Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice (MACJ)

Department

Criminal Justice, Criminology, & Forensics

First Advisor

Jacqueline Helfgott

Second Advisor

Matthew Hickman

Third Advisor

Jennifer Satterwhite

Abstract

Police legitimacy is of ongoing concern for police agencies in their interactions with the public. Police legitimacy is impacted by a range of factors. After the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent protests calling for systemic changes in policing, police legitimacy ratings declined in the United States. In the city of Seattle, police legitimacy ratings declined dramatically coinciding with an historical decrease in police staffing leading to a staffing crisis. The current study aims to investigate how community perceptions of police capacity in Seattle impact community perceptions of police legitimacy at citywide, precinct and neighborhood levels. Quantitative and qualitative data drawn from the 2024 Seattle Public Safety Survey. Results explore the differences in the citywide, precinct and neighborhood level. The data revealed that police capacity and police legitimacy are correlated with specific findings suggesting that the correlation is stronger in some precinct and neighborhoods t. Implications for police-community engagement in Seattle and other cities with attention to the relationship between police capacity and police legitimacy will be discussed.

Download

Share

COinS