Résumé
The main objectives of this study were to construct an empirically sound tool that can be used to gain insight into the factors that contribute to community evaluation of the police service, and then to apply this tool in a community setting. In response to a scarcity of sound empirical research on attitudes toward the police, a scale was constructed and validated for the specific context of examining cross-race differences in perceptions. In order to investigate these attitudes, several variables were assessed, including fear of crime, negative police contact (personal and vicarious), ethnic identity, authoritarianism, and demographic information. The survey tool constructed for the purpose of this study was administered to an urban community sample in Saskatchewan. There was a statistically significant difference in attitudes toward police across race, with Aboriginal respondents demonstrating more negative attitudes than the White sample. This finding does not, however, indicate a direct relationship between race and attitudes as a number of significant other factors were identified in the study.