Uptick in Republicans Seeing Police Violence as a Problem

Three in four voters say police violence against the public is a serious problem in the United States, according to a Morning Consult/ Politico poll. The figure is up seven percentage points from May 2021, when it was at 68 percent. While Democrats remain the biggest share of voters to say it is a serious problem, a growing number of Republicans now agree, rising from 41 percent last May, to 56 percent in January.

The poll has been taken three times over the past four years. In June 2020, respondents were surveyed a month after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd, as Black Lives Matter demonstrations were held across the nation. At that time, the results found that 52 percent of Republicans agreed police violence was either a “very” or “somewhat” serious problem in the country, versus 90 percent of Democrats. In May 2021, following Chauvin’s trial, only 41 percent of Republicans said the same.

The January 2023 poll, taken following the death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, has seen yet another shift among Republican voters, as more now recognise it as a problem.

As reported by Eli Yockley for Morning Consult, when asked more specifically about whether police violence is common against Black people, the results were slightly different. Where 62 percent of voters overall said that it was, when looking at a breakdown of the different parties, only 38 percent of Republicans agreed with the statement, versus 84 percent of Democrats.