Pollsters at UMass Amherst say new national survey results show an erosion in support for policing reforms.
The UMass Amherst Poll, which involved 1,000 respondents nationwide and was conducted in early May by YouGov, found “across-the-board decreases” in support for several reform measures, when compared to an April 2021 poll.
Support for reducing funding for state and local police departments to instead spend money on social services dropped 7 points, from 38% to 31%, according to the poll, and support for banning the use of military grade equipment and weaponry by state and local police fell from 48% to 42%.
Public support for other reforms remained above 50%, but decreased compared to last year.
Support for allowing citizens to sue individual police officers accused of the excessive use of force or misconduct decreased from 59% to 54%; support for restricting the ability of police officers from deactivating their body cameras fell from 71% to 64%; and support for banning chokeholds by police officers dropped from 62% to 58%.
“As incidents of violent crime have increased in the past year and with President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party calling for the use of unused stimulus funds to be directed to police departments across the country, it is no surprise that the public’s one-time enthusiasm for policies designed to bring about wholescale changes to the nation’s police departments has waned in the past year,” Tatishe Nteta, associate professor of political science at UMass Amherst and director of the poll, said in a statement. “What is somewhat surprising is that this decline is seen across the board, with ardent supporters of police reforms such as progressives, Democrats, African Americans and young Americans also exhibiting a decrease in their support for these changes. The movement for police reform may have experienced its zenith of support in the United States.”
Support for the Black Lives Matter movement in the U.S. decreased since last April, with support for the movement’s goals falling to 41%, from 48%, and support for the movement’s strategies and tactics dropping from 40% to 31%, according to the poll.
On Dec. 31, 2020. Gov. Charlie Baker signed a sweeping law creating a police oversight system under which officers need to be certified every three years and can lose their certification for violating policing standards. The law prohibits the use of chokeholds, requires the use of de-escalation tactics before physical force, establishes limits on the use of rubber bullets, tear gas and dogs, and requires that an officer intervene in most situations if he or she sees another officer using unnecessary physical force and to report that use of force up the chain of command. It also bans law enforcement agencies from engaging in racial profiling and restricts the use of no-knock warrants.
Pollsters said survey respondents were matched to a sampling frame on gender, age, race and education.