Topline
Confidence in the quality of law enforcement training has dropped among surveyed Americans following Tyre Nichols’ fatal beating, according to a new poll conducted by The Washington Post and ABC News, consistent with a national trend of declining trust in police Gallup has been tracking for years.
A police car at a Washington D.C. rally hours after the arrest of Derek Chauvin for his involvement … [+]
Key Facts
The Post-ABC poll, which surveyed over 1,000 U.S. adults between January 27 and February 1, finds only 39% of those surveyed are confident police are properly trained to use excessive force.
This is the lowest level of confidence in police training the Post-ABC poll has ever recorded, down 5% from 2021 and 15% from the first survey in 2014.
The same poll found only 30% of non-white Americans surveyed have “a great deal” or “quite a lot of confidence” in the police, compared to 53% of white Americans polled.
Confidence in the police has fallen among Black and white people surveyed since 2010, but the difference in confidence by race is growing, from an average difference of 25 percentage points from 1993-2013 to 30 points from 2014-2019.
Black and white people surveyed diverged most sharply in 2020–37 percentage points–after Floyd’s death, with 19% of Black Americans expressing confidence in police compared to 56% of white Americans.
Key Background
Tyre Nichols died after being beaten by police in Memphis, Tennessee, reigniting national conversation about police brutality. The Washington Post’s article analyzing their poll with ABC News suggests the numbers are a response to Nichols’ death.
Tangent
Gallup pollsters suggest a cause of decreased confidence in police among Black people surveyed from 2014-2019 was the high amount of Black people killed by white police officers during that time. Some of these cases include the deaths of Michael Brown, Laquan McDonald and Tamir Rice–who were 18, 17 and 12 years old, respectively–in 2014. Overall confidence in police dropped 5% among people surveyed—4% for white people and 11% for Black people – between 2019 and Gallup’s 2020 survey, which started less than a month after Floyd’s death.
Surprising Fact
In 2021, despite the 29 point difference in confidence between Black and white people surveyed concerning the police, Gallup found both groups distrusted the criminal justice system, with only 17% of white people and 11% of black people reporting confidence in it.
Further Reading
Post-ABC poll: COnfidence in police drops after Tyre Nichols beating (The Washington Post)
Confidence in U.S. Institutions Down; Average at New Low (Gallup News)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilywashburn/2023/02/03/america-less-confident-in-police-than-ever-before-a-look-at-the-numbers/