Poll: Urban blacks in U.S. have little confidence in police

Racial differences in views of the police are long-standing, but have been brought to the forefront again after white police officers’ actions resulted in the deaths of black men in Ferguson, Missouri, and Staten Island, New York. Grand juries did not indict either officer.

Blacks living in highly urban areas are even less likely to have confidence in the police, 26%, than those living in non-urban areas (38%). For this analysis, urban residents are those living in the 47 U.S. counties that include the nation’s largest cities, using the definition of “Big Cities” from the American Communities Project. These counties are highly urban and include a high proportion of racial and ethnic minorities. About one in three blacks nationwide live in these highly urban counties.

Because many of the high-profile racial incidents involving police have occurred in urban settings, blacks living in and around big cities may be more sensitive to these tensions with police than blacks living in non-urban areas. It is possible that these high-profile events were not isolated incidents but more extreme examples of ongoing and widespread tensions between police and blacks, which many urban blacks may experience firsthand.