Americans supportive of peaceful protests and bipartisan support for police reform

Reuters/Ipsos survey on national protests and ‘defund the police’

The author(s)
  • Chris Jackson Senior Vice President, US, Public Affairs
  • Annaleise Azevedo Lohr Director, US, Public Affairs
  • Christopher Cummins Research Analyst, Public Affairs
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Washington, DC, June 12, 2020 –  The latest Reuters/Ipsos survey examining attitudes towards protests and police reform finds that Americans remain largely supportive of the peaceful protests following George Floyd’s death while in police custody. Several proposals for police reform receive overwhelming bipartisan support. Approval of Donald Trump’s handling of the protests and demonstrations remains low.

Three-quarters (74%) of Americans support the peaceful protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death, holding steady from the week before (73%).

  • Republican registered voters’ perceptions about the direction of the country have shifted most significantly, with less than half reporting the country is going in the right direction (48%), down 12 points from April of this year (60%).
  • Democrats’ support is up 4 points this week compared to the week prior (86%), whereas Republicans’ support remains stagnant.
  • Approval of police handling of the protests (48%) is up from last week (43%).

support

Nine in ten Americans support requiring police officers to intervene when they see police misconduct (93%), requiring federal police officers to wear body cameras (92%), and independent investigations of police departments that show patterns of misconduct (91%).

  • Similarly 8 in 10 Americans support banning police from racial profiling (83%) and banning of police from using chokeholds to restrain civilians/suspects (82%).
  • Two in five Americans who are familiar of the ‘defund the police’ movement support it (39%).
  • Of those who are familiar with proposals to move some money currently going to police budgets into better officer training, local programs for homelessness, mental health assistance, and domestic violence, 76% support it. Half of Republicans (50%) who are familiar with the proposal support it, compared to 9 in 10 Democrats (93%).

police reform

 

Approval of Donald Trump’s handling of the situation remains low at 32%, statistically unchanged from last week (33%).

  • Republican support (69%) far outweighs Democratic (8%) and independent (20%) support on Trump’s handling of this issue.

approval

About the Study

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between June 9-10, 2020 on behalf of Thomson Reuters. For this survey, a sample of 1,113 Americans age 18+ from the continental U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii were interviewed online in English. The sample includes 495 Democrats, 417 Republicans and 116 independents. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 3.3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Americans been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error. The poll also has a credibility interval of ± 5.0 percentage points for Democrats, ± 5.5 percentage points for Republicans, and ± 10.4 percentage points for independents. 

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Chris Jackson
Vice President, US
Public Affairs
+1 202 420-2025
[email protected]

Kate Silverstein
Media Relations, US
Public Affairs
+1 718 755-8829
[email protected]

About Ipsos

Ipsos is the world’s third largest market research company, present in 90 markets and employing more than 18,000 people.

Our passionately curious research professionals, analysts and scientists have built unique multi-specialist capabilities that provide true understanding and powerful insights into the actions, opinions and motivations of citizens, consumers, patients, customers or employees. We serve more than 5,000 clients across the world with 75 business solutions.

Founded in France in 1975, Ipsos is listed on the Euronext Paris since July 1st, 1999. The company is part of the SBF 120 and the Mid-60 index and is eligible for the Deferred Settlement Service (SRD).

ISIN code FR0000073298, Reuters ISOS.PA, Bloomberg IPS:FP www.ipsos.com

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The author(s)
  • Chris Jackson Senior Vice President, US, Public Affairs
  • Annaleise Azevedo Lohr Director, US, Public Affairs
  • Christopher Cummins Research Analyst, Public Affairs

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