Americans' confidence in the police has risen by eight percentage points over the past year, reaching 51%. This marks the largest year-over-year change in public perceptions among the 17 major institutions measured in Gallup's annual update. Faith in the police fell in 2020 to 48% after George Floyd was murdered while in police custody. After increasing to 51% in 2021, confidence in the police dropped again in 2022 and dipped further last year, to a record low of 43%. Over the past year, confidence in the police has risen among most major demographic subgroups of Americans, particularly three that previously expressed lower levels of confidence in the police: those aged 18 to 34, people of color and political independents, Gallup reports. Aside from the police, small businesses (68%) and the military (61%) are the only other institutions in the June 3-23 poll that achieved majority-level confidence.
Meanwhile, between 26% and 36% of U.S. adults express at least quite a lot of confidence in nine institutions -- the medical system, higher education, the church or organized religion, the U.S. Supreme Court, public schools, organized labor, banks, large technology companies, and the presidency. These levels of high confidence are well below the majority level. Five institutions have the confidence of less than one-quarter of U.S. adults -- the criminal justice system, newspapers, big business, television news and Congress. Confidence in the criminal justice system has edged up four points since last year, while confidence in the other institutions is unchanged or statistically similar. Of these, television news and Congress have the unwelcome distinction of earning low or no trust from a majority of Americans.