Determinants of attitudes toward city police

This paper reports the results of a survey of attitudes toward police and police service among 273 citizens in 4 neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, Pen-nsylvania. Extensive socioeconomic and personal history data were col-lected for all individuals. Results indicate that personal history. particularly respondents ’ perceptions of the way in which specific officers have related to them personally in previous encounters. is a more signijicant determinant of general attitudes towards police than were all socioeconomic variables including race and income. Results thus suggest that positive styles of policing will significantly aflect police-community relations, and that police-community relations programs stressing officer-citizen interaction in a law enforcement context will have the highest probability of success. AbStract