Police

Republicans and Democrats have vastly different opinions about how well police do their jobs and the realities of policing today.

On some subjects, racial differences among the police are considerably more pronounced than they are among the public as a whole.

A new Pew Research Center nationwide survey of 7,917 police officers focuses on a wide range of topics about policing, including how police view their jobs, officers’ experiences in the field and how these fatal encounters have impacted the way they do their jobs.

Read an interview with Senior Editor Rich Morin and Senior Research Methodologist Andrew Mercer, who were involved in our groundbreaking police officer survey.

Majorities of police officers say that recent high-profile encounters between black citizens and police have made their jobs riskier and left many officers reluctant to fully carry out some of their duties.

Tell us how you think police would answer each of five questions in a Pew Research Center nationwide survey of 7,917 police officer then we’ll tell you how officers actually answered each question i

Blacks and whites in the U.S. disagree over police performance and differ on the causes of fatal encounters between blacks and police.

The public sees a number of contributing factors for the outbreak of violence and unrest in Baltimore last week, and most say it was the right decision to charge some Baltimore police officers in the death of Freddie Gray.

Race and community relations have become the focal point of tension in a series of incidents over the past year.

The share of wage and salary workers in the U.S. who belong to labor unions has fallen by about half since 1983. Americans express mixed views on the impact this long-term decline has had on the country.