Despite forceful opposition from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, two-thirds of New York City voters support a plan to establish an inspector general’s office that would independently monitor the Police Department, according to a poll released Thursday.
The survey, conducted by Quinnipiac University, found a mixture of support and opposition for several of Mr. Bloomberg’s top priorities in his final year as mayor. By a more than 2-to-1 margin, voters cheered his proposal to discourage smoking by requiring stores to keep cigarettes out of sight. But a majority of voters opposed a plan to change zoning rules around Grand Central Terminal to allow for larger skyscrapers, and many voters continued to frown upon the mayor’s efforts to limit large servings of sugary drinks.
The poll suggested that voters view the idea of an inspector general for the Police Department very differently than Mr. Bloomberg does. Civil rights leaders, concerned about what they believe is unfair treatment of blacks and Hispanics by the police, have pushed for the establishment of an outside police monitor, and the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, who is running for mayor, endorsed the plan last month.
But Mr. Bloomberg has promised to veto the legislation, calling it “disastrous for public safety.†He has argued that the creation of an inspector general would undermine the authority of the police commissioner and, as he put it last month, “make our city less safe.â€
Voters overwhelmingly disagreed with the mayor’s view: 66 percent of voters said they supported the creation of the office, and only 8 percent agreed with his assertion that it would make the city less safe, according to the poll, which was conducted from April 3 to 8.
Maurice Carroll, the director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said the support for the creation of an inspector general was probably a product of the concerns among voters about the Police Department’s stop-and-frisk policy, which 51 percent of voters disapproved of.
“Clearly there are a lot of people who are wounded by this,†Mr. Carroll said. “The Quinnipiac numbers say, ‘Hey, Police Department, you better pay attention.’ â€
Still, a majority of voters said they approved of the job the police are doing over all, and, specifically, of the job performance of the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, whose approval rating, at 65 percent, was higher than that of any other citywide official.
Sixty-eight percent of voters approved of the mayor’s cigarette proposal, which would make New York the first city in the country to require retailers to keep tobacco products hidden in an effort to discourage smoking. But 56 percent of voters - more than in any previous Quinnipiac poll - opposed his proposed to ban on the sale of large sugary drinks, which was struck down by a judge last month just before it was set to take effect.
Voters were also skeptical of the mayor’s plan to change the zoning rules in the area known as Midtown East to encourage the construction of new, modern office towers. Fifty-one percent opposed the plan, compared with 35 percent who supported it. Women were particularly unhappy with the idea; 59 percent opposed it.
The poll, conducted by telephone with 1,147 registered voters in New York City, has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
