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SURVEY SHOWS AMERICAN'S COMFORT WITH POLICE
police contact November 22, 1997 Web posted at: 7:01 p.m. EST (0001 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A new Justice Department survey examining the way the public interacts with police has found that one in five Americans makes some kind of contact with law enforcement officers each year mostly to report a crime, ask for help or offer assistance.
The study, released Saturday, also found that less than 1 percent of people who made contact with police said officers used or threatened to use physical force. If force was used, most respondents said, their actions may have provoked it.
The survey reveals nothing surprising, criminal justice experts said. They said it shows that Americans are turning to police in situations beyond emergencies.
"I think to many people, the one in five number seems high. But it does emphasize the varied role police have as peace officers as opposed to just responding to crimes," said James Alan Fox, dean of the College of Criminal Justice at Boston's Northeastern University. "Most of the work police do is not necessarily respond to crimes."
However, some feel the survey fails to address factors important to relationships police have with citizens. police directions
"It probably doesn't really speak to the strained relations between the police and minority communities in America," said Arthur Lurigio, chairman of the Criminal Justice Department at Loyola University in Chicago.
The first-of-its-kind study was culled from data in the annual National Criminal Victimization Survey conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
According to the report, one-third of the contacts between the police and the public was related to seeking help or offering assistance. Another third was to report a crime, either as a witness or victim. Slightly less than one-third of respondents said the police had initiated the contact.
White males and people in their 20s were the most likely to have face-to-face contact, the survey found. Hispanics and blacks were about 70 percent as likely as whites to have interacted with the police.
The study was based on a survey of 6,421 people, age 12 and older, and used a sample of residents chosen to represent an entire population. No margin of error was given.