More than half of registered New York voters are opposed to defunding the police and reducing police department budgets, according to a Siena College Poll released Tuesday.
A total of 60% of respondents opposed defunding the police, and more than half, 57%, also oppose reducing funding to police, according to the Siena College Research Institute Poll. Thirty percent expressed support for defunding the police, while 37% supported reducing police department budgets.
The poll showed differences among racial groups, with more than half of black respondents, 57%, and 24% of white respondents supporting defunding the police. Less than half of Latinos, 41%, said they support defunding the police, according to the poll.
Political parties were also divided on the question of defunding the police. Fewer than half of Democrats surveyed, 47%, said they opposed defunding the police while 75% of Republicans and 69% of Independents said they opposed cuts to police budgets, the poll reported.
Forty percent of Democrats supported defunding the police, while less than a quarter of Republicans, 19%, and Independents, 23%, supported those measures. (Related: De Blasio Announces Plan To Move Funds From NYPD Amid Calls To Defund The Police)
Demonstrators gathered in front of New York City Hall during Occupy City Hall protest to demand defunding NYPD & justice for George Floyd in Downtown Manhattan on June 27, 2020.
Since the death of George Floyd in police custody, protesters across the country and some politicians have called to defund police departments or reduce police budgets. Floyd died May 25 after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, video of the incident showed. Chauvin was immediately fired and faces second-degree murder and manslaughter charges.
Approval of Black Lives Matter had 90% support among black voters in the group, while 69% of Latinos and 60% of white respondents also approved of the movement, according to the poll. The Siena College poll surveyed 806 registered New York voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
The Siena Research Institute did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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