“We have to give power back to the police,” Donald Trump proclaimed during his campaign, and earlier this year he delivered … or so he thinks. The early weeks of Trump’s presidency indeed match his campaign rhetoric, replete with an executive order seeking to make assault against police officers a federal crime.
Americans are understandably divided by Trump’s “law and order” approach to policing reform. Research suggests Americans’ reactions to Trump’s policies will be shaped both by their own experiences with police and by their moral predispositions.
It starts with race. Anyone discussing policing in the U.S. needs to grapple with the fact that there is a wide racial divide in perception of police performance.
A Cato Institute survey found a strikingly high number — 73% — of African Americans and 54% of Hispanics believe that police are “too quick” to resort to deadly force with citizens. Only 35% of whites agree. Similarly, African Americans and Hispanics are also 20 to 30 points less likely than whites to believe that their local police treat all racial groups equally or are held accountable for misconduct.
Different personal and vicarious experiences with the police undergird this divide.
