Americans' belief in police's honesty increases after doubts: poll

After dropping to 48 percent last year amid a national firestorm over police treatment of young black men, Americans' view of police honesty has rebounded to 56 percent, according to a Gallup poll released Monday.

That number is more consistent with the 54 percent to 58 percent ratings Gallup found between 2010 and 2013, the polling company found.

That poll comes more than a year after the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black man who was shot dead by police in Ferguson, Missouri, which set off rioting in that city that grabbed headlines worldwide and dominated the U.S. media cycle. The incident also sparked protests nationwide against police treatment of young black men.

Four in 10 American nonwhites now rate the ethical standards of police as very high or high -- an increase from the 23 percent who held this view in 2014. A steep drop in nonwhites' ratings of the police in 2014 was the sole cause of the profession's overall ratings dip last year, Gallup found.

While nonwhites' attitudes have not rebounded to their pre-2014 levels, the slight increase in whites' positive views of the police this year, from 59 percent to 64 percent, coupled with the rise in nonwhites' ratings, pushes the overall percentage back to the normal range seen in recent years, Gallup found.

Indeed, the overall image of the police is largely restored to what it was before incidents in Ferguson and elsewhere in 2014 spawned the "Black Lives Matter" movement against police's racial discrimination and excess use of force against African Americans.

However, it is a tenuous recovery as the police's rating among nonwhites is still not fully repaired.

That could partly reflect additional controversies over police behavior that have erupted in 2015, including the death of Freddie Gray -- a young black man who died while in police custody in Baltimore, Maryland. As long as events like these continue to make news or spread through social media, the police's image may continue to suffer among minorities, even if the profession's overall image remains high because of whites' positive views.

Meanwhile, nurses have topped Gallup's Honesty and Ethics ranking every year but one since they were added to the list in 1999.

The exception is 2001, when firefighters were included on the list on a one-time basis, shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, in which firefighters were credited for their bravery in saving others' lives. Endit