The city's police force is enjoying high public approval levels, according to a newspaper poll published Monday.
The poll of 1,500 registered voters found almost eight in 10 said they either "strongly approve" or "somewhat approve" of the Police Department's performance. The endorsement comes after several years of decreasing crime rates, a more diverse police force and improved community outreach under Chief William Bratton.
The poll was commissioned by the Los Angeles Times and carried out by a pair of Washington, D.C.-based firms, Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, a Democratic firm, and Public Opinion Strategies, which polls for Republicans. It was conducted from June 10 through 16 and had a margin of error of 2.6 percentage points.
Gains in public opinion cut through racial and ethnic lines, a significant development given the department's strained history among black and Latino residents.Among Latinos, 76 percent approved of the department's performance, while 19 percent disapproved. The split was 68 percent to 25 percent among black residents. Eighty-one percent of white respondents approved while 11 percent disapproved.
The approval rating among black and Latino residents rose by double digits since the Times' last such survey in 2005. In 1991, after the Rodney King beating, only 40 percent of Los Angeles residents said they approved of police performance.Though approval has increased, the poll illustrated persisting complexities that exist in attitudes toward police.
A third of all respondents said police officers do not treat all races equally and remain tougher on blacks. Sixteen percent said officers are tougher on Latinos and 34 percent said all races are treated the same.
The new poll found two-thirds of respondents said they approved of how Bratton is doing his job. Some residents in the city's west side complained that Bratton has shifted too many officers to high-crime areas in South Los Angeles and to the Eastside.
