STUDY: BLACKS DISTRUST POLICE
Justice Department Report Finds Views Depend on Race

June 3, 1999

By Hans H. Chen

WASHINGTON (APBnews.com) -- Blacks across the country are more likely to be dissatisfied with the police in their cities than white residents, according to a study released today by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Overall, 24 percent of blacks polled in 12 cities across the country expressed dissatisfaction with police, while only 10 percent of white residents polled said they were dissatisfied.

While the numbers ranged from city to city, blacks in some places were three to four times more likely than their white neighbors to express dissatisfaction.

In Knoxville, Tenn., 37 percent of blacks expressed dissatisfaction with the police, compared to 9 percent of whites. In Chicago, 31 percent of blacks expressed dissatisfaction, compared to 11 percent of whites.

Using study to improve training

Titled "Criminal Victimization and Perceptions of Community Safety in 12 Cities, 1998," the study polled 800 people in each city from February to May 1998. The Department of Justice's Community Oriented Policing Services, an office that helps local police departments set up crime prevention and local patrol programs, commissioned the study.

"We certainly are looking at the study as one of many tools to improve the training and resources we offer law enforcement agencies and community-oriented policing programs," said Dan Pfeiffer, a spokesman for the Community Oriented Policing Services office.

The study focused on residents of Chicago; Kansas City, Mo.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Los Angeles; Madison, Wis.; New York; San Diego; Savannah, Ga.; Spokane, Wash.; Springfield, Ma.; Tucson, Ariz.; and Washington.

Lawsuits claim racial profiling

The study comes at a time when relations between police and minorities have been strained amid allegations that departments across the county unfairly target minorities. After several unarmed black motorists sued the New Jersey State Police for shooting at their van, the state admitted to racial profiling, or pulling over drivers based on race. Lawsuits in Maryland, Oklahoma and Illinois make the same claim against police there.

In New York City, two incidents of alleged police brutality led to outrage in black and Latino communities, massive protests and an investigation into the Police Department by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

In August 1997, four police officers allegedly sexually assaulted Haitian immigrant Abner Louima, in a police station bathroom. In February earlier this year, four officers shot and killed Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant, in a barrage of 41 bullets.

Study underestimates, say critics

In this atmosphere of distrust, some said the study greatly underestimated the dissatisfaction blacks feel toward police.

By focusing the study on incidents of crime, which have become less frequent, the study glossed over the resentment created by racial profiling and police misconduct, said Norman Siegel, the director of the New York Civil Liberties Union and a frequent critic of the New York Police Department.

"I think that the numbers from the Justice Department are not credible and the only thing I can think of is that the questionnaire was geared toward the reduction in crime in America and the methodology and questioning was focused on that aspect of the job performance of the police," Siegel said.

In a poll released Wednesday by Connecticut's Quinnipiac College on the subject of police fairness, 62 percent of blacks in New York state said they disapproved of the job done by police, compared to 15 percent of whites. Eighty-three percent of blacks said the police treated blacks more harshly, while 44 percent of whites held the same opinion.

'Public perception of police response'

One police official said such studies only reflect a mistaken perception of poor police work.

"Everybody sees things through their own particular set of circumstances," said Dick Cottam, a spokesman for the Police Department in Spokane, Wash., one of the cities covered in today's study. "It's not necessarily indicative of police response. It's indicative of public perception of police response."