By Canadian Press

Trust in police drops amid anti-racism protests, poll suggests

Jun 16, 2020 | 2:03 AM

OTTAWA — A new poll suggests more Canadians are questioning their trust in the police as protests against racism and police brutality sweep across North America.

Seventy per cent of respondents to the Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies survey indicated they trusted the police a lot or somewhat — down nine points from May and 11 from April.

The decline coincides with the killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, which has sparked anti-racism protests in the U.S. and Canada as well as calls for changes to police conduct.

On that score, the poll found that the vast majority of respondents were in favour of police wearing body cameras as well as more training for officers on relations with visible minorities.

However, respondents were evenly divided over the idea of prioritizing the police hiring of visible minorities and less than one-third supported taking firearms away from officers patrolling urban centres on foot.

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The online poll was conducted June 12 to 14 and surveyed 1,527 adult Canadians.

It cannot be assigned a margin of error because internet-based polls are not considered random samples.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2020.

The Canadian Press