The public perception of police is a common issue that law enforcement agencies across the nation are concurrently dealing with. The purpose of this research was to analyze reasons for the poor public perception of police, methods of improving perception and examining local attempts made by the Durango Police Department in this area. Through a review of the literature, historical and contemporary factors have been discovered for the current perception of police, as well as attempts at mitigating this poor perception. Additionally, through an internship with the Durango Police Department, observations and ethnographic data have been collected on several local efforts to address this issue.
