body camera

/ˈbɒdi ˈkæməɹə/

/ˈbɑdi ˈkæməɹə/

How would we ensure that there are common-sense protections and exceptions for law enforcement officers if they are required to wear body cameras? How would privacy considerations for law enforcement, suspects, and the general public be taken into account in instituting the use of body cameras?

2015 May 19, Policing Strategies for the 21st Century: Hearing Before the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, One Hundred Fourteenth Congress, First Session, May 19, 2015 (Serial No. 114-29), Washington, D.C.: United States Government Publishing Office, →OCLC, page 120:

The Phoenix Police Department began a body camera study in 2013, funded under the Bureau of Justice Assistance Smart Policing Initiative.

2016, Larry J. Siegel, John L[ambert] Worrall, “The Police: Organization, Role, and Function”, in Introduction to Criminal Justice, 16th edition, Boston, Mass.: Cengage Learning, →ISBN, part 2 (The Police and Law Enforcement), page 213:

The untallied but growing number of people wearing body cameras now includes not just police but also hospital workers and others who aren’t law enforcement officers.

2018 February, Robert Draper, “They are Watching You—and Everything Else on the Planet: Technology and Our Increasing Demand for Security have Put Us All under Surveillance. Is Privacy Becoming just a Memory?”, in National Geographic, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2018-06-14:

Virgin Trains is to equip station and onboard staff with 250 more body cameras, in a bid to further reduce assaults on its staff.

A video recording system worn on the body, typically used by law enforcement officers to record their interactions with the public, and gather video evidence at crime scenes.


child molester

(all slang)

Is there available for distribution a copy of your essay on the subject of "The Menace of the Child Molester", which has been published in connection with a work of non-fiction […]

1967, Extent of Subversion in Campus Disorders, page 336:

(criminology) Someone who has committed an act of child molestation; someone who has sexually abused a minor.

児童性虐待者

じどうせいぎゃくたいしゃ


ALPR

en-noun

ALPR (countable and uncountable, plural ALPRs)

California-based Vigilant […] has partnered with a range of governments in Texas, California, and Georgia to provide their police with a suite of ALPR systems to use on patrol, along with access to Vigilant's database.

2021, Kate Crawford, chapter 6, in Atlas of AI […] , →ISBN:

(US, law enforcement, uncountable) Initialism of automated/automatic license plate recognition.

We don’t find every use of ALPRs objectionable. For example, we do not generally object to using them to check license plates against lists of stolen cars, for AMBER Alerts, or for toll collection, provided they are deployed and used fairly and subject to proper checks and balances, such as ensuring devices are not disproportionately deployed in low-income communities and communities of color, and that the “hot lists” they are run against are legitimate and up to date.

2023 February 13, Chad Marlow & Jay Stanley, “How to Pump the Brakes on Your Police Department’s Use of Flock’s Mass Surveillance License Plate Readers”, in ACLU:

(US, law enforcement, countable) Initialism of automated/automatic license plate reader.


war profiteer

Microsoft workers are calling on their employer to cancel a $480m contract to provide the US army with augmented reality (AR) headsets, saying they “do not want to become war profiteers”.

2019 February 22, Julia Carrie Wong, quoting Microsoft workers, “‘We won't be war profiteers’: Microsoft workers protest $480m army contract”, in The Guardian:

A person or group that gains a significant amount of revenue from selling weapons and military equipment.

Kriegsgewinnler

person or group that gains from selling weapons and military equipment


zotz

en-verb

zotz (third-person singular simple present zotzes, present participle zotzing, simple past and past participle zotzed)

zotzes (present singular third-person)
zotzing (participle present)
zotzed (participle past)
zotzed (past)

Got zotzed by burglars she surprised on their boat...

(slang, transitive) To murder, knock off.


pseudocriminal

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-pseudocriminal.wav


bodycam

I'll wear a bodycam – a copcam, which I'll have to get from the SPD.

