Beyond police encounters: everyday racism and trust in the police

Abstract

Trust in the police is essential for democratic legitimacy, yet it is declining across Western Europe. Immigrants and their descendants, who face disproportionate levels of discrimination, report particularly low levels of trust. While previous research has focused primarily on police-specific discrimination, it overlooks three important distinctions: First, between individuals without police contact versus individuals with non-discriminatory encounters; second, between police-specific discrimination and broader forms of everyday racism; and last, potential generational differences. This article addresses these gaps by analysing how reported experiences of police-specific and everyday racist discrimination affect police trust among immigrants and their descendants in Germany. Using data from two waves of the DeZIM.panel (N = 1,001), we find that both forms of discrimination are negatively associated with trust. However, respondents who had non-discriminatory contact with the police report significantly higher trust than those with no contact at all. Importantly, everyday racism reduces trust independently.