An E Pluribus Unum survey finds a majority of southerners support major police reform and believe not enough has changed since the murder of George Floyd. EPU Founder and former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu says the annual survey of 1,200 indicated common ground that Floyd was wrongly killed and broad support of police reform being negotiated in Congress and locally.
“Citizens white and Black, Asian and Hispanic are calling for better hiring, better training, better supervision,” said Landrieu.
The survey tracks attitudes on systemic racism in policing and police reforms in the South. It included 400 Black, 400 Latino, and 400 white respondents. Landrieu says the survey also highlighted major support of police officers stepping in when other officers use excessive force.
“And also, more importantly for this notion that police officers should be trained to interfere with other police officers who are doing the wrong thing onsite,” said Landrieu.
Landrieu says responses from the annual survey surprised him this year because of common ground belief in police reform when before it was split along racial lines. He says the murder of George Floyd magnified the issue.
“There’s still some diverging opinions, but there’s broad support for some of these commonsense reforms that are being talked about on the federal level and that was a surprise to us, a pleasant surprise I might say,” said Landrieu.
The survey also found broad support for police officers and departments to carry liability insurance, so taxpayers do not have to pay for settlements when officers are found guilty of misconduct.
To see results from the survey click here.
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