Public Safety A Priority Well Above Law Enforcement Reform

Highlights

In Louisville, residents were more than twice as likely to cite public safety, not police reform, as the biggest problem facing the city.

In Oklahoma City, police reform ranked last on a list of nine community concerns.

In neither place did more than a fraction support the progressives’ slogan to “defund the police.”

National public opinion surveys of law enforcement are supportive beating out most institutions and stating that, regardless of demographics, most people trust cops.

Author

USA Today (edited for brevity)

A comparison of views in Louisville, Kentucky, and Oklahoma City helps explain why changing the way law enforcement works has proved to be so difficult even in the wake of last year’s nationwide protests.

Louisville has been driven by scrutiny and protests since Breonna Taylor was killed in March 2020 by police officers who used a no-knock warrant to break into her apartment while she slept. In contrast, Oklahoma City continues to register wide public approval of the police even though the state has the highest mortality rate from police violence in the country.

But while the two cities have different assessments about whether there’s a problem that needs fixing, residents in both worry more about rising crime than police misconduct. In a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University CityView polls, they place public safety as a priority well above law enforcement reform.

In Louisville, residents were more than twice as likely to cite public safety, not police reform, as the biggest problem facing the city.

In Oklahoma City, police reform ranked last on a list of nine community concerns. In neither place did more than a fraction support the progressives’ slogan to “defund the police.”

Louisville: Public safety, ‘defund the police’, Breonna Taylor. New poll shows where residents stands

Oklahoma City: Poll shows stark differences along race on how police are viewed by public

Do police use force only when necessary? Does race affect their actions? And where do Americans draw the line between concern about crime and demands for police accountability?

Faith in Louisville Police Eroded

The death of Taylor and the way police handled the shooting’s aftermath have eroded confidence in local law enforcement in Louisville. Forty-five percent of the residents surveyed said they had lost faith in the police as a result, including 4 in 10 white Americans and 6 in 10 Black Americans. Overall, just 7% gained trust.

But the protests also drew a negative reaction from most of the city’s residents. By 53%-31%, they said the marches had hurt the community, not helped it.

In Louisville, there was a significant divide by race in assessing police tactics. By an overwhelming 62%-23%, Black residents said the police used force when it wasn’t necessary. But whites by 49%-38% said the police used force only when necessary.

Oklahoma City reflected a similar division. Whites by 2-1, 61%-29%, said police used force only when necessary. But Black residents by 51%-34% said police used force when it wasn’t necessary.

Six in 10 of those in Oklahoma City said neither the news media nor the public had paid enough attention to the issue. But there was also skepticism about what has been reported. By double digits, 57%-36%, they said the news media exaggerates stories of police brutality and racism.

For Latinos, Public Safety Dominates

On assessments of the police, Latinos are more likely to align with the views of white people than Black people, a finding that could carry political repercussions. They rated the police more favorably and public safety as a more dominant concern than African-Americans did.

In Louisville, Latinos had an even more positive view of the police than whites did. By nearly 2-1, 61%-32%, they said police used force only when necessary. In Oklahoma City, where nearly 1 in 5 residents are Hispanic, they said by 57%-25% that police officers’ use of force was appropriate.

Latinos in Louisville expressed more concern about public safety than Black or white people. In Oklahoma City, only 1% of Hispanics and 1% of whites said police reform was the biggest problem facing the city, compared with 9% of Black people. Another 20% of Black respondents cited race relations as the top issue. Education was the top issue for whites and Hispanics.

USA Today

National Contextual Data

Police Used “Or” Threatened To Use Force In Less Than Two Percent Of Contacts

An estimated 40 million U.S. residents age 16 or older, or about 17 percent of the population, had a face-to-face contact with a police officer in one year. Among people who had face-to-face contacts, about nine out of 10 residents felt the police were respectful or acted properly, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Per the Bureau of Justice Statistics study, police used or threatened to use force in less than two percent of contacts.

Less Than 3% Experienced A Threat “Or” Use Of Force