2017, Bharti Kirchner, Season of Sacrifice: First in a new Seattle-based mystery series:

The use of bodycams has been mooted for years and the English FA was given permission by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the body that determines the rules of the game, to begin a trial in February.

2023 April 4, Philip Buckingham, “‘The ref’s got a camera on’ – the bodycams being used to keep officials safe”, in The New York Times:

(chiefly law enforcement) A body camera.


heister

Put it down and walk away ... straight to the crime section of your bookstore, where I'd suggest you start with The Hunter, the first book in his classic series about Parker, the heister's heister […]

2014, Donald E. Westlake, The Getaway Car: A Donald Westlake Nonfiction Miscellany:


general population

en-noun

general population (plural general populations)

solitary confinement
solitary confinement

The main body of inmates in a prison, excluding those being detained in solitary confinement, protective custody, a medical wing or on death row.


county brownie

Named for their brown uniforms and cars.


Johnny Hopper

Cockney rhyming slang
Cockney rhyming slang

(UK, Cockney rhyming slang) A police officer.


dirty-handed

en-adj

dirty-handed (comparative more dirty-handed, superlative most dirty-handed)

more dirty-handed (comparative)
most dirty-handed (superlative)

There were plenty of dirty-handed men in the world to do dirty business; and Will protested to himself that his share in bringing Mr. Brooke through would be quite innocent.

As another CIA officer, Bill Harvey, remarked, 'No one wanted to charge the president personally with the complete, dirty-handed details of the assassination plans.

2011, Richard Belfield, A Brief History of Hitmen and Assassinations, →ISBN:

Crooked law enforcement, corrupt lawmakers, dirty-handed and hypocritical adjudicators and other miscellaneous murky state and Federal government officials.

2014, Vance Munraff, Sounds Like Paradise, →ISBN:


depraved-heart murder

en-noun

depraved-heart murder (countable and uncountable, plural depraved-heart murders)

(law, countable, uncountable) Murder that is the result of an act which is dangerous to others and shows that the perpetrator has a depraved mind and no regard for human life.


climate denialism

The claim that climate change is either not taking place, not caused nor accelerated by human activity or was greatly exaggerated.


gorilla pimp

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-gorilla pimp.wav

Coordinate term: sugar pimp

(slang, informal) A pimp who is physically violent toward the prostitutes he manages.


Uncertain. It is suggested that there were originally 14 members who were part of the Kuomintang, or that 14 was the road number of a former headquarters and K stands for Kowloon.

A large triad organization based in Hong Kong.


no quarter

(military) No mercy; no sparing the life of a captured opponent.

geen kwartier

no mercy for the life of a captured opponent


fruit up

en-verb

fruit up (third-person singular simple present fruits up, present participle fruiting up, simple past and past participle fruited up)

fruits up (present singular third-person)
fruiting up (participle present)
fruited up (participle past)
fruited up (past)

I had been "fruited up." There was no distinction made back then that this man was a pedophile, and even my mother told me that this is what queer people do.

2000, Kevin George Alderson, Beyond Coming Out: Experiences of Positive Gay Identity, →ISBN, page 36:

My experience with the brothers was that if you were one of their favorites you would be regularly groped. We kids called it “being fruited up."

2014, Eduard Fischer, Chasing the Phantom, →ISBN:

(idiomatic, derogatory, of a pedophile) To grope a young boy.


jackroller

The backup team would be crouched in some tiny broom closet, with sweat rolling down their faces and their backs growing stiffer, and the jackrollers would just walk by.

1988 February 26, Jack Clark, “Who Killed Jay Brunkella?”, in Chicago Reader:

A criminal who robs those who are drunk or asleep

(South Africa) A perpetrator of male gang rape of women (jackrolling).


no human involved

He was not working with what the police facetiously call a no-humans-involved case, where everyone involved whether as witness or suspect already has a substantial criminal record.

2003, John Lescroart, chapter 37, in The Oath:

Cops closed them all with a code: NHI. The unsolved crimes had been back-burnered until a reporter revealed that the letters stamped on the police files were shorthand for No Human Involved.

