Six charts illustrate how Milwaukee residents view defunding the police — and what they think that means

Daphne Chen Yuriko Schumacher Erin Caughey
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Demonstrators walk past the District 3 Milwaukee Police Station chanting "defund the police" as they head to a rally outside the Milwaukee Public Schools administrative offices.

A new poll exploring Milwaukee residents’ attitudes toward law enforcement shows that a majority oppose defunding the police — but a similar number say they would support cutting funds from cops to spend on social services like mental healthcare. 

The results illustrate the nuances in the public's perception of police and the difficulty of defining "defund the police," said Marquette University polling expert Charles Franklin.

"With complicated policy issues, especially new ones that have just burst onto the scene, how much information you provide in the question and how much you frame the question matters, potentially quite a lot," Franklin said. 

More:Is Milwaukee a good place to live? Survey finds deep racial disparities in answers

The phrase "defund the police” can mean different things to different people, from reallocating a portion of police budgets to social services to full abolition of police services.

The 500-person survey — a collaboration between Suffolk University Political Research Center, the USA TODAY Network and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel — did not define “defund the police.” Instead, it asked: 

  1. "Defund the police" is a slogan some activists have espoused. Is that an idea you support or oppose?
  2. Would you support or oppose the idea of cutting some funding from the police and using the money for social services - for instance, to help the homeless and the mentally ill?

Here's how people answered:

Jesse Cheng, a professor of criminal justice at Marquette University, said the discrepancy in answers shows how slogans can take on a variety of interpretations — and misinterpretations — in the public consciousness. 

"A slogan like 'defund the police' can get caught up in the culture wars mentality," Cheng said. “Some people are, at best, misinterpreting the slogan because they don't know exactly what it means. At worst, some people are being deliberately dense about what the slogan means for their ends.”

Cheng’s research shows a similar phenomenon when people are asked about the death penalty. When surveyed, many people say they support the death penalty. But when pollsters drill down and give respondents a choice between the death penalty and life in prison without the possibility of parole, he said, more favor the latter.

“Even just that little bit of an option that already changes the whole dynamic of the response,” Cheng said. 

According to Franklin, the Milwaukee survey tracks with state and national polling that shows that the general public generally feels positive about law enforcement, despite recognizing flaws and severe misconduct in policing. 

“Many people see defunding as a wholesale rejection of police,” Franklin said. “Whereas shifting funds to other services is a tradeoff that — according to the poll — a majority would make.”

Here are five more takeaways from the survey:

Contact Daphne Chen at dchen@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @daphnechen_.