Poll: ‘Ferguson effect’ real

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Here's the full report:

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2017/...ind-the-badge/

It's quite long and demonstrates differences between officers of different races.

As far as firearms issues - two things caught my eye.

1. Police are less likely to support an AWB.

The public also is twice as likely as police to favor a ban on assault-style weapons (64% vs. 32%).

2. Using your firearm and gun control:

Most officers say that outside of required training, they have not discharged their service firearm while on duty; 27% say they have done this. Male officers are about three times as likely as female officers to say they have fired their weapon while on duty – 30% of men vs. 11% of women.

This has been seen as contrary to the usual statement that using a firearm is very rare. Page 2 of the report has an age, race, gender breakdown of firing.

Police officers are considerably more likely than the general public to say it is more important to protect the rights of Americans to own guns than it is to control gun ownership (74% of officers vs. 53% of the public). At the same time, there is widespread agreement between police and the public on several key gun law reforms. For example, more than nine-in-ten officers and almost the same share of the public favor laws that would prevent the mentally ill from purchasing guns (95% and 87%, respectively). And about the same proportions of the police and the public favor background checks for people who buy weapons at a gun show or from a private individual (88% and 86%, respectively).


A majority of police and a larger share of the public also support the creation of a federal database to track gun sales (61% and 71%, respectively).

However, the consensus on guns vanishes when the focus turns to assault-style weapons. About two-thirds of Americans (64%) but only about a third of police (32%) favor outlawing assault weapons.

The gender gap among police on this issue is among the largest of any question in this survey: A majority of female officers (57%) favor a ban on assault weapons, compared with about a quarter of their male colleagues (27%). This disparity mirrors the overall gender gap in the country as a whole: 74% of women and 54% of men favor making these weapons illegal.

There is much more on issues and clear support of the Ferguson effect. Of course, this is contrary to original denial blather on the issue by the usual folks.

[Spectre044]

I've been at my agency since 2012. We are a moderate sized agency with around 600 sworn officers.

Our turnover has changed dramatically over the past couple of years. I came in right as our sheriff was reelected. Every election cycle, our radio numbers change. This newest election cycle, I dropped just over 160 radio numbers. This means that at least 160+ people between where I was and the lowest radio number have left the agency. Some of that is through retirement but most of it is for other reasons. That number doesn't even include the people who started after me and have already left. Now, at about 4 and half years in, I am considered a senior deputy. I find that others look to me for decisions even though I have been in law enforcement for less than half a decade. What a crazy world we live in.