Americans’ confidence in the police increased eight percentage points over the past year to 51%, the largest year-over-year change in public perceptions of 17 major U.S. institutions measured in Gallup’s annual update. The slim majority of U.S. adults who express confidence in the police includes 25% who say they have “a great deal” and 26% “quite a lot.”
Gallup first measured confidence in the police in 1993. Between then and 2019, a majority of Americans expressed high confidence in the institution, including a record high of 64% in 2004. Faith in the police fell in 2020 to 48%after George Floyd was murdered while in police custody. After increasing to 51% in 2021, confidence in the police dropped again in 2022 and dipped further last year, to a record low of 43%.
Over the past year, confidence in the police has risen among most major demographic subgroups of Americans, particularly three that previously expressed lower levels of confidence in the police: those aged 18 to 34, people of color and political independents.