Abstract
Police are under increased public scrutiny due to particularly newsworthy officer-involved shootings that garner significant concern. This concern undoubtedly shapes the public’s global perceptions of police legitimacy, but does it influence one’s attitudes towards police in their local area? This paper examines the relationship between global perceptions of police in the United States as a whole and citizen satisfaction with local police. This is a notable addition to the existing literature on citizen perceptions of police, which largely assesses global perceptions at a neighborhood or organizational level. Instead, we distinguish perceptions of police as an institution from perceptions of police as individuals and as a localized organization. We explore the relationship between these attitudes using data collected from individuals who had personal encounters with their local law enforcement agency. Consistent with prior studies, we control for race, age, education, sex, and perceptions of officer bias. We find that global perceptions of police in the United States has a significant effect on satisfaction with local police. This suggests that future studies of citizen perceptions of police could benefit from assessing general attitudes about police as an institution. Overall, these findings have important implications for law enforcement agencies who are working to improve their relationships with the community, particularly in a time of ongoing protests over police brutality.
Published October 20, 2020
