Despite recent tensions connected to multiple officer-involved deaths of black men, Americans' respect for police is nearing a record level and reaches across racial lines, according to a new
Gallup poll.
The poll shows that 76 percent of U.S. adults said they have "a great deal" of respect for local police. Seventeen percent reported having "some" respect for cops, and just 7 percent said they have "hardly any."
Both whites and minorities reported majority approval of police, with 80 percent of whites saying they have "a great deal" of respect for local police compared with 67 percent of people of color.
These figures are all up significantly from the previous year: Overall, the percentage of Americans who reported having "a great deal" of respect for police in their area jumped 12 points from 2015. The approval rating from whites saw an 11-point increase over last year, and the rating from nonwhites saw a 14-point increase.
The positive findings appear to fly in the face of popular perception, as recent protests over police-involved deaths have roiled cities like
Baltimore and
Ferguson, Missouri, and video footage related to the 2016 deaths of black men
Philando Castile and
Keith Scott have sparked questions and outrage.
Meanwhile, the pro-police group
Blue Lives Matter – a play on the name of the anti-discrimination
Black Lives Matter movement – says it seeks to "shed positive light on America’s heroes to help boost morale and gain society’s much needed support," and the head of the police union in Chicago earlier this year lamented an unprecedented "
level of disrespect" faced by police.
Notably, Gallup reports that the all-time high it's measured for police approval – 77 percent – came in 1967. That year fell at the tail end of the civil rights movement, a period in which law enforcement incarcerated protesters by the hundreds.
The Gallup poll was conducted Oct. 5-9 via
telephone with a random sample of 1,017 adults, and has a 4-point margin of error.
Copyright 2016 U.S. News & World Report
Americans are ardent statists, who knew.