Two-Thirds Of Americans Don’t Want To Defund Police: Poll

A majority of Americans disagree with the call to “defund the police” and the proposed reallocations of funding, an ABC News/Ipsos poll found.

Almost two-thirds of Americans are against defunding law enforcement while 34% agree with the movement, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll released on Friday. When asked about reducing the police budget to put towards other health and social programs, 60% of Americans opposed the idea while 39% supported.

A Yahoo/YouGov poll conducted May 29-30 found that 16% of 1,060 Americans supported less funding to law enforcement while 65% oppose the movement.

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Black Americans’ answers varied slightly, 57% supported the movement to defund the police and 64% supported allocating the money to community programs, according to ABC News. Almost three in four white Americans and 57% of Hispanics are opposed to defunding law enforcement, and two-thirds of whites and 58% of Hispanics are against reallocating funds.

The Democratic Party majorly approved defunding the police with 55% of Democratic respondents agreeing, and 59% agreed with reallocating funds to programs dealing with mental health, housing and education, ABC News reported.

Democrats differ more within their support than Republicans and Independents do in their opposition, ABC News reported.

Republicans widely disapprove of defunding the police at 89%, and 86% of Republican respondents oppose the reallocation of funding, ABC News reported. Independents generally fall in line with the average respondent, 67% disapprove of defunding the police while 59% oppose taking funding from law enforcement for social programs.

While some cities have initiated reforms for local law enforcement, national leaders have been hesitant to support drastic changes, ABS News reported. Former Vice President Joe Biden told CBS News he doesn’t support defunding the police, but “support[s] conditioning federal aid to police based on whether or not they meet certain basic standards of decency and honorableness. And, in fact, are able to demonstrate they can protect the community and everybody in the community.”

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The poll found Americans feel slightly less uneasy about the coronavirus pandemic and are ready to resume normal activities, ABC News reported. Now, 69% of Americans are concerned about contracting the coronavirus, compared to the 78% of respondents who were concerned in mid-May.

Despite protests occurring across the nation, only 26% of Americans responded that they were willing to attend a protest, ABC News reported. Comparatively, a  YouGov survey reported that 57% of almost 7,000 US adults supported elected officials participating in protests.

When asked if there would be a spike in coronavirus cases directly related to recent protests, 42% of 31,058 Americans responded that it is “very likely” and 34% responded that it is “somewhat likely,” a YouGov survey found. Only 14% of respondents said that a spike was “not very likely” or “not likely at all.”