Highlights
American confidence in law enforcement, which has always been high regardless of demographics, has reached new heights. Police community relations are improving.
It’s the largest year-over-year change in public perceptions of 17 major U.S. institutions.
Author
Leonard Adam Sipes, Jr.
Former Senior Specialist for Crime Prevention and Statistics for the Department of Justice’s clearinghouse. Former Director of Information Services, National Crime Prevention Council. Former Adjunct Associate Professor of Criminology and Public Affairs-University of Maryland, University College. Former police officer. Retired federal senior spokesperson.
Former advisor to presidential and gubernatorial campaigns. Former advisor to the “McGruff-Take a Bite Out of Crime” national media campaign. Produced successful state anti-crime media campaigns.
Thirty-five years of directing award-winning (50+) public relations for national and state criminal justice agencies. Interviewed thousands of times by every national news outlet, often with a focus on crime statistics and research. Created the first state and federal podcasting series. Produced a unique and emulated style of government proactive public relations.
Certificate of Advanced Study-The Johns Hopkins University.
Author of ”Success With The Media: Everything You Need To Survive Reporters and Your Organization” available at Amazon and additional booksellers.
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Article
Per Gallup (selected direct quotes) the average confidence in US institutions remains historically low, at 28%.
But for law enforcement, Americans’ confidence in the police increased eight percentage points over the past year to 51%, the largest year-over-year change in public perceptions of 17 major U.S. institutions measured in Gallup’s annual update.
Gallup first measured confidence in the police in 1993. Between then and 2019, a majority of Americans expressed high confidence in the institution, including a record high of 64% in 2004.
Faith in the police fell in 2020 to 48% after George Floyd was murdered while in police custody. After increasing to 51% in 2021, confidence in the police dropped again in 2022 and dipped further last year, to a record low of 43%.
Over the past year, confidence in the police has risen among most major demographic subgroups of Americans, particularly three that previously expressed lower levels of confidence in the police: those aged 18 to 34, people of color, and political independents.
Aside from the police, small business (68%) and the military (61%) are the only other institutions in the June 3-23 poll that garner majority-level confidence from Americans. Small business and the military are commonly seen at the top of the confidence list, with one of the two leading the list each year since 1989 — the military 30 times and small business six times.
Meanwhile, between 26% and 36% of U.S. adults express at least quite a lot of confidence in nine institutions — the medical system, higher education, the church or organized religion, the U.S. Supreme Court, public schools, organized labor, banks, large technology companies, and the presidency.
Five institutions have the confidence of less than one-quarter of U.S. adults — the criminal justice system, newspapers, big business, television news and Congress. Confidence in the criminal justice system has edged up four points since last year, while confidence in the other institutions is unchanged or statistically similar. Of these, television news and Congress have the unwelcome distinction of earning low or no trust from a majority of Americans.
Per Pew-Trust In Organizations During Emergencies
There are dozens of research-based articles giving law enforcement and police officers fairly high marks regardless of the demographics of those polled with differences based on political affiliation, age, race, income, and additional factors.
A fundamental truth of public relations is that citizens trust law enforcement more than many professions, including the media. This means that during emergencies or contentious times, the ability of the police to effectively and accurately communicate becomes an important consideration. With media getting low marks, the tools police agencies have via social media, self-created media and their relationship with mainstream news organizations need to be evaluated.
Ethical Standards
The public is more likely to think medical doctors (92%), police officers-emphasis added (73%) and religious leaders (67%) have very high or high ethical standards, while journalists (43%) are about on par with lawyers (44%).
Additional Research on Police-Community Relations
An account of additional data on police-community relations is available at Confidence In The Police Compared To Other Institutions.
Per a separate report from the US Department of Justice, 88 percent reported that they were satisfied with their police response, with 93 percent saying they would be more or as likely to contact police again in the future.
Approximately 4% of residents experienced some type of police action during their most recent police-initiated or traffic accident-related contact, with 3% experiencing the threat or use of force. Overall use or threat of force (all encounters) or threat of force was 2 percent.
About 1% of U.S. residents experienced misconduct during their most recent contact with police.
White persons (89%) were the most likely racial or ethnic group to report being satisfied with the police response. A higher percentage of white persons (94%) said they would be more or as likely to contact police in the future than black persons (89%) or persons who are American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, or of two or more races (87%).
We are constantly being told that police are overly aggressive when it comes to traffic stops and African Americans. Per the data, “White persons (63%) were as likely as black persons (62%) but less likely than Asian persons (65%) to be the driver in a traffic stop during their most recent police contact.”
This is the third replication of this USDOJ report with similar results.
Conclusions
No one is trying to downplay problems within law enforcement. Yes, some officers have engaged in illegal or unethical use of force. Law enforcement accepts accountability; we must strive to do better. Policing exists to serve all equally; the oath we take when we join the force.
There will always be controversy as to interactions with law enforcement. From my years in policing, it’s literally impossible to say and do the right things in every interaction. Whenever you mix over a million police employees with 54 million yearly police contacts, things will inevitably go wrong. It’s the same for medicine, journalism, business, or any other profession.
But it’s safe to say, based on polling data, that most police interactions are positive which seems almost impossible considering the nature of the job. All polls state that groups, regardless of demographics, want police in their communities. Per Gallup, North American law enforcement is near the top of worldwide rankings.
With the overall use “or” threat of force (all encounters) at 2 percent, and with positive polling data, it seems that most police officers are trying to interact with the American public respectfully, which is why confidence and trust are so high for law enforcement and so low for other institutions (i.e., Congress, journalism).
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