WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th July, 2020) Two-thirds of American support holding police accountable in civil lawsuits for cases of brutality and other misconduct against civilians, a Pew Research Center opinion poll said on Thursday.
"Two-thirds of Americans (66 percent) say that civilians need to have the power to sue police officers to hold them accountable for misconduct and excessive use of force, even if that makes the officers' jobs more difficult," Pew said.
Only 32 percent of the US public believed that the police had to have exemption from such legal actions in order to do their job properly, the poll found.
However, 86 percent of African-Americans supported giving the public the right to sue police officers for misconduct and 75 percent of Hispanic-Americans took the same position, the poll found.
Registered Democrats and Democrat-trending independent voters favored the right to sue police officers by 84 percent to 16 percent. Republicans opposed the idea by a narrow 53 percent to 45 percent, Pew said.
The poll was conducted from June 16 to June 22 using a research group of 4,708 adults, Pew said.�
