Voters Want a Non-Police First Responder Agency for Addiction and Mental Health

By Mark White YouGov Blue

Former Dallas police chief David Brown said in a 2016 press conference that “we’re asking cops to do too much in this country… Not enough mental health funding? Let the cops handle it. Not enough drug addiction funding? Let’s give it to the cops… Policing was never meant to solve all those problems.” This quote is relevant again as activists, protesters, advocates, and elected officials are all calling for at least reforming police departments, if not dismantling them and starting over.

In a June 2020 survey, voters overwhelmingly support (72 percent) one of the proposed reforms, a new first-responder agency that addresses issues of addiction and mental health—with only 17 percent opposing and 11 percent unsure. The full text of the question can be found in the methodology statement at the end of this post.

We also gauged thoughts about this reform in September 2019, with about the same levels of support (72 percent), opposition (15 percent), and unsure (14 percent).

We look at how opinion has shifted over time, broken out by political party identification. The reform enjoys a net support (percent support minus percent oppose) of at least 30 percentage points (ppts). Democrats and independents remain stable, but there is some evidence that Republicans are less supportive as the issue comes more salient to the current political environment.

Looking at responses by various demographic groups on the June 2020 data replicates work we’ve published elsewhere on the blog. This policy shares majority support among each of these groups listed below.

The current protests have enjoyed high and sustained levels of approval from voters. One possible reason for this is that the protest movement is bringing attention to policies voters have found wildly popular across the modern era. For all the handwringing over whether “defund the police” as a shorthand could hurt protestors’ credibility, voters are reporting that the opposite is true. The protests are bringing very popular ideas to the policy forefront, and so the persistent popularity of the protests should not be treated as some mystery. Voters—including Republicans—support police reform and have since before the current protests started.

Methodology

The full text of the item read:

Recently, some have proposed a variety of ways to reform the criminal justice system. Please indicate whether you would support or oppose the following proposed reforms. A reform to… 

Create a new agency of first-responders, like emergency medical services or firefighters, to deal with issues related to addiction or mental illness that need to be remedied but do not need police

Where respondents could indicate somewhat or strongly support, somewhat or strongly oppose, or not sure.

The June 2020 survey is based on 1,085 internet interviews of self-identified registered voters, conducted from June 5th through June 7th, by YouGov Blue. The samples were selected to be representative of registered voters, and weighted according to gender, age, race, education, region, and past presidential vote based on registered voters in the November 2016 Current Population Survey, conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. The weights range from 0.07 to 6.02 with a mean of 1 and a standard deviation of 0.59.

The September 2019 survey is based on 1,006 internet interviews of self-identified registered voters, conducted from September 13th through September 16th, by YouGov Blue. The weights range from 0.09 to 5.86 with a mean of 1 and a standard deviation of 0.51.