American’s Confidence in Police Rises Sharply, Other Institutions Mostly Flat

A file photo of police officers in Los Angeles, Calif., on May 28, 2024, (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Americans’ confidence in the police saw the sharpest rise by far compared to any other public institution this past year, according to a new Gallup poll, which in general shows public sentiment in institutions remains historically low.

Faith in institutions among Americans has been sliding for years, various polls have shown, with the dearth of confidence being pervasive, extending from politics to banking, from the presidency to television news, and from Congress to organized religion.

The latest poll, released by Gallup on July 15, shows that barely three institutions among 17 enjoy majority-level confidence among Americans. A bright spot of the survey is that the number of institutions previously above 50 percent confidence was just two, with police now joining that club to broaden its membership to three.

Overall, confidence in law enforcement among Americans saw an eight-point jump among U.S. adults, rising from 43 percent last year to 51 percent this year.

The increase in confidence in the police was sharpest among America’s youngest generation of adults, soaring by 16 points from 27 percent last year to 43 percent this year among those aged 18–34.

Small business and the military had the highest confidence ratings, with 68 percent and 61 percent of Americans respectively giving them an overall majority-level confidence rating, a category that combines a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence.

At the other end of the spectrum, there was television news and Congress. These two were the worst, notching 12 percent and 9 percent confidence levels, respectively.

The 17 institutions covered by the poll, along with their 2023 and 2024 confidence levels, are as follows:

The church or organized religion (32 percent last year, 32 percent again this year)

The military (60 percent last year, 61 percent this year)

The U.S. Supreme Court (27 percent last year, 30 percent this year)

Banks (26 percent last year, 30 percent this year)

Public schools (26 percent last year, 29 percent this year)

Newspapers (18 percent last year, 18 percent this year)

Congress (8 percent last year, 9 percent this year)

Television news (14 percent last year, 12 percent this year)

Organized labor (25 percent last year, 28 percent this year)

The presidency (26 percent last year, 26 percent this year)

The police (43 percent last year, 51 percent this year)

The medical system (34 percent last year, 36 percent this year)

The criminal justice system (17 percent last year, 21 percent this year)

Big business (14 percent last year, 16 percent this year)

Small business (65 percent last year, 68 percent this year)

Tech companies (26 percent last year, 27 percent this year)

Higher education (36 percent last year, 36 percent this year)

The Gallup poll was carried out on a representative sample of 1,005 adults living in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with a 4 percent margin of error.

Historically, confidence in America’s foundational institutions has ebbed and flowed, though there’s been a long-term declining trend since at least the 1970s.

OECD Survey Shows Similar Ebbs in Trust

The Gallup pole comes on the heels of a survey carried out by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) into levels of public trust in government, which fell by 2 percentage points on average among the 30 countries—which doesn’t include the United States—surveyed between 2021 to 2024.

Across the 30 countries, the share of people with low or no trust in the national government (44 percent) outweighed the share of those with high or moderately high trust (39 percent).

The countries included are mostly in Europe—Australia, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom—plus New Zealand, Korea, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and Costa Rica.

“The results of this latest edition of our Trust Survey shows citizens’ want a greater voice in decision making–to ensure it is fair, evidence-based, accountable, and clearly communicated,” OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann said in a statement.