2008, Linda Fairstein, Killer Heat, page 191:

I remembered Ed's offensive remark—“No human involved in that first murder anyway”—and tried to keep the disdain off my face.

2010, Martha C. Lawrence, Pisces Rising, page 33:

“NHI-No Human Involved,” the cops used to say. It was only the newest shorthand for the idea that murders of blacks somehow didn't count. “Nigger life's cheap now,” a white Tennessean offered during Reconstruction, […]

2015, Jill Leovy, Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America, One World/Ballantine, →ISBN, page 6:

Wynter's earlier example is a demonstration of the discourse of “no human involved” and shows that young Black men in zones of police surveillance are denied humanity in order to excuse the inexcusable violence enacted upon them.

2020, Sara Smith, Political Geography: A Critical Introduction, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 63:

(law enforcement slang, derogatory) Describing crimes committed against people deemed undesirable or subhuman, e.g., those with criminal records, sex workers, drug addicts, transients, or people of color.


gas and dash

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-gas and dash.wav

Everyone in Ontario who owns a 2002 to 2006 Nissan Altima will be contacted under an intense police investigation now under way to find the driver responsible for a deadly gas-and-dash theft.

2011 June 8, Bob Mitchell, “‘We will find you,’ police warn driver in gas-and-dash death”, in Toronto Star, Canada:

[A] private member’s bill . . . would compel drivers to prepay for all gas purchases. . . . [S]ince British Columbia put a similar law in place, gas-and-dashes have ceased.

2012 October 16, Timothy Appleby, “Crime Stoppers launches ‘gas and dash’ awareness campaign”, in Globe and Mail, Canada:

In the late evening of March 27, 2014 RCMP Innisfail received a complaint of theft of fuel (gas and dash) from the Penhold Fas Gas.

2014 March 28, “Innisfail RCMP Investigate Gas and Dash”, in www.albertapolicereport.ca, Canada, archived from the original on 2016-03-07:

(informal, Canada, US) The criminal act of driving away from a gasoline station without paying after filling one's gas tank.


KA

(slang, law enforcement) Initialism of known associate.


Maze

* As an English surname, variant of Mays.
* As an English and Irish surname, variant of Maye, from Irish Ó Miadhaigh (“descendant of Miadhach”), see miadh (“esteem, respect”). Compare May.
* As a Breton surname Mazé, shortened from Mazéo, Breton form of Matthew.
* As a French surname Mazé, from a place in Maine-et-Loire, from Latin Masiacum (“estate of Masius”).
* Also as a French surname, shortened pet form of Thomas.
* Also as a French surname, variant of Mas, from the noun mas (“farmhouse”).
* As a Slovene surname, shortened from Tomaž, a form of Thomas. Or, from the verb mazati (“to grease”).
* As an Ashkenazic Jewish surname, from Hebrew מאז"ה (Mazeh), an acronym of מִזֶּרַע אַהֲרֹן הַכֹּהֵן (mi-zéra' Aharón ha-Kohén, “from the seed of Aaron the priest”), compare Cohen.

der

Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland#English

HM Prison Maze, a former prison in Northern Ireland.


PCG

Philippine Coast Guard
w:Philippine Coast Guard

(Philippines, law enforcement, nautical) Initialism of Philippine Coast Guard.


brass ceiling

brass (“indicating high-ranking officers”) + ceiling (“suggesting a barrier to upward advancement”)

2004, Dorothy Moses Schulz, Breaking the Brass Ceiling: Women Police Chiefs and Their Paths to the Top, Greenwood Publishing, →ISBN:

2007, Breaking Through the Brass Ceiling: Elite Military Women's Strategies for Success, ProQuest., →ISBN:

(idiomatic) An unwritten, uncodified barrier to promotion or progression for women in law enforcement or the military.


Camp Cupcake

(slang, derogatory) Any low-security prison.


gravel road cop

en-noun

gravel road cop (plural gravel road cops)

Humorous reinterpretation of French GRC (Gendarmerie Royale du Canada), in reference to the remote rural areas where such people often work.

