Even during a time of historic polarization in the U.S., there are very few issues capable of inspiring the level of passionate disagreement that police reform does. The call to reimagine how governments allocate public safety resources, catalyzed by the murder of George Floyd last year, has animated a generation of young Black and brown activists looking to dismantle this country’s legacy of systemic racism.
As the epicenter of America’s gun violence epidemic, Chicago occupies a unique place in the national dialogue about police reform and systemic racism. As such, Chicago has an opportunity to chart a path on police and policy reform that could serve as a model for the entire nation. To get there, it’s important to understand the confluence of factors undergirding divergent beliefs about how to move forward, and to identify and leverage the aspects of reform upon which diverse constituencies agree.
The Harris Poll and the MacArthur Foundation recently surveyed almost 1,000 Chicagoans to better understand our city’s biggest challenges, particularly regarding public safety. The response from residents portrays a city with fraught — even contradictory — feelings toward a police force that it at once supports and wants reformed. The survey reveals a tale of two cities, with respondents’ experiences shaping their attitudes about solutions.
Of the survey respondents, 50% agreed that gun violence is the city’s biggest problem. Property taxes was the second most cited problem, and even then, only 10% of residents selected it. A greater consensus is clear: Fully 96% of respondents say that gun violence must be reduced, an unheard-of level of agreement in opinion polling. And 75% believe that gun violence is worse in Chicago than in other major U.S. cities.
The city’s violent crime statistics validate their concerns. As of last week, murders in the city are up 5% and shootings are up 17% compared with this date a year ago.
Our survey found that Chicagoans are focused more on policy changes than policing when it comes to addressing the problem. Residents identify background checks for all gun sales as most likely to reduce gun violence (63%), followed by higher penalties for gun-related crimes (60%), increased police presence in high gun-crime neighborhoods (55%) and increased police-community involvement in those areas (51%). While federally licensed firearms dealers are required to conduct background checks on would-be buyers, private, unlicensed gun-sellers are not, except at gun shows. Chicagoans favor making these checks more universal.
Chicago’s residents appreciate having police officers in their neighborhoods, believing they reduce or prevent crime (63% overall) and make people feel safer where they live (79%). Strong majorities oppose reducing neighborhood police presence (72% overall), and notably, most respondents believe that both resident-police relations and race relations in Chicago are no better or worse than in other major cities.
When it comes to policy changes, attitudes begin to fracture along racial lines. For example, white residents are much more likely to favor higher penalties for gun crimes and, especially, to support increased police presence, than Black residents are. Although a strong majority of Black Chicagoans (67%) agreed that increased police presence is necessary for reducing gun violence, white residents stand behind it in much higher numbers (87%).
People of color in Chicago — due to historical negative experiences with law enforcement — do not feel safe or comfortable having a police presence in their neighborhood. Black and Latino residents were twice as likely as white residents to report negative experiences with cops and to display greater anxiety about reporting police misconduct, for fear of retaliation.
Additionally, most Chicagoans understand the disparate impact of policing: 64% (including 66% of Latino residents and 91% of Black residents) believe there is persistent racial bias in the city’s policing practices, and nearly two-thirds (66%) believe the Police Department lacks support among Black, Indigenous and people of color residents.
These attitudes and experiences explain why Chicago residents approve of the police overall while also favoring reform (75%). They know the city needs a police force — most Chicago residents oppose the “defund the police” movement (58%) — but they believe cops can improve, especially vis-a-vis people of color, with better training and more available alternatives to police response, such as neighborhood patrols and dispatching social workers to handle certain situations. Majorities of Chicagoans believe that de-escalation training (53%) and racial equity training (51%) would be the best ways to start. A force that looks more like the city it serves could help alleviate the trust gap.
On the “defund” movement specifically — which refers to efforts to reduce police department budgets and redistribute those funds toward essential and underfunded social services, such as housing, education, employment, mental health care and youth services — most Chicagoans see it as neither desirable nor practical, fearing that it would lead to both a decrease in police presence (78%) and an increase in crime in their neighborhoods (65%). And what’s more, they feel it wouldn’t help repair police-resident relations (62%).
While the central tenets of the “defund” movement can be divisive, supporters and non-supporters alike can find common ground with some of its goals — giving city leaders a potential road map for creating workable solutions with broad-based support. Of those who want to cut police spending, they would like to see the money used for mental health programs (67%), gun violence prevention (62%) and homeless services and shelters — and they believe the movement will generate more money for these areas. On the other hand, two-thirds of those who oppose the “defund” movement favor the idea of funneling more funding toward non-policing alternatives.
Our survey makes clear that it will be tough for activists to win broad support for defunding the police. But, leaders can show they are listening to the movement’s supporters by investing in, and making greater use of non-policing alternatives, especially to help resolve situations involving mental health and homelessness.
The paradigm in Chicago makes it abundantly clear that guns, race relations and law enforcement are intertwined challenges. Policymakers will not be able to make progress on one any one of these issues if they don’t take an approach that addresses them together.
Kristen Mack is managing director of communications and John Palfrey is president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Will Johnson is CEO of The Harris Poll.
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