Racial Attitudes and Public Perceptions of Policing After the Death of George Floyd and the 2020 Protests

• In Event: The University of Cincinnati Crime and Justice Public Opinion Lab: Part I

Abstract

In June 2020, protests against police brutality erupted worldwide in response to the murder of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis. Given that racial justice has been the primary demand of protests in response to police violence, racial attitudes are likely salient factors in explaining the public’s beliefs about policing. Studies have measured public perceptions of policing during and shortly after the events of 2020, but no research to our knowledge has examined perceptions of how policing was affected in the long term. The current study aims to understand the public’s views on how policing changed after the events of 2020. To do so, we analyze data from a May 2023 survey of 1,299 adults in the United States administered via YouGov. The majority of our sample agreed that policing has become more challenging following the events of 2020. We also find that higher scores on the racial resentment scale are associated with more strongly believing that policing has become more stressful, more dangerous, and has received more unfair criticism following the events of 2020. We will discuss additional findings and the implications of our results for understanding perceptions of policing in the years after critical events.

Authors

• Brenna Dunlap, University of Nebraska Omaha

• Preston Trey Bussey, University of Nebraska Omaha

• Leah C. Butler, University of Cincinnati