The relationship between the police and African Americans has been beset by a lack of trust for decades. Improving this relationship is important to scholars, practitioners, and citizens; as a result, we examine in this study African Americans’ trust and confidence in the police. Using trust questions found in the literature, we interviewed 77 African Americans in Durham, NC, to assess their views about the police. We found that for the police to earn the trust of African Americans, the police should treat African Americans equitably, invest in community policing, and respect African Americans. Although some respondents do not believe that their relationship with the police could be repaired, this is a small percentage of respondents, less than 5%.
AndersonE. (1999). Code of the street: Decency, violence, and the moral life of the inner city. WW Norton & Company.
2.
BalkoR. (2014). Rise of the warrior cop: The militarization of America’s police forces. Public Affairs.
3.
BeckettK.NyropK.PfingstL. (2006). Race, drugs, and policing: Understanding disparities in drug delivery arrests. Criminology, 44(1), 105–137.
4.
BellM. C. (2016). Situational trust: How disadvantaged mothers reconceive legal cynicism. Law & Society Review, 50(2), 314–347.
5.
BellM. C. (2017). Police reform and the dismantling of legal estrangement. Yale Law Journal, 126, 2054–2150.
6.
BoatengF. D. (2016). Neighborhood-level effects on trust in the police: A multilevel analysis. International Criminal Justice Review, 26(3), 217–236.
7.
BoatengF. D. (2018). Institutional trust and performance: A study of the police in Ghana. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 51(2), 164–182.
8.
BradfordB.SargeantE.MurphyK.JacksonJ. (2017). A leap of faith? Trust in the police among immigrants in England and Wales. The British Journal of Criminology, 57(2), 381–401.
9.
BraunV.ClarkeV. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101.
10.
BrownB.BenedictW. R. (2002). Perceptions of the police. Past findings, methodological issues, conceptual issues and policy implications. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 25(3), 543–580.
11.
BrunsonR. K.GauJ. M. (2015). Officer race versus macro-level context: A test of competing hypotheses about black citizens’ experiences with and perceptions of black police officers. Crime & Delinquency, 61(2), 213–242.
12.
BrunsonR. K.MillerJ. (2005). Young black men and urban policing in the United States. British Journal of Criminology, 46, 613–640.
13.
BrunsonR. K.WadeB. A. (2019). Oh hell no, we don’t talk to police. Criminology & Public Policy, 18(3), 623–648.
14.
BurkeR. H. (2013). Hard cop, soft cop. Routledge.
15.
CarrP. J.NapolitanoL.KeatingJ. (2007). We never call the cops and here is why: A qualitative examination of legal cynicism in three Philadelphia neighborhoods. Criminology, 45(2), 445–480.
16.
ChenaneJ. L.WrightE. M. (2021). The role of police officer race/ethnicity on crime rates in immigrant communities. Race and Justice, 11(1), 3–27.
17.
ChenaneJ. L.WrightE. M.GibsonC. L. (2020). Traffic stops, race, and perceptions of fairness. Policing and Society: An International Journal of Research and Policy, 30(6), 720–737.
18.
ChurchA. H. (1999). Estimating the effect of incentives on mail response rates: A meta-analysis. Public Opinion Quarterly, 57(1), 62–79.
19.
ColeB. (1999). Post-colonial systems. In MawbyR. (Ed.), Policing across the world: Issues for the twenty-first century (pp. 88–108). UCL Press.
20.
EberhardtJ. L.DaviesP. G.Purdie-VaughnsV. J.JohnsonS. L. (2006). Looking death-worthy: Perceived stereotypicality of black defendants predicts capital-sentencing outcomes. Psychological Science, 17(5), 383–386.
21.
EckJ.RosenbaumD. (1994). The new police order: Effectiveness, equity, and efficiency. In RosenbaumD. P. (Ed.), The challenge of community policing: Testing the promises (pp. 3–23). Sage.
22.
EllisonG. (2002). Reflecting all shades of opinion: Public attitudinal surveys and the construction of police legitimacy in Northern Ireland. British Journal of Criminology, 40(1), 88–111.
23.
EppC. R.Maynard-MoodyS.Haider-MarkelD. P. (2014). Pulled over: How police stops define race and citizenship. University of Chicago Press.
