He had his hands up when the police shot him, according to video 1:46
(CNN) - Americans' trust in the police has reached a new low, helped in large part by a widening gap between black and white people in how much they trust officers.
About 48% of Americans said they have "a lot" or "a lot" of trust in the police, up from 53% a year earlier, according to a new Gallup poll.
The poll, released Wednesday, was conducted in the weeks after George Floyd's assassination in May, which mobilized thousands of protesters to march against police brutality and racism.
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The results are part of Gallup's annual survey of trust in institutions, a benchmark for how much Americans believe in the medical system, the media, public schools, the presidency and more.
Gallup has polled Americans about their trust in the police for nearly 30 years. This is the lowest level that has fallen since the first police poll in 1994 (the previous high was 64% in 2004), Gallup said.
Black respondents are less likely to trust the police
Since Gallup began including the police in its Trust in Institutions survey in 1993, white respondents have been more likely to express confidence in the police than black respondents, according to Gallup.
This year, trust in the police declined for black and white participants, but the drop among black participants was more marked: 19% of black participants said they had "a lot" or "a lot" of trust in the police . 56% of the white participants said the same.
He had his hands up when the police shot him, according to video 1:46It's the largest gap between black and white respondents that Gallup recorded in the current poll, which asks people about 16 institutions.
Black Americans' trust in the police hovered in the mid-30% range as of 2014 (a year after George Zimmerman was acquitted of the murder of Trayvon Martin; the same year the protests began in Ferguson, Missouri). Since then, black respondents' trust in the police has continued to fall to 30%, while that of white respondents remained at 60%.
Attitudes towards the police changed after George Floyd's death
The new poll is just one indication that Americans' perception of policing is changing rapidly since the protests began in May.
"Defund the police" entered the broader lexicon in late spring. "Defunding" means withdrawing funds from police departments (which often make up the majority of a city's budget) and reinvesting those funds in social programs, education, or health care.
Several cities have taken steps, albeit small, to withdraw funds from police departments: This week, Seattle lawmakers voted to cut nearly $ 4 million from the city's $ 400 million police budget. Los Angeles and New York officials also promised not to increase their police budgets.
An earlier Gallup poll, released in July, indicated that Americans agree with the reform. According to last month's poll, 58% of Americans said "major changes" were necessary to improve surveillance, and another 36% supported "minor changes." That is overwhelming support for US law enforcement reform of some kind.
This reveals body cameras on George Floyd's arrest 2:58A small number, about 47% of those surveyed, supported the reduction in police department funding, according to the survey. Support for the total abolition of police departments, as Minneapolis lawmakers have done since Floyd's death in the city, remained relatively low at 15%.
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