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Social & Policy Issues
In U.S., Black Confidence in Police Recovers From 2020 Low
Social & Policy Issues

In U.S., Black Confidence in Police Recovers From 2020 Low

Story Highlights

  • 27% of Black adults confident in police, up from 19% in 2020
  • Confidence in police among White adults is unchanged
  • Low confidence in criminal justice system among Black, White adults

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- After dipping to a new low last year following the George Floyd killing, Black Americans' confidence in the police has mostly recovered but remains low. Currently, 27% of Black adults in the U.S. say they have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the police, up from 18% in 2020 but similar to the levels seen between 2014 and 2019.

Meanwhile, White Americans' confidence in police is unchanged from a year ago and lower than it had been before the Floyd incident.

Police_race2

Line graph. Confidence in the police by race. Twenty-seven percent of Black Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the police, up from 19% in 2020. Black Americans' confidence in the police had been higher in the 1990s, averaging 34%, and 2000s, averaging 37%. It held at an average 36% between 2010 and 2013 before dropping to 30% between 2014 and 2019. Meanwhile, White Americans' confidence in police, at 56%, is unchanged from 2020 but lower than prior to that, when it was mostly around 60% between the 1990s and 2019.

Last year's update of this Gallup trend, measured in June and July 2020, found 37 percentage points separating the figures for White and Black Americans. With the uptick in confidence among Black Americans this year, the gap has decreased to 29 percentage points. The current Black-White difference is similar to the average 30-point gap between 2014 and 2019, a period marked by several high-profile events in which Black people were killed in incidents with White police officers.

Between Gallup's first measure of confidence in the police in 1993 and 2013, White and Black Americans' ratings of police were generally stable and differed by 25 points, on average.

Overall, 51% of all U.S. adults currently have confidence in the police, after it dropped to a low of 48% last year. Confidence is still slightly below the pre-Floyd reading of 53% from 2019 and well below the historical high of 64% in 2004.

The annual Gallup update on Confidence in Institutions comes from a June 1-July 5 Gallup poll that includes oversamples of Black and Hispanic adults to allow for reliable reporting of those subgroups.

Forty-nine percent of Hispanic Americans are confident in the police, significantly higher than the 27% among Black Americans but lower than the 56% among White Americans. The 2020 Confidence in Institutions survey did not include an oversample of Hispanic adults; however, the available data suggests their confidence in police also fell last year but has rebounded this year.

Confidence in Criminal Justice System Shows Modest Racial Differences

While Black Americans are far less likely than White Americans to have high confidence in the police, neither group has strong confidence in the criminal justice system, more generally. Just 17% of White Americans and 11% of Black Americans have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in it.

However, the two racial groups differ on the lower and middle range of the confidence spectrum -- 61% of Black Americans, compared with 41% of White Americans, say they have "very little" or "no" confidence in the criminal justice system.

Currently, 35% of Hispanic Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the criminal justice system, more than the 30% who have little or no confidence in it.

Confidence in U.S. Criminal Justice System, by Race and Ethnicity
Black adults White adults Hispanic adults
% % %
A great deal 5 4 16
Quite a lot 6 13 19
Some 29 42 35
Very little 58 38 28
None (vol.) 3 3 2
Total % Great deal/Quite a lot 11 17 35
Total % Very little/None 61 41 30
(vol.)=volunteered response
Gallup, June 1-July 5, 2021

Last year, White Americans were more confident in the criminal justice system than they are this year (24% versus 17%), while Black Americans' confidence is unchanged. For most of Gallup's trend, there has been little difference in the percentage of Black and White Americans who have a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the criminal justice system.

CrimJust_race2

Line graph. Confidence in the criminal justice system by race. Between the early 1990s and 2013, Black and White Americans had similar and low levels of confidence in the criminal justice system. A modest gap emerged between 2014 and 2019 when 24% of White Americans and 19% of Black Americans were confident. That gap grew to 13 points in 2019 when 24% of White Americans and 11% of Black Americans were confident. This year, 17% of White Americans and 11% of Black Americans are confident in the criminal justice system.