24.
FaganJ.DaviesG. (2000). Street stops and broken windows: Terry, race, and disorder in New York City. Fordham Urban Law Journal, 28, 457–504.
25.
FeaginJ. R. (2000). Racist America: Roots, current realities, and future reparations. Routledge.
26.
FlexonJ. L.LurigioA. J.GreenleafR. G. (2009). Exploring the dimensions of trust in the police among Chicago juveniles. Journal of Criminal Justice, 37(2), 180–189.
GauJ. M. (2013). Consent searches as a threat to procedural justice and police legitimacy: An analysis of consent requests during traffic stops. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 24(6), 759–777.
29.
GauJ. M.BrunsonR. K. (2010). Procedural justice and order maintenance policing: A study of inner-city young men’s perceptions of police legitimacy. Justice Quarterly, 27(2), 255–279.
30.
GauJ. M.BrunsonR. K. (2015). Procedural injustice, lost legitimacy, and self-help: Young males’ adaptations to perceived unfairness in urban policing tactics. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 31(2), 132–150.
31.
GauJ. M.PaolineE. A. (2020). Equal under the Law: Officers’ perceptions of equitable treatment and justice in police. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 45, 474–492.
32.
GelmanA.FaganJ.KissA. (2007). An analysis of the New York City Police Department’s “stop-and-frisk” policy in the context of racial bias. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 102(479), 813–823.
33.
GoldsmithA. (2003). Policing weak states: Citizen safety and state responsibility. Policing and Society, 13(1), 3–21.
34.
GoldsmithA. (2005). Police reform and the problem of trust. Theoretical Criminology, 9(4), 443–470.
35.
GrantL.PryceD. K. (2019). Procedural justice, obligation to obey, and cooperation with police in a sample of Jamaican citizens. Police Practice and Research: An International Journal, 21(4), 368–382.
36.
GreenJ. R.DeckerS. H. (1989). Police and community perspectives on the community role in policing: The Philadelphia experience. The Howard Journal, 28(2), 105–123.
37.
HammJ. A.TrinknerR.CarrJ. D. (2017). Fair process, trust, and cooperation: Moving toward an integrated framework of police legitimacy. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 44(9), 1183–1212.
38.
HannonL. (2017). An exploratory multilevel analysis of pedestrian frisks in Philadelphia. Race and Justice, 10(1), 87–113.
39.
HarrisD. A. (2007). The importance of research on race and policing: Making race salient to individuals and institutions within criminal justice. Criminology & Public Policy, 6(1), 5–23.
40.
HintonE.CookD. (2020). The mass criminalization of Black Americans: A historical overview. Annual Review of Criminology, 4(1), 261–286.
41.
HitchensB. K.CarrP. J.Clampet-LundquistS. (2018). The context for legal cynicism: Urban young women’s experiences with policing in low-income, high-crime neighborhoods. Race and Justice, 8(1), 27–50.
42.
HoughM.JacksonJ.BradfordB.MyhillA.QuintonP. (2010). Procedural justice, trust, and institutional legitimacy. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 4(3), 203–210.
43.
HoughM. (2012). Researching trust in the police and trust in justice: A UK perspective. Policing and Society: An International Journal of Research and Policy, 22(3), 332–345.
44.
JacksonJ.BradfordB. (2010). What is trust and confidence in the police?Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 4(3), 241–248.
45.
JohnsonD. (2001). Punitive attitudes on crime: Economic insecurity, racial prejudice, or both?Sociological Focus, 34(1), 33–54.
46.
KaneR. J. (2005). Compromised police legitimacy as a predictor of violent crime in structurally disadvantaged communities. Criminology, 43(2), 469–498.
47.
KirkD. S.MatsudaM. (2011). Legal cynicism, collective efficacy, and the ecology of arrest. Criminology, 49(2), 443–472.
48.
KirkD. S.PapachristosA. V. (2011). Cultural mechanisms and the persistence of neighborhood violence. American Journal of Sociology, 116(4), 1190–1233.
49.
LangtonL.DuroseM. (2013). Police behavior during traffic and street stops, 2011 (Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report). US Department of Justice.
50.
