The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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feel police do not treat everyone equally. Still, the blacks feel more strongly than the
whites that police single out blacks and treat them worse. Respect
From the self report data, a majority of the blacks (69%) responded they had
respect and trust for the police at least some of the time. The whites, on the other hand,
did not respond as positively toward the police (42 percent sometimes/always).
The majority of blacks from the interviews, however, either do not respect the
police or will only show it if they get it in return. “It’s kind of hard to have respect when
you see what happened to Rodney King. I think it’s harder to have respect for the judicial
system that just set them free.” The whites were split about in half in their responses. One
youth expressed respect to the police for their help in straightening him out. “By them
busting me, that’s what got me sober, and that’s what’s helping me out.”
The last question referred to the desire to become a police officer in the future. It
was quite apparent from the self reports that neither whites nor blacks had any ambition
to become police officers. Of the blacks, 84 percent said they would never want to be an
officer, with only 5 percent indicating a future career as a police officer. Whites showed a
somewhat higher interest in this field (12 percent). Still, the majority of whites also stated
no interest in becoming a police officer (76 percent). There were not a lot of comments in
the interviews on this topic. Most youth just answered with a yes or no. Again, both races
had little desire to become a police officer.