This is the third of four special issues of The Harris Poll reporting on the mood of America on the anniversary of September 11^th, 2001. The final column will be published on September 11^th.

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Soon after the attacks of September 11^th last year, majorities of Americans – mostly large majorities – supported a broad range of different proposals for increased law enforcement and surveillance powers. In a later survey, conducted in March this year, support for most of these proposals continued to be strong but in several cases it had declined in the six months after the attack. Now, almost a year after the attacks on September 11, there continues to be substantial majority support for two public safety measures – the adoption of a national I.D. system and expanded camera surveillance – but there has been a sharp drop in support for the monitoring of Internet discussions, chat rooms and other forums, cell phones and email correspondence.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,203 adults, surveyed online between August 26 and September 3, 2002, using the same methods used by Harris Interactive^® to forecast the 2000 elections with great accuracy.

A two-to-one majority (60% to 29%) continues to favor a national I.D. system for all United States citizens. Support for this is relatively unchanged since March this year, although it is now somewhat lower than what it was in September last year (68%), immediately after the terrorist attacks.

The majority favoring expanded camera surveillance on the streets and public places is also unchanged for the last six months at 58% but down a little bit from the 63% who favored it in September last year.

However, those who favor the monitoring by law enforcement authorities of chat rooms and other forums continues to fall, from 63% a year ago to 55% six months ago, to only 42% today. A similar decline is found in support for expanded government monitoring of cell phones and email correspondence. A year ago 54% favored this, and six months later it had fallen to 44%; it is now down to 32%.

These results also show that Americans’ support for different types of law enforcement and surveillance varies greatly depending on the specific proposal. What is striking is the continued strong support for a national I.D. system, a proposal that has been strongly opposed by many libertarians and privacy advocates, and by many others who are concerned about the "big brother" role of government.

FAVOR/OPPOSE FOUR PROPOSALS FOR INCREASED LAW ENFORCEMENT AND SURVEILLANCE

"Following are some increased powers of investigation that law enforcement agencies might use when dealing with people of terrorist activity, but which would also affect our civil liberties. For each please indicate whether you would favor or oppose it."

Base: All adults

The Harris Poll^® was conducted online within the United States between August 26 and September 3, among a nationwide cross section of 2,203 adults. Figures for age, sex, race, education and number of adults in the household were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. "Propensity score" weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

In theory, with a probability sample of this size, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the results have a statistical precision of plus or minus 2 percentage points of what they would be if the entire adult population had been polled with complete accuracy. Unfortunately, there are several other possible sources of error in all polls or surveys that are probably more serious than theoretical calculations of sampling error. They include refusals to be interviewed (non-response), question wording and question order, interviewer bias, weighting by demographic control data and screening (e.g., for likely voters). It is impossible to quantify the errors that may result from these factors. And this online survey is not a probability sample.

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W17045
Q635, Q640, Q645, Q650, Q655