Bridging the Divide: Leadership Perceptions of Law Enforcement–Community Trust
This report presents the assessments of Michigan’s local government leaders, local chiefs of police, and county sheriffs on the interactions and relationships between law enforcement and Michigan communities. In addition, these local leaders, plus county prosecutors, were asked about their views on policies and practices associated with police-community relations. These findings are based on statewide surveys of local government leaders in the Spring 2024 wave of the Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS), with some comparisons to data collected in the Fall 2015 MPPS wave.
The Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS) is an ongoing census survey of all 1,856 general-purpose local governments in Michigan conducted since 2009 by the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP). Respondents for the Spring 2024 wave of the MPPS include county administrators, board chairs, and clerks; city mayors, managers, and clerks; village presidents, managers, and clerks; and township supervisors, managers, and clerks from 1,307 local jurisdictions across the state, as well as responses from 54 county sheriffs, 234 chiefs of police or directors of public safety, and 55 county prosecutors.
