An overwhelming majority of Americans in a new poll said they believe there should be change in US police departments amid calls for reform in the wake of the death of Tire Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee.
The CBS News/YouGov poll, released Sunday, found that 89 percent of respondents said there should be change within police departments in the US, while 11 percent of respondents are not. OK.
Nearly half of those surveyed, 47 percent, said major changes need to be made to police departments, while 42 percent said minor changes need to be implemented.
Following political party lines, 95 percent of Democrats surveyed said there should be changes within police departments in the US, while only 5 percent disagreed.
Eighty-four percent of the Republicans polled said there should be changes within police departments in the US, while 16 percent disagreed, according to the poll.
Eighty-nine percent of independent respondents said reforms should be implemented in US-based police departments, with 11 percent disagreeing.
When asked if police reform in the US is a high priority, 61 percent of Democrats said yes, as did 47 percent of independents and 29 percent of Republicans.
The new poll comes as many prominent figures have made a renewed effort to pass a police reform bill after the death of Nichols, a 29-year-old black man who died three days after being punched, punched and kicked by five officers. from the Memphis Police Department.
Body camera footage of the incident, which occurred last month, showed the five police officers beating Nichols for three minutes and leaving him on the ground without medical attention for more than 20 minutes afterward.
The five Memphis police officers, all black, were fired from their positions within the department and have been charged with second-degree murder and other crimes related to the incident.
Memphis, Tennessee Mayor Jim Strickland (D) said the Justice Department will conduct a review of the city’s police department in connection with Nichols’ death.
The CBS News/YouGov poll was conducted February 1-4 with a total of 2,300 respondents participating in the survey. The poll’s margin of error is 3 percentage points.