(Canada, slang) An officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.


murdery

en-adj

murdery (comparative more murdery, superlative most murdery)

more murdery (comparative)
most murdery (superlative)

So he gets a little murdery to speed up the inheritance process.

2013, Michelle Witte, Faker's Guide to the Classics: Everything You Need to Know About the Books You Should Have Read (But Didn't), Lyons Press, →ISBN, page 98:

Lately, there's been this contagious idea that I resemble a hungry, murdery girl ghost from a Japanese horror movie, so Jenny came to school in blue lipstick and white powder. To mock me.

2015, Maria Dahvana Headley, Magonia, HarperTeen, →ISBN:

The Doctor: So, they'll try to kill you, blah blah blah. What does that matter? You come back. A bit murdery, sure, but even so.

2015 3 October, Toby Whithouse, "Under the Lake", episode 9-3 of Doctor Who, 00:15:56–00:16:03

(informal) Committing, disposed to, or characteristic of murder.


Terry search

(US, law enforcement) A search carried out by the police during a Terry stop.


Terry stop

From the legal case Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968), in which the Supreme Court held that police may briefly detain a person who they reasonably suspect is involved in criminal activity.

(US, law enforcement) The brief detention of a person by the police on reasonable suspicion of involvement in criminal activity but short of probable cause to arrest.


state police

en-noun

state police (usually uncountable, plural state polices)

(US, Australia, law enforcement) The police force belonging to the state (subnational) government, as contrasted with federal, county, or municipal law enforcement.

Staatspolizei

police force belonging to the state government


coffee money

A euphemism that refers to the amount of money typically enough to buy a cup of coffee. The Southeast Asian sense is a calque of Malay duit kopi.

Singapore is free of corruption as any place on earth. (Even small-scale bribery attempts lead to immediate arrest.) Ironically, this has surfaced as a disadvantage for Singaporeans conducting business in other countries - where contacts aren’t always considered binding, bureaucratic inefficiency can make a mockery of time tables, infrastructures can be unreliable, “quality” may be seen as a relative term and “tea money” (known as “coffee money” during Singapore’s British colonial days) is a prerequisite to getting anything done.

1998, Alexandra Kett, Passport Singapore: Your Pocket Guide to Singaporean Business, Customs & Etiquette, page 31:

Obviously he was trying to wear out your patience in the hope that you will hand over some undercounter coffee money to him instead of paying for the official tax/fine which does not benefit him at all.

2008 March 31, Alan Wong, “The Stupid Things I Did At The Malaysian Custom”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

If you have ever paid or are thinking of paying ‘Coffee Money’ when stopped for traffic or other offences, don’t ever do this again.

2010 September 16, Roger Poh, “Driving in Malaysia: Why you mustn’t bribe Malaysian traffic cops”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

(Southeast Asia, idiomatic, politics) A small amount of money given as a bribe or gratuity.


decomp

Shortening of decomposition or decomposed.

There's no decomp, so the body can't have been there long.

"It's a decomp. There's gonna be maggots, and that means I'm gonna have nightmares."

2007, John Leake, Entering Hades: The Double Life of a Serial Killer:

"It helped ventilate the place, especially when he had a decomp case. The coroner's offices were pitifully outdated."

(law enforcement, slang) A decomposed body.


decomp

en-verb

decomp (third-person singular simple present decomps, present participle decomping, simple past and past participle decomped)

decomps (present singular third-person)
decomping (participle present)
decomped (participle past)
decomped (past)

(intransitive, law enforcement, slang, uncommon) To decompose.


Islamicide

What we need to straighten this mess out is both tyrannicide and homocide. I am sure you would want to add Islamicide too, or something like it.

2006 March 31, Bob, “Re: Weirder election than Battlestar Galactica's”, in alt.battlestar-galactica (Usenet):

Both of these social acts (evils) are or have overtones of being religious-genocides—Judaocide and Islamicide.

