The majority of U.S. voters believe there is a war being waged against law enforcement and support policies that would protect police officers, while even more fear that the deadly attacks against police will lead to a shortage of officers.
According to the Rassmussen poll released Thursday, 59% of likely voters believe there is a war on police going on, up from 43% two years ago. Similarly, 59% of voters support “Blue Lives Matter” laws in their state, which would carry more severe punishments for attacks on law enforcement officers.
White voters were more likely to support Blue Lives Matter laws, at 63%, while 52% of black voters and 49% of other minorities favored enacting such protections.
A majority of voters, 68%, also believe that attacks such as last week’s shooting of two Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies will lead to a shortage of police officers. Broken down by race, 84% of black voters fear such attacks will lead to a police shortage, compared to 66% of white voters and 70% of other minorities.
With protests and riots in major cities across the country sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, 67% of respondents rate the performance of their local police as good or excellent. Only 20% of Americans believe the tactics used by their local police have been too harsh, the poll found.
Broken down by party affiliation, 80% of Republicans believe there is a war on police compared to just 39% of Democrats. A majority of voters unaffiliated with a party, 60%, believe there is a war on police.
With a movement to defund police spreading across the country, 66% of Americans oppose those efforts. Meanwhile, 42% of voters say there have been recent anti-police protests in their local area, with 48% of those voters saying those protests have turned violent.
The poll, which surveyed 1,000 likely U.S. voters, was conducted between Sept. 15-16 and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
