Evaluations of police performance in an African American sample

Research has indicated that minority group members generally hold less positive attitudes toward police than do Whites. This study, examined evaluations of police performance among a sample of African Americans. Regression analysis indicated that age, education, victimization, respondents' evaluations of the safety of their neighbor-hoods their evaluations of their neighbor-hoods, and their evaluations of police response time getting to their neighborhoods ail had significant effects upon evaluations of local police performance. These results are consistent with studies that emphasized the neighbor-hood context of evaluations of local police performance. They also indicate that el evaluations of police response time are a significant factor in evaluations of police performance among African Americans. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.