While most Americans approve of the
work being done by their local police, nearly a third feel that some officers
“routinely lie to serve their own interests,” a survey released on Thursday by
Reuters and the IPSOS polling organization showed.
The number rises to 45 percent among
African-Americans.
The findings come as scrutiny on police
has been heightened in recent months by the killing of unarmed blacks by white
officers, which has raised questions about police treatment of racial
minorities.
While distrust is significant, nearly
three-quarters of respondents approve the job done by their local police, the
survey said. The survey showed that 56 percent of African-American respondents
approved of their local police.
MarQuis McClee, a small-business owner
from Bloomington, Indiana, who took part in the poll, said that he generally
trusts police and has officers among his relatives, but as an African-American,
he can also be wary around law enforcement.
"I have been involved with
officers who give police a bad name," McClee, 38, said, pointing to a
recent incident where he was pulled over by an officer be believes was
profiling him.
Nearly 70 percent of African-American respondents
believe that police target minorities.
In November, simmering tensions
exploded with violent protests in several U.S. cities following a grand jury
decision not to indict a police officer in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson for
shooting an unarmed black teenager.
When asked about the Ferguson police,
60 percent of respondents had a favorable impression but among black American
respondents, only 32 percent had a favorable impression.
When a gunman fatally shot two police
officers in New York in December in apparent retribution attack, the public was
reminded of the dangers police face on a daily basis in trying to keep the
streets safe.
While attention on policing has been in
the spotlight, racial disparity in the criminal justice systems has become a
fact of life in the United States. A study by the Sentencing Project research
group showed that one in three black men are likely to be imprisoned sometime
during their life. The figure for white man is one in 17.
Proactive tactics aimed at keeping
crime rates down in economically stressed areas with a high number of racial
minorities can also cause friction between police and minority youth who are
likely to be stopped and questioned, said Larry Hoover, director of the Police
Research Center at Sam Houston State University in Texas.
