Police, public differ on key issues but align on others

On issues ranging from an assault rifle ban to racial progress in the US, the public and the police stand on opposite sides of a wide attitudinal divide. At the same time, majorities of police officers and the public favor the use of body cameras, favor relaxing some restrictions on marijuana, and believe that long-standing bias against police was at least some of the motivation for the protests that followed many of the deaths of blacks during encounters with police in recent years.

Among the more striking takeaways from these surveys was the very different way the police and the public view the deaths of blacks during encounters with police. Two-thirds of officers (67%) view these fatal encounters as isolated incidents, a view shared by only about four-in-ten Americans (39%). The views of police and the public also differ sharply on whether the country has made the changes needed to give blacks equal rights with whites. A lopsided majority of officers (80%) say the country has made the necessary changes. But the public is more divided: 48% say the needed changes have been made while 50% believe that more changes are needed to assure equal rights for black Americans.