2009, Kenneth Vaux, America in God's World, page 82:

Islamicide, always justifiable. […] Pislam must be nuked back into the 7th century where it belongs...along w/its collaborators/apologists/symps.

2009 January 22, ÇDoügßT, “The squatters will leave!”, in alt.religion.islam (Usenet):

(nonstandard, rare) The killing of Muslims.


have someone's head

have someone's head (third-person singular simple present has someone's head, present participle having someone's head, simple past and past participle had someone's head)

has someone's head (present singular third-person)
having someone's head (participle present)
had someone's head (participle past)
had someone's head (past)

The tyrant would have their heads for their temerity.

(literal) To kill somebody, especially with violence and especially by decapitation.


shots fired

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: (especially law enforcement) indicates that a firearm has been discharged in the vicinity of the speaker.


officer-involved

There has been an increase in dissatisfaction with the police from African-American communities due to many recently publicized officer-involved use of force incidents on unarmed African-Americans in the United States.

2019, John Pilz, Finding Shared Understanding between African Americans and the Police through Simulated Experiences, Dorrance Publishing, →ISBN, page 115:

(chiefly of a shooting, euphemistic) Committed by a police officer.


spearphisher

From spear + phisher, modeled on spearfisher.

(computing, Internet) One who engages in spearphishing.


cryoprison

(science fiction) A prison whose inmates are cryogenically frozen for the duration of their sentences.


street gang

(law, criminology, sociology) An organized group of lower-class criminals; an urban gang.


person of interest

en-noun

person of interest (plural persons of interest or people of interest)

persons of interest (plural)
people of interest (plural)

Tice denies involvement in any conspiracy. . . . Still, Morgan says Tice and "three or four other people" remain "persons of interest" in the investigation.

2009 August 22, Tim Padgett, “The Pensacola Adoptive Couple's Murder: A Hit?”, in Time, retrieved 2015-11-19:

Abdellatif has been interviewed five times by Australian security services since the dropping of the charges and remains a "person of interest" to the federal police.

2013 September 26, “Sayed Abdellatif inquiry will report to Tony Abbott, who called him a 'jihadist'”, in Guardian, UK, retrieved 2015-11-19:

The 19-year-old man from a Phoenix suburb who was detained on Friday at a convenience store near Interstate 10 is a person of interest, but Bart Graves, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety, declined to say what had led the police to question the man.

2015 September 12, “Police Rule Out Detained Man, 19, as Prime Suspect in Phoenix Freeway Shootings”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-11-19:

(law enforcement, chiefly Canada, US) Someone who police have reason to believe may have a connection to a crime, or to possess important information relating to that crime, but who has not been accused or charged by authorities nor been officially deemed to be a suspect.

persoa de interese

someone believed to have a connection to a crime or to possess important information relating to that crime

bűncselekménnyel összefüggésbe hozható személy


revolving door syndrome

revolving door syndrome (usually uncountable, plural revolving door syndromes)

Concerns exist on both sides of the Atlantic regarding the effectiveness of government watchdogs and the growing influence of special interest groups within the bureaucracy. ‘Iron triangles’ and ‘revolving door syndromes’ which began as Washington concerns are showing their face in the UK too.

2008, R. Uprichard, "The Bureaucracies," Lurgan College (Northern Ireland)

The report . . . called for a review of the effect of what it called a revolving door syndrome, in which analysts leave to work for an issuer whose debt they were rating.

2009 August 28, Cyrus Sanati, “Inspector Faults S.E.C. on Oversight of Rating Agencies”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-12-01:

That leads us to question whether other practices in parliament and politics may be vulnerable to corruption: conflicts of interest, the role of lobbying, political party funding and the "revolving door" syndrome in which parliamentarians take jobs in areas where their knowledge of some government departments gives them an undue advantage.

