Survey: Gun crime, COVID-19 are top concerns in Memphis
Four hundred and twenty-five Memphis and Shelby County residents identified the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and public safety as top concerns in the Memphis and Shelby County Crime Commission’s annual poll, the second of its kind.
The poll was conducted by Public Opinion Strategies, a public affairs firm that received an “A-” rating for accuracy and methodology from Fivethirtyeight.com, a website that regularly analyzes polls, among other topics.
Of the 425 survey respondents, 65% live within city limits and 35% live in Shelby County. Forty-six percent of the respondents were Black, 48% were white, and six percent were labeled as “other” or refused to disclose their racial identity. Sixty percent of the respondents were female and 40% were male.
All respondents were registered voters with access to either a cell phone or a landline.
The respondents’ income and location by ZIP code were not disclosed in poll results posted to the Crime Commission website. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
Here are some of the main takeaways from the 2021 poll:
Across demographic markers, COVID-19 response is No. 1 issue
How city and county leaders respond to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic remained the top priority for respondents with 30% of the vote for top issues, across all demographic makers included in the poll: Black, white, male, female, respondents under the age of 45 and those who live within Memphis city limits and those who live within Shelby County limits.
An eight percentage point drop does indicate that while the pandemic is still a high priority, it’s not as high as the year before.
Five other issues were ranked as follows: Crime and public safety — 22%, education —16%, jobs and the economy — 15%, taxes and spending — 7%, police reform — 7%.
Of the nine subcategories of crime asked about in the poll, gun crime dominated as a top concern among respondents with 48% of them ranking it Number One. Human trafficking was ranked as a top concern by 11% of the respondents; juvenile crime was third with 10%.
Feelings of safety remain unchanged from last year
There are five answers that make up the overall category of whether a respondent feels safe in their neighborhood: Always feel safe, mostly feel safe, feel safe about half the time, mostly feel unsafe, and always feel unsafe.
According to the survey, 77% of respondents said they feel safe in total — with 21% saying they always feel safe and 56% saying they mostly feel safe. Only 2% of the respondents said they always feel unsafe.
The safety sentiment was mostly uniform across demographic markers — men, women, Memphis residents, Shelby County residents, Black, white, college educated and not all feel within a range of 67% and 87%.
The results of the 2020 survey said 76% of the respondents felt safe in their communities.
When it came to sizing up the effectiveness of community involvement programs like neighborhood watches, 51% of all respondents ranked these programs as “somewhat effective.”
Respondents align on juvenile justice, differ on other themes
In total, 20% of the respondents said they believed the justice system was too harsh on juveniles who commit crimes. Thirty-four percent said the system was too lenient on juvenile offenders and
36% believe the justice system for juvenile offenders was “just right.”
Broken down by race, both Black and white respondents held similar viewpoints on juvenile justice, with the largest disparity, six percentage points, occurring in the “too leniently” category. Thirty-seven percent of white respondents believe the juvenile justice system is too lenient towards young offenders compared with 31% of Black respondents.
When asked about the justice system that processes adults, there was more nuance.
Twenty-five percent of Black respondents believe the justice system to be “too harsh” on adults, compared with 39% of white respondents.
The parole system, and the ease with which offenders can make parole, drew a more nuanced take. Thirty-two percent of the respondents said the parole system should be kept as is, 22% said it should be changed to make it easier for offenders to get parole, 29% said it should be changed to make it harder for offenders to get parole, and 7% said it should be eliminated altogether.
When the issue of parole was broken down along race, gender, location, and education, the views became even more nuanced.
Overall police performance ratings slip slightly
Between 2020 and 2021, the overall performance rating of law enforcement dipped from a 2020 approval rate of 71% favorable to a 2021 rate of 62% favorable.
The largest dip in favorable opinions towards police performance occurred in respondents younger than 45. In 2020, 74% of respondents between the ages of 18 and 44 approved of police performance. In 2021’s results, that approval dipped to 48% in the same age category.
Only 7% of all respondents ranked the performance of police as “poor.”
How the respondents view police performance also differs significantly between Memphis residents and those who live in outside the city limits in Shelby County.
Fifty-one percent of Memphis-based respondents gave police performance a favorable rating, compared with 87% of respondents who lived outside city limits.
Along racial lines, a similar disparity was noted in police performance. Eighty-five percent of white respondents approved of police performance, compared with 51% of Black respondents.
A broad majority of the 425 respondents across all demographic markers support the idea of hiring more police officers in levels virtually unchanged since 2020. Support also exists for changing the residency requirement to allow police and fire personnel to live in a neighboring county within a 50-mile radius.
Overall, 64% of Black respondents and 81% of white respondents support changing residency requirements. Sixty-nine percent of Memphis residents approved of a change to residency requirements, and 80% of the respondents who live outside Memphis city limits in Shelby County said they supported the idea as well.
In 2021, 59% of the respondents strongly supported hiring more police, and 22% somewhat supported the idea.
Among Black respondents, 80% supported hiring more police. Among white respondents, 84% supported hiring more police.
To view all results of the poll, visit the Memphis Shelby County Crime Commission’s website, https://memphiscrime.org/.
Reach reporter Micaela Watts at micaela.watts@commercialappeal.com.