Police, public differ on key issues but align on others
The public and the police differ on issues ranging from an assault rifle ban to racial progress in the U.S., but their views align on other issues.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
The public and the police differ on issues ranging from an assault rifle ban to racial progress in the U.S., but their views align on other issues.
A new Pew Research Center nationwide survey of 7,917 police officers focuses on a wide range of topics about policing, including how police view their jobs, officers’ experiences in the field and how these fatal encounters have impacted the way they do their jobs.
About a quarter of all officers say they have ever fired their service weapon while on the job. Are some more likely than others to have fired their weapon in the line of duty?
Majorities of police officers say that recent high-profile encounters between black citizens and police have made their jobs riskier and left many officers reluctant to fully carry out some of their duties.
Several government agencies and nonprofit groups gather and publish data on school shootings and other public mass killings. But because of data lags and differing definitions, getting a clear read on overall trends is surprisingly hard.
National rates of gun homicide and other violent gun crimes are strikingly lower now than during their peak in the mid-1990s, paralleling a general decline in violent crime, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of government data. Beneath the long-term trend, though, are big differences by decade: Violence plunged through the 1990s, but has declined less dramatically since 2000.
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ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts.
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