Explaining Racial Differences in Ferguson’s Impact on Local Residents’ Trust and Perceived Legitimacy: Policy Implications for Police

Abstract

Public support and trust are critical to effective democratic policing, but scholars have suggested police in the United States may be experiencing a legitimacy crisis. High-profile police-involved shootings like those which have happened over the last 2 years can have negative consequences. This study assesses the consequences of the Ferguson, Missouri unrest and police response on local residents’ views. A panel survey of St Louis County, Missouri residents conducted before and after the police shooting of Michael Brown examines the effects on procedural justice and trust, police legitimacy, and willingness to cooperate with police. Results reveal a significantly different effect on African American versus non-Black residents. African Americans’ views significantly declined while non-Black residents’ perceptions were stable. Qualitative data are used to apply the conflict/group position and accumulated experience theories to explain racial disparities and are used as a basis to offer strategies to improve confidence and trust in police.

Examining the Impact of the Freddie Gray Unrest on Perceptions of the Police

“…Using the matched sample, Table shows the overall changes before and after the events of Freddie Gray for our three dependent scales, as well as the changes broken down by race and segment type. As noted earlier, we examine differences by race and segment type because it has generally been assumed that the impacts of events of possible police misconduct will have the strongest influences on minority communities and on those who live in high‐crime areas (Kaminski and Jefferis, ; Kochel, ; Reisig and Parks, ; Weitzer and Tuch, ).…”

“…The respondents were residents of St. Louis County, served by the county police, rather than from the municipal area of Ferguson, and the questions were designed to assess views of the county police, not Ferguson specifically. Regardless, the findings from Kochel's () study provide support for the proposition that highly publicized events of perceived police misconduct and abuse can negatively impact people's attitudes, lowering views of procedural justice and police legitimacy, which is consistent with the framework of procedural justice.…”

“…When we examined differences across race and hot‐spot type, the findings remained consistent, with the exception of Whites where there was a significant decrease in views of obligation to obey the law. This finding may suggest that certain demographic groups may be impacted by these events differently and that different perceptions of and experiences with law enforcement may contextualize the effect of these events (also see Kochel, ). More specifically, Freddie Gray's death and the riots negatively affected attitudes among those whose overall attitudes toward the police were more positive.…”

“…Thus, it is difficult to assess from this design how this incident affected views of procedural justice and police legitimacy more generally. Kochel (2017) conducted a study in St. Louis County in 2014, around the time of the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri that is particularly relevant to the current study. The study involved a public opinion survey on policing strategies in 71 crime hot spots that included several measures on attitudes of the police such as procedural justice, aggressive policing, and police legitimacy.…”

“…Based on the events in Baltimore and elsewhere, many commentators have concluded that minority communities are deeply affected by these highly publicized examples of police violence (Weitzer, ). More generally, politicians, the media, and scholars have declared that the United States is experiencing a crisis of police legitimacy as a result of these events (Cook, ; Gest, ; Jones, ; Kochel, ; Mellman, ; Nix and Pickett, ; Weitzer, ; White and Fradella, ; Wolfe and Nix, ).…”