Whom to Serve and Protect?

This paper examines the effect that support for the political government and several other political factors have on citizens' attitudes towards police in three Latin American countries and the United States. Traditional views hold that citizens’ attitudes toward the police are driven by local concerns. We contend that the failure to examine the police in a political and comparative context has contributed to a lack of understanding of the role of the police in relation to the overall political system. Using data from Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico and the United States, we test whether citizens’ attitudes toward the police are related to their attitudes toward the national government. We find that attitudes toward the police and the national government are linked, and this linkage is responsive to the influence of national election campaigns in varying degrees. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]