Authors
Stacey Williams, Ph.D., Senior Director of Ecosystem Impact, Forward Cities
Lori Gonzalez, Ph.D., Senior Policy and Research Analyst, Data Foundation
Phylicia Bediako, Ph.D., Manager of Research and Evaluation, Forward Cities
Minnie McMillian, M.A., Research Assistant, Forward Cities
Alice Quach, M.S., Research Assistant, Forward Cities
Austin Hepburn, M.P.P., Research Analyst, ACA Aponix
Executive Summary
Individuals across the American public have different perceptions on policing depending on where they live and their personal experiences with police. The 2021 report in the Policing in America Project, Perceptions of Police Activities: Results from the Policing in America Survey by Race and Ethnicity in Cook County, Illinois and Dallas County, Texas, found significant variation in perceptions of and experiences with police by race and ethnicity in two representative jurisdictions. This report describes the influence of neighborhood context on public perspectives on policing through a more detailed and extensive analysis combining survey and supplemental data assets. Specifically, this report combines individual-level survey data with neighborhood-level data derived from public datasets to better understand three primary outcomes: expectations around use of force, satisfaction with police activity in one’s community, and critical perspectives on policing.
Acknowledgments
The Policing in America Project was developed with support from the Microsoft Justice Reform Initiative. We appreciate the collaboration, constructive feedback, and guidance provided by Joe Willey and Nick Hart from the Data Foundation, Brittany Lambert from SpotCrime, Jennifer Benz from National Opinion Research Center (NORC), and Patrick McGarry from data.world. The Data Foundation also thanks its advisors for the Policing in America Project, including Joseph Peniel, Bruce Taylor, and Anita Ravishankar.
Disclaimer
This paper is a published report and product of the Data Foundation. The findings and conclusions expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Data Foundation, its funders and sponsors, or its Board of Directors.