Black Americans’ confidence in police recovers post-Floyd: Gallup

Confidence in police among polled Black American adults appears to have recovered after dipping to an all-time low in 2020 following the killing of George Floyd.

According to the results of a Gallup survey published Wednesday, 27 percent of Black respondents said they had some degree of confidence in the police, marking an almost 10 percent increase from when 18 percent said the same last June and July.

The latest results fall in line with confidence levels that were seen between 2014 and 2019.

Confidence levels in the police among white American adults has largely remained unchanged since Gallup first began collecting this data in 1993, hovering around 60 percent.

“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,” Gallup noted.

Among Hispanic American adults, confidence levels were around 49 percent.

Overall, 51 percent of U.S. adult respondents said they have confidence in the police, which Gallup notes is an increase from last year, but is still below the reported confidence from before Floyd’s murder.

“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,” Gallup wrote.

The analytics company noted that Black and white Americans largely share the same levels of confidence in several other aspects including public schools, newspapers, medical systems, churches and tech companies.