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A new study highlights differences between the races as they view the recent spate of deadly encounters between blacks and law enforcement.

A survey by the Pew Research Center finds

 only a third of blacks and nearly three-quarters of whites say police in their communities do an excellent or good job using appropriate force.


The two races come to different conclusions about the reason for fatal incidents. About 8-in-10 blacks (79 percent) say the recent deaths are a sign of systemic problems between police and the black community, compared to 54 percent of whites.


The survey was conducted online and by mail with 4,538 U.S. adults between Aug. 16 and Sept. 12. The poll came before protests of 

fatal shooting of a black man in Charlotte

, N.C. That shooting on Sept. 20 set off two nights of protests.




There are areas of agreement. Regardless of race, many Americans say the public protests of the shootings of blacks are motivated by long-standing anti-police bias as well as by a genuine desire to hold police accountable for their actions. Overall, about two-thirds of the public (63 percent) say the protesters are driven by a genuine desire to hold officers accountable.


Both groups favor the use of body cameras by police to record encounters when dealing with the public. Overall, only about a third of all those surveyed have a "lot of confidence" in their own police department.  Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Crime, Law and Justice

Sonari Glinton

Author

According to a new study, only a third of blacks and nearly three-quarters of whites say police in their communities do an excellent or good job using appropriate force.

Wide gulf persists between black and white perceptions of policing

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