LeaJ.YoungJ. (1984). What is to be done about law and order?Penguin Books.
51.
LoflandJ.LoflandL. (1995). Analyzing social settings: A guide to qualitative observation and Analysis. Wadsworth.
52.
MacDonaldJ.StokesR. J. (2006). Race, social capital, and trust in the police. Urban Affairs Review, 41(3), 358–375.
53.
MarableM. (1983). How capitalism underdeveloped black America: Problems in race, political economy, and society. South End Press.
54.
MooreM. (1999). Security and community development. In FergusonR. F.DickensW. T. (Eds.), Urban problems and community development (pp. 293–337). Brookings Institution.
NixJ.WolfeS. E.RojekJ.KaminskiR. J. (2015). Trust in the police: The influence of procedural justice and perceived collective efficacy. Crime & Delinquency, 61(4), 610–640.
57.
O’BrienT. C.MearesT. L.TylerT. R. (2020). Reconciling police and communities with apologies, acknowledgements, or both: A controlled experiment. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 687(1), 202–215.
58.
O’BrienT. C.TylerT. R. (2019). Rebuilding trust between police & communities through procedural justice & reconciliation. Behavioral Science & Policy, 5(1), 34–50.
59.
PeckJ. H. (2015). Minority perceptions of the police: A state-of-the-art review. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 38(1), 173–203.
60.
PryceD. K. (2016). Ghanaian immigrants’ experiences with and perceptions of U.S. police: A qualitative study. Criminal Justice Review, 41(4), 469–487.
61.
PryceD. K. (2018a). Does procedural justice influence general satisfaction with police? A study from a hard-to-reach population of immigrants in the United States. Journal of Crime and Justice, 41(1), 31–48.
62.
PryceD. K. (2018b). Ghanaian immigrants’ differential trust in and obligation to obey the U.S. police and Ghana police: findings from a qualitative study. African Identities, 16(4), 396–411.
63.
PryceD. K.GrantL. (2020). The relative impacts of normative and instrumental factors of policing on willingness to empower the police: A study from Jamaica. Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, 18(1), 19–42.
64.
PryceD. K.JohnsonD.MaguireE. R. (2017). Procedural justice, obligation to obey, and cooperation with police in a sample of Ghanaian immigrants. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 44(5), 733–755.
65.
ReinerR. (2000). The politics of the police. Oxford University Press.
66.
ReisigM. D.ParksR. B. (2000). Experience, quality of life, and neighborhood context: A hierarchical analysis of satisfaction with police, Justice Quarterly, 17(3), 607–630.
67.
ReisigM. D.ParksR. B. (2003). Neighborhood context, police behavior, and satisfaction with police. A multi-level analysis. Justice Research and Policy, 5(1), 37–65.
68.
RosenbaumD. P. (Ed.). (1994). The challenge of community policing: Testing the promises. Sage.
69.
SampsonR. J.BartuschD. J. (1998). Legal cynicism and (subcultural?) tolerance of deviance: The neighborhood context of racial differences. Law and Society Review, 32(4), 777–804.
70.
SampsonR. J.RaudenbushS. (1999). Systemic social observation of public spaces: A new look at disorder in urban neighborhoods. American Journal of Sociology, 105(3), 603–651.
71.
SargeantE.MurphyK.CherneyA. (2014). Ethnicity, trust and cooperation with police: Testing the dominance of the process-based model. European Journal of Criminology, 11(4), 500–524.
72.
ShermanL. (1997). Policing for crime prevention. In ShermanL.W.GottfredsonD.MacKenzieD.EckJ.ReuterP.BushwayS. (Eds.), Preventing crime: What works, what doesn’t, what’s promising. National Institute of Justice.
73.
SiegelL. J.SennaJ. J. (1997). Juvenile delinquency. West.
74.
SolomonS. J. (2019). How do the components of procedural justice and driver race influence encounter-specific perceptions of police legitimacy during traffic stops?Criminal Justice and Behavior, 46(8), 1200–1216.
75.
SpalekB. (2010). Community policing, trust, and Muslim communities in relation to “New Terrorism.”Politics & Policy, 38(4), 789–815.
76.
