inequalities that damage the collective physical, moral, social, and economic well-being of Detroit residents.
