What Police and Poor Communities Really Think of Each Other

There’s a long and complicated narrative of black communities in America finding ways to support law enforcement, even as the law is enforced unequally to their disadvantage. A unique new study from the Urban Institute provides a vivid portrait of how these conflicting feelings sort themselves out.

“How Do People in High-Crime, Low-Income Communities View the Police?” asks a difficult question, and comes up with some answers that many might find surprising. On one hand, large percentages of people living in the most challenging areas expressed an eagerness to work with police to solve neighborhood problems, the study found. Not only that, but most from these communities also hold the law in high esteem, and believe there should be consequences for not following it.