There is a disparity between how Americans view policing and how they view policing in their own communities, a national poll found.
Seventy-seven percent of respondents said they approved of how their local police did their job, according to the Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday. Debate over police reform has been heating up in the wake of the death of George Floyd who died in Minneapolis police custody May 25 after an officer kneeled on his neck, video shows. Floyd’s death has been the catalysis for protests and riots across the country.
In contrast, 49% of respondents approved of the way police are doing their jobs in the United States as a whole.
“Voters give higher marks to police in their own communities,” according to Quinnipiac’s introductory comments.
Both figures, approval of local police and approval of police nationally, represent significant changes since the last time Quinnipiac surveyed Americans on these topics. Eighty-four percent of respondents said they approved of their community’s police in October 2016. Meanwhile, 65% of respondents approved of how police do their jobs in the U.S. in April 2018.
Democrats proposed legislation that would ban chokeholds and create a national registry of police officers, last Monday. Republicans responded with a bill of their own which calls for more police body cam funding among other provisions Wednesday.
There is also a move to defund, or even disband, police departments across the country. The Minneapolis City Council voted to dismantle its police department last Friday.
The Quinnipiac poll also showed disparities in the way white people and black people view policing, both nationwide and locally.
Just 20% of black respondents said they approved of how police do their job in the U.S. compared to 57% of whites. When it comes to community policing, 52% of blacks approve while 83% of whites approve.
The Quinnipiac poll surveyed 1,332 Americans between June 11 and June 15. The poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 2.7%.
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