High-Tech Firms Top Confidence Poll

High-technology companies enjoy Californians’ highest confidence, while insurance companies and lawyers have the least public trust, according to an opinion poll released Wednesday. Forty-five percent of Californians polled by the independent San Francisco-based Field Institute said they had a lot of confidence in high-tech companies. The pollsters asked 1,007 Californians how much confidence they had in 34 government, business and social institutions. High-tech companies had a confidence index score of 750. Ranked second were research scientists, with an index of 500, followed by local police departments (325), universities and colleges (308) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (300). At the bottom were insurance companies, with an index of 16. The legal profession and the criminal justice system each received a rating of 20.