CITIZEN RATINGS OF THE POLICE: The Difference Contact Makes

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Abstract
Recent surveys repeatedly indicate that the public holds favorable attitudes toward the police. This analysis suggests positive public evaluations of the police may be in part the result of citizen satisfaction with police actions in handling specific incidents. Citizen‐police contacts are found to be relatively common, and in the majority of these contacts, citizens are found to rate police actions favorably. Four types of citizen‐police contacts are analyzed: contacts resulting from victimizations, assistances provided by the police, stops initiated by police, and citizen calls to the police for information. Contact type alone is found to have relatively little influence on citizen evaluations of the police services provided to their neighborhoods. But citizen satisfaction with police handling of contacts has a stronger impact, which appears to vary with contact type.