Police-public relations: Perceptions of the police among university students in a western Canadian city

Abstract

Using data collected from a survey of 501 university students in a western Canadian city, this article examines the perceptions of the police among young adults and factors that contributed to the variation in their evaluations of the police. Results demonstrated that respondents held moderately positive attitudes toward the police. Multiple ordinary least-squares regression analysis demonstrated that religious affiliation, personal safety, property crime victimization, violent crime victimization, contact with the police, and police harassment or mistreatment experience were found to be significantly associated with perceptions of police performance, whereas age, religious affiliation, violent crime victimization, contact with the police, and police harassment or mistreatment experience were found to be significantly related to perceptions of police treatment of minorities. (Word count: 118).