SpohnC. C. (2014). Racial disparities in prosecution, sentencing, and punishment. In BuceriusS. M.TonryM. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of ethnicity, crime, and immigration (pp. 166–193). Oxford University Press.
77.
StoutlandS. E. (2001). The multiple dimensions of trust in resident/police relations in Boston. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 38(3), 226–256.
78.
SunI. Y.HuR.WuY. (2012). Social capital, political participation, and trust in the police in urban China. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 45(1), 87–105.
79.
SunI. Y.JouS.HouC. C.ChangY. C. (2014). Public trust in the police in Taiwan: A test of instrumental and expressive models.”Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 47(1), 123–140.
80.
SunshineJ.TylerT. R. (2003). The role of procedural justice and legitimacy in shaping public support for policing. Law & Society Review, 37(3), 513–548.
81.
TankebeJ. (2008). Police effectiveness and police trustworthiness in Ghana: An empirical appraisal. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 8(2), 185–202.
82.
TankebeJ. (2013). Viewing things differently: The dimensions of public perceptions of police legitimacy. Criminology, 51(1), 103–135.
83.
TerrillW.ReisigM. D. (2003). Neighborhood context and police use of force. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 40(3), 291–321.
TuranovicJ. J.RodriguezN.PrattT. C. (2012). The collateral consequences of incarceration revisited: A qualitative analysis of the effects on caregivers of children of incarcerated parents. Criminology, 50(4), 913–959.
86.
TylerT. R. (1990). Why people obey the law. Yale University Press.
87.
TylerT. R. (2005). Policing in black and white: Ethnic group differences in trust and confidence in the police. Police Quarterly, 8(3), 322–342.
88.
TylerT. R. (2017). Procedural justice and policing: A rush to judgment?Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 13, 29–53.
89.
TylerT. R.FaganJ. (2008). Legitimacy and cooperation: Why do people help the police fight crime in their communities. Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, 6, 231–276.
90.
TylerT. R.FaganJ.GellerA. (2014). Street stops and police legitimacy: Teachable moments in young urban men’s legal socialization. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 11(4), 751–785.
91.
TylerT. R.HuoY. (2002). Trust in the law: Encouraging public cooperation with the police and courts. Russell Sage Foundation.
92.
TylerT. R.JacksonJ. (2014). Popular legitimacy and the exercise of legal authority: Motivating compliance, cooperation, and engagement. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 20(1), 78–96.
93.
TylerT. R.WakslakC. J. (2004). Profiling and police legitimacy: Procedural justice, attributions of motive, and acceptance of police authority. Criminology, 42(2), 253–281.
94.
Van CraenM. (2013). Explaining majority and minority trust in the police. Justice Quarterly, 30(6), 1042–1067.
95.
Van CraenM.SkoganW. G. (2015). Differences and similarities in the explanation of ethnic minority groups’ trust in the police. European Journal of Criminology, 12(3), 300–323.
96.
WarrenO. (2011). Perceptions of police disrespect during vehicle traffic stops: A race-based analysis. Crime & Delinquency, 57(3), 356–376.
97.
WeitzerR. (2000). White, black, or blue cops? Race and citizen assessments of police officers. Journal of Criminal Justice, 28(4), 313–324.
98.
WeitzerR. (2015). American policing under fire: Misconduct and reform. Society, 52(5), 475–480.
99.
WeitzerR.BrunsonR. K. (2009). Strategic responses to the police among inner-city youth. The Sociological Quarterly, 50(2), 235–256.
100.
WeitzerR.BrunsonR. K. (2013). African American perceptions of police misconduct and accountability. Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice and Criminology, 1(2), 243–266.
101.
WeitzerR.TuchS. A. (2002). Perceptions of racial profiling: Race, class, and personal experience. Criminology, 40(2), 435–456.
102.
WeitzerR.TuchS. A. (2005). Racially biased policing: Determinants of citizen perceptions. Social Forces, 83(3), 1009–1030.
103.
WillisJ. J. (2011). First-line supervision and strategic decision making under Compstat and Community Policing. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 24(2), 235–256.
104.
WhiteM. D.FradellaH. F. (2016). Stop and frisk: The use and abuse of a controversial policing tactic. New York University Press.
105.
WordenR. E.McLeanS. J. (2017). Mirage of police reform. University of California Press.
