Few things matter more than race when it comes to views of police. But political views matter a lot as well.

That was the main takeaway from our latest story on a Washington Post-ABC News poll, but we wanted to share a deeper look at the partisan and ideological gaps in how whites view the justice system and police. The chart below shows how white Democrats, Republicans and independents answered five questions in the Post-ABC poll. The Pew Research Center generously provided breakdowns from their August survey asking similar questions. Click the dropdown menu to toggle between questions.

Two patterns jump out. First, white Republicans express more confidence in police on every measure, but the partisan differences among whites are smaller in the Pew survey than in the Post-ABC poll. This could be due to different question wording, other methodological differences or timing -- the Post-ABC survey came after grand jury verdicts in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases in addition to waves of protests.

In addition, the smallest partisan difference came from the Pew question rating police "in your community" rather than nationwide, suggesting partisanship matters less in judging cops closer to home. (Most problems, after all, are bigger in the macro.)

Whites are even more divided along ideological lines, as the next chart shows. White conservatives are 32 to 48 points more apt to express confidence in the police or the criminal justice system than white liberals.

The partisan divide among whites on racial equality is larger now than in polls from the 1980s and 1990s. A Post-ABC poll in 1996 found white Democrats slightly more likely than Republicans to say minorities receive equal treatment in the justice system. Since 2007, well before Obama took office, Republicans have been about twice as likely to say the system is equal.



Washington Post-ABC News poll

Why have political views become more important in views of the justice system? The trend resembles a partisan separation on a variety of fronts, so it's possible views of police are just part of Americans' long-term partisan sorting into camps with more consistent views -- i.e. Southern conservatives are more likely to be Republicans today, whereas many of them used to be Southern Democrats.

Interestingly, the partisan splits come at a time when Democrats and Republicans have increasingly sought common ground in reforming federal sentencing rules. It's unclear whether that will extend to debates over other reforms aimed at ensuring equal treatment of minority groups by police.

Click here for interactive crosstabs and methodology for the Post-ABC poll.

Peyton M. Craighill contributed to this report.