During the 1990s, roughly equal percentages of Black (44%) and White (41%) Americans said they had "very little" or "no confidence" in the criminal justice system. But a gap emerged in the 2000s as the percentage of Black adults with little or no confidence held steady while fewer White adults, averaging 28% between 2000 and 2013, held that view. The racial gap expanded in 2014 as increasingly more Black Americans expressed low confidence in the justice system.

Hispanic adults have tended to have more confidence in the criminal justice system than either White or Black Americans. Since 2011, when Gallup began regularly conducting interviews with both English and Spanish-speaking Hispanic respondents, an average of 30% of Hispanic adults have had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the criminal justice system, compared with 24% of White adults and 20% of Black adults.

Black-White Differences in Ratings of Police Largest for Any Institution

White and Black Americans differ in their confidence in a number of U.S. institutions, but their ratings of police show the largest contrast. The 29-point gap in confidence ratings of the police far exceeds the next largest gap, which is 19 points for small business.

There are also double-digit gaps -- by racial group -- in ratings of the military, science, the U.S. Supreme Court, the presidency and television news. White Americans have more confidence than Black Americans in all of these except the presidency and television news.

In contrast, Black and White Americans have similar levels of confidence in the public schools, newspapers, large technology companies, churches/organized religion, the medical system, banks and organized labor. Confidence in these institutions tends to be low among both racial groups.

In addition to Hispanics' higher ratings of the criminal justice system, they also have greater confidence than Black or White Americans in the public schools, Congress, organized labor, the U.S. Supreme Court, banks and large technology companies.

20210713_RacialGroupsv3_@2x

Interval notation graph. The percentages of Americans who have a great deal and quite a lot of confidence in U.S. institutions, by racial group. 74% of White Americans, 55% of Black Americans and 56% of Hispanic Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in small business. 73% of White Americans, 57% of Black Americans and 63% of Hispanic Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the military. 56% of White Americans, 27% of Black Americans and 49% of Hispanic Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the police. 45% of White Americans, 42% of Black Americans and 44% of Hispanic Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the medical system. 35% of White Americans, 46% of Black Americans and 56% of Hispanic Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the presidency. 37% of White Americans, 35% of Black Americans and 43% of Hispanic Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the church or organized religion. 35% of White Americans, 24% of Black Americans and 47% of Hispanic Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court. 31% of White Americans, 35% of Black Americans and 44% of Hispanic Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in banks. 28% of White Americans, 28% of Black Americans and 50% of Hispanic Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in public schools. 24% of White Americans, 25% of Black Americans and 43% of Hispanic Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in large technology companies. 24% of White Americans, 28% of Black Americans and 39% of Hispanic Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in organized labor. 21% of White Americans, 21% of Black Americans and 24% of Hispanic Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in newspapers. 17% of White Americans, 11% of Black Americans and 35% of Hispanic Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the criminal justice system. 14% of White Americans, 19% of Black Americans and 28% of Hispanic Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in big business. 13% of White Americans, 28% of Black Americans and 21% of Hispanic Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in television news. 6% of White Americans, 15% of Black Americans and 31% of Hispanic Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in Congress.

Bottom Line

Gallup's tracking of confidence in police dates back nearly three decades, and during this time, Black Americans have never had a high level of confidence in that institution. The series of killings of Black men and women in incidents with White police officers in the past seven years has only further diminished Black Americans' trust in law enforcement, which hit a record low last year after Floyd's death. Black Americans are even less likely to have trust in the criminal justice system.

The reasons for the increase in Black Americans' confidence in the police this year are not clear. It could merely be a fading of the intensity of feelings surrounding the Floyd incident. The murder conviction of former police officer Derek Chauvin in the Floyd case may have raised hopes in the Black community of increased accountability for police officers involved in deadly incidents. Additionally, over the past year, many police departments across the country have instituted reforms to address racial disparities in policing.

Regardless of the reason for improved Black Americans' confidence in the police this year, it still lags behind where it was in the 1990s and early 2000s. While it may be too early to know whether the newly instituted policing reforms have achieved their aims, it is clear that simply enacting those has not yet been enough to restore the confidence in police lost by the Black community in recent years.

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Gallup https://news.gallup.com/poll/352304/black-confidence-police-recovers%25202020-low.aspx
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