Brand New Poll Reveals Residents In Two Southern Cities Reject Calls To ‘Defund The Police’

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Dec 1, 2021

Two polls that were conducted among the residents of both Louisville, Kentucky and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, has revealed that there is a total lack of support for the idea of making significant changes to local law enforcement despite the protests that rocked the country last year, according to information gleaned from data gathered by USA Today and Suffolk University.

USA Today reported that Louisville “residents were more than twice as likely to cite public safety, not police reform, as the biggest issue facing the city,” and then pointed out that residents living in Oklahoma City ranked police reform as the least significant issue for their community out of a list of nine. The news publication then pointed out that very few of those who responded to the questions were supportive of the phrase, “defund the police.”

When they were asked if the police in their city only used force when it was necessary, here’s what they had to say, via Newsmax:

  • 44% in Louisville agree.
  • 43% in Louisville disagree.
  • 13% responded differently.
  • 56% in Oklahoma City agree.
  • 32% in Oklahoma City disagree.
  • 12% had another response.

Many respondents in Louisville pointed to the shooting of Breonna Taylor by police at her apartment last year as the moment when many of the city’s residents lost or started to lose faith in law enforcement officers.

Forty-five percent of Louisville residents said they lost faith in the police because of Taylor’s killing, while just 7% of Louisville residents gained trust in police because of the shooting. However, most of the city’s residents also expressed disapproval with some of the protests that followed, 53% to 31%.

The surveys also showed a strong divide between Black and white residents of Oklahoma City when it comes to satisfaction with police interactions. Only 17% of white residents of the city said that they’ve had an unsatisfying interaction with Oklahoma City police after being stopped, but 69% of Black residents report having an unsatisfying interaction.

The polls were sponsored by the folks over at USA Today and the Political Research Center at Suffolk University. They were performed in conjunction with the Oklahoman and the Louisville Courier Journal.

A total of five hundred individuals were surveyed for the poll in each city between the dates of Nov. 10-15, 2021. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.