About 50% of Russians remain confident in police; most of them assess the work of the police as “medium” or “good”.

MOSCOW, November 9, 2015. Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) presents the data of the survey describing how Russians assess the performance of the Russian police.

The level of confidence in police has not changed since 2013; it makes up 46% which is a record high over the entire measurement period.  Responses given by residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg as well as residents of middle cities and rural area do not differ much from the sample average (47%, 46% and 46%, respectively). The share of those who distrust the police has not changed, too (46%).

One-quarter of Russians (25%) assess the police performance as “good” or “very good; the share of such respondents has doubled over a decade – from 13% in 2005 (48% among those who trust in police); about half of Russians (46%) give average scores. One-fifth of respondents (20%) are more negative (“bad” or “very bad” assessments); most of them are those respondents who disapprove of the performance of the president (42%) or LDPR supporters (32%).

Remarkably, the respondents’ assessments differ according to whether they know their neighborhood police officers (37% of respondents including 18% of those who know the police officer in person) or they do not know them (62% against 53% in 1990). Those who know the neighborhood officers in person trust them (52%) and assess the performance of the police officers more positively (33% of respondents assess the performance above average) than the remainder.  

The prestige of being a police officer (militia officer) has increased since the Soviet times. Whereas in 1990 only one in ten Russians  wanted their children to be police officers  (8%), today it is one in five (20%). The share of positive assessments against the background of the decreasing number of those who are undecided has increased (from 23% to 9%). At the same time, the majority of Russians do not want their children to be police officers (69% in 1990 and 71% in 2015). Women are more definite than men (74% against 67%, respectively).

The Medialogia Company has studied the mentioning of the Minister of Internal affairs in the Russian media in 2015. The total number of publications is 320000. The most mentioned events were the Boris Nemtsov murder investigation and the Krasnogorsk shooter case.

The VCIOM opinion poll was conducted October 31 through November 1, 2015; 1600 respondents were interviewed in 130 settlements in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.5%.

Monitoring and analysis of the Russian media publications were carried out by the Medialogia Company using approximately 27 400 sources such as television, radio, newspapers, magazines, information agencies and online media. Research period: January – November 2015.

*In 1990, the survey included representative sample involving Russian urban and rural populations aged 16 and over; the sample size was 1962.

** In 1990, the question was about the militia inspector 

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