Nearly one-third of Americans feel that police officers regularly lie while on the job, according to a survey conducted by Reuters and the IPSOS polling organization.
Even though most Americans approve of the work done by their local police force, nearly one-third believe that officers "routinely lie to serve their own interests."
When considering only the beliefs of African-Americans, that number increases to 45 percent. Nearly 70 percent of black respondents said they believe police officers specifically target minorities.
Despite the reported distrust in local police, some three-quarters of respondents said they still approve of the job police do in their local precincts. Among black respondents, approval was 56 percent.
One man who took part in the poll, MarQuis McClee, a small-business owner from Bloomington, Indiana, told Reuters that while he generally trusts police, he has "been involved with officers who give police a bad name," citing a recent traffic stop by an officer he believes was profiling him.
The poll is particularly relevant in light of recent police brutality protests in Ferguson, Missouri and across the country.
When the pollsters asked respondents about the Ferguson police, overall, 60 percent said they had a favorable impression, while only 32 percent of black respondents said they had a favorable impression.
While attention on policing has been in the spotlight, racial disparity in the criminal justice systems has become a fact of life in the United States, Reuters reported. A study by the Sentencing Project research group showed that one in three black men are likely to be imprisoned sometime during their lives. The figure for white men is one in 17.
