Poll: 44 percent want more police in their community; 7 percent say less

More voters want to add to the number of police in their communities than subtract from them, a new Hill-HarrisX poll finds.

Forty-four percent of registered voters in the July 8-9 survey said they want more police and policing activity in their community.

By contrast, 7 percent of respondents said they want less police in their area while 50 percent said they want the same amount of police. 

A majority of Hispanic voters, 54 percent, want more police in their community along with 46 percent of white voters and 29 percent of Black voters. 

Eleven percent of Black voters said they want less police in their area along with 10 percent of Hispanic voters and 5 percent of white voters.

Sixty-one percent of Black voters said they want to keep the same amount of police in their community while 49 percent of white voters and 35 percent of Hispanic voters said the same.

The poll comes as homicides increase in cities across the country. 

President Biden on Monday met with mayors and law enforcement leaders and urged local officials to do more to combat a nationwide surge in violent crimes. 

According to a June 29-July 1 Hill-HarrisX survey, 50 percent of registered voters said they are confident in Biden’s ability to address the rise of homicides in major cities, including 16 percent who are very confident and 35 percent who are somewhat confident.

Another 50 percent said they are not confident in Biden’s ability to address homicides, including 20 percent who are somewhat not confident and 30 percent who are not at all confident.

The most recent Hill-HarrisX poll was conducted online among 938 registered voters. It has a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points.

—Gabriela Schulte