Policing in Black and White: Ethnic Group Differences in Trust and Confidence in the Police

TLDR

Public trust and confidence in the police is generally low, especially among minority groups. The study examines whether trust is related to willingness to cooperate with police and how police policies and practices influence trust among New Yorkers. Using a New York sample, the study assesses how trust correlates with cooperation willingness and how police policies and practices affect trust. Results show that trust is strongly linked to cooperation willingness, and that public judgments about procedural fairness of police actions are the most influential factor, outweighing crime‑control effectiveness or service distribution fairness, supporting a process‑based model of regulation.

Abstract

Public trust and confidence in the police is generally low, with minority group members especially mistrustful of the police. This study uses a sample of New Yorkers to examine, first, whether trust is related to public willingness to cooperate with the police. The results suggest that it is. Second, this study examines the relationship of police policies and practices to trust in the police. The study finds that trust is most strongly influenced by public judgments about the fairness of the procedures that the police follow when exercising their authority. These process-based judgments are more influential than are either assessments of the effectiveness of police crime-control activities or judgments about the fairness of the police distribution of services. These findings support the process-based model of regulation.