Cayla Harris is reporting for the Times Union an overwhelming majority of New York residents support banning chokeholds and creating a national database of police officer misconduct. At the same time, they are hesitant to support efforts to defund the police, according to a Siena College Research Institute poll released June 30. A majority of New Yorkers support demilitarizing the police; requiring mental health professionals to respond with police on some 911 calls; and ending qualified immunity, the legal doctrine that shields officers from liability if they violate someone's civil rights while on duty. About 60 percent of those surveyed were less inclined to reduce funding to police departments or defund them entirely. There was a visible split in support for those ideas based on race, with a majority of black New Yorkers supporting both ideas. New Yorkers are supportive of the Black Lives Matter movement and overwhelmingly agreed with the anti-police brutality protests that engulfed much of the country in early June, with 80 percent of respondents throwing their support behind the 10-bill criminal justice reform package recently passed by the state Legislature. Siena polled 806 registered voters between June 23 and 25. Read the full story in the Times Union.