ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on assessing Black and Nonblack residents' reactions, with a goal toward understanding what may lead to differences in perspective by race. It synthesizes what happened in Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014 and briefly outlines why it is important to understand the effects of Ferguson on residents' views about police, including any differences by race. The chapter describes the data on which this study is based and presents the results of the short and long-term impact study; and consider the implications of the findings. In St. Louis County, some reasons may explain the improvement among African Americans in their trust for police and to a lesser extent police legitimacy. The lessons learned from the Ferguson incident that can be applied to police-community relations appear to be consistent with these efforts to increase transparency, information sharing and engagement. Furthermore, as minority residents tend to hold worse views than majority residents in many contexts over time.
