A near-universal majority of Americans support at least some changes to policing in the United States following the death of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police, a new HuffPost/YouGov poll finds.
The HuffPost/YouGov survey shows that the bill’s provisions ― including ending qualified immunity, which protects police officers from civil lawsuits, and developing a national standard for when police officers can use force ― are broadly popular.
Just 7% of Americans describe the country’s police system as basically sound and requiring essentially no changes, the HuffPost/YouGov survey finds, with another 37% saying it’s basically sound but needs some improvement.
By contrast, solid majorities of the public favor banning police chokeholds (73% support this), creating a federal registry for complaints against officers (72%), developing a national standard for police use of force (69%), making it easier for the federal government to charge officers for using excessive force (68%), assigning independent prosecutors to handle cases where officers use fatal force (67%) and eliminating officers’ “qualified immunity” against misconduct lawsuits (59%).
Ariel of a new HuffPost/YouGov survey on police reform.
