Across the country Americans have witnessed major demonstrations against police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s death, which have often led to rioting and looting, destroying downtown areas of major U.S. cities. They are being fed the lie that police are inherently racist and have a history of hunting down and killing black people. Some cities like New York have announced major budget cuts to police departments while other areas are trying to dismantle the police department altogether.
If such efforts are successful, many point out that it will be black Americans in cities who will suffer the most. So it may come as no surprise that a recent Gallup poll found 81 percent of black Americans don't want less police in their area.
When asked whether they want the police to spend more time, the same amount of time or less time than they currently do in their area, most Black Americans -- 61% -- want the police presence to remain the same. This is similar to the 67% of all U.S. adults preferring the status quo, including 71% of White Americans.
Meanwhile, nearly equal proportions of Black Americans say they would like the police to spend more time in their area (20%) as say they'd like them to spend less time there (19%). (Gallup)
In fact, among four racial/ethnic groups in the survey, Asian Americans were most likely (28 percent) to want police to spend less time in their area.
Also noteworthy is that black Americans having an interaction with police in the past year had no effect on their preference for having a police presence where they live.
- Seventy-nine percent of those who have had an interaction with the police in the past 12 months say they want the police to spend more or the same amount of time in their neighborhood; 21% favor less time.
- Eighty-two percent of those who have not had an interaction want the same or greater police presence; 18% want less. (Gallup)
The panel survey was conducted June 23-July 6.
