In the latest poll, roughly 3 in 10 said police violence is a moderately serious problem. Those who say it is not a serious problem has declined from a third in 2015 to about 2 in 10 today.
Floyd, a black man, died in late May after a police officer in Minneapolis pressed his knee into Floyd's neck for several minutes.
Experts say the dramatic change in opinion about police violence that has followed is an indication the country is grappling with how to confront centuries of structural racism and inequity.
"I have long argued that we cannot have a racial reconciliation in the United States because there's not been an admission of what has gone on," said Wornie Reed, director of the Race and Social Policy Research Centre at Virginia Tech.
"The nation is constructed on (racism). … It's not an accident or something that America decided to do on the way to its greatness. It's the means by which it became great."
The new AP-NORC poll finds that more Americans now think police in most communities are more likely to use deadly force against a black person than a white person, 61 per cent, up from 49 per cent in July 2015. Only about a third say the race of a person does not make a difference in the use of deadly force against them, compared with roughly half in 2015.
And Americans are far more likely now than they were five years ago to say that police officers who cause injury or death in the course of their job are treated too leniently by the justice system, 65 per cent vs 41 per cent, rather than too harshly or fairly. Fewer now think they're treated either fairly or too harshly.
Changes in opinions about social issues are more often slow and incremental, said Jennifer Benz, the deputy director of the AP-NORC Centre. Benz said such significant changes can often indicate meaningful or lasting change has taken place in public awareness and attitudes.
"The data show noteworthy changes of a magnitude we don't see very often, especially on long-standing cultural or social issues," Benz said. "While this poll was certainly conducted at a moment of tremendous attention on racism in our society, we have empirical signals from other data to suggest that these changes are not purely a reaction to the current events."
Among white Americans, 39 per cent call police violence against the public a very serious problem, up from 19 per cent in 2015, while 35 per cent say it's moderately serious. Most black Americans continue to say police violence is a very serious problem.
The poll also found that 51 per cent of black Americans say they have been unfairly treated by a police officer because of their race, compared with just 6 per cent of white Americans.
The poll finds about 6 in 10 Americans say racism is a "very" or "extremely" serious problem in the country. Nine in 10 black Americans, and about 6 in 10 white Americans, say that.
Majorities of Americans across racial groups say police use of deadly force is more common against a black person, including 92 per cent of black Americans and 54 per cent of white Americans. Five years ago, just 39 per cent of white Americans said police were more likely to use deadly force against a black person.
Separate from use of deadly force, the poll also finds about 7 in 10 Americans say white people are treated more fairly in dealing with the police in general, while about a quarter say the race of a person does not make a difference. Nine in 10 black Americans and 7 in 10 white Americans say white people are treated more fairly.
- AP