2010 February 5, Chandrashekhar Krishnan, “Abusing power for private gain”, in Guardian, UK, retrieved 2015-12-01:

(idiomatic, often government) A situation in which a person changes employers, perhaps more than once, switching between (a) employment with the government or with an organization having oversight authority and (b) employment with an organization regulated by or overseen by the other employer.


bribeproof

en-adj

bribeproof (comparative more bribeproof, superlative most bribeproof)

more bribeproof (comparative)
most bribeproof (superlative)

Resistant to bribery; incapable of being bribed.


black money

In India, the government faces the issue of combating black money stashed overseas.

Demonetization — or the withdrawal from use — was one of a package of measures recommended by a Government committee that investigated the problem of “black money” — money acquired through illegal transactions and kept hidden from tax authorities.

1973 August 9, “Demonetization Feared”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Mr Modi has implemented a flurry of schemes to flush out “black money”, the term Indians use for cash which is both unaccounted for and outside its formal financial system.

2016 November 10, “Taking notes”, in The Economist, →ISSN:

(India) Money that is obtained illegally, especially that which circulates outside the formal financial system in the underworld.


CDI factor

You don't buy a LaRue because you want lightweight. You buy it for the durability (And the CDI factor)

2007, Patrick Sweeney, The Gun Digest Book of the AR-15, Volume 2, Gun Digest Books, page 109:

Instead of donning their equipment for the right reasons, with the understanding that it takes thousands of hours to attain a basic skill level, some Special Operations soldiers wear their gear for the CDI (chicks dig it) factor and forget the reality that this is hard work.

2011, Paul R. Howe, Leadership and Training for the Fight: Using Special Operations Principles to Succeed in Law Enforcement, Business, and War, Skyhorse Publishing, page 12:

'Never decide Pattern A just looks cooler than Pattern B. The Marine Corps call that a "CDI factor" – chicks dig it,' said Timothy O'Neill, a former professor of engineering psychology at West Point who has spent 37 years concocting and analyzing the latest in military camouflage

2012 July 17, “Uncloaked: How Army is testing new camo to replace flawed design”, in NBC News:

[…] SWAT is a highly-specialized skill that takes recurrent (and expensive) training to maintain. Simply kitting out police officers in high-CDI-factor equipment is not enough.

2015, David G. Bolgiano, L. Morgan Banks, III, James M. Patterson, Virtuous Policing: Bridging America's Gulf Between Police and Populace, CRC Press, page 89:

(US military or law enforcement slang) An intangible quality of certain items of professional equipment that is believed to stir inordinate interest in obtaining the item because it makes the possessor feel confident, cool and thus desirable to women.


DHP

(law enforcement, terrorism, politics) Initialism of deemed high-profile.


beatsman

Police authorities are similarly aware that motor cars and wireless and infra-red photography and photo-telegraphy will not avail in the crime war without the familiar, slow-moving beatsman as the broad base of the whole organisation.

1948, The Spectator, volume 180, page 730:

(dated, rare) A policeman who walks the beat.


bodysnatching

(historical) The illicit theft of cadavers, especially by exhuming them from graves, to sell to them to anatomists, surgeons, etc.


corruptioneer

As a corruptioneer from way back himself it seems that […]

1954, {unattributed}, Future Science Fiction, Volume 5, Issues 1-3

"Doggedly loyal to Pendergast was Truman, faithful to the "corruptioneer" who had sent him to the Senate."

1975, Finis Farr, Fair enough: the life of Westbrook Pegler:

(uncommon, colloquial) One involved in corruption.


burglarously

en-adv

burglarously (comparative more burglarously, superlative most burglarously)

more burglarously (comparative)
most burglarously (superlative)

And about the hour of ten o'clock at night the same day, they did feloniously and burglarously break and enter with the intent to steal the goods and chattel of Hendrix […]

1996, Barbara Bernard, Scott Michael Long, Burning roses:


androcide

From andro- + -cide, by analogy with genocide and homicide.


SFO

(UK, New Zealand) Initialism of Serious Fraud Office.

I emerge out of the tunnel into the pale glow of SFO, the spinning wheels and striding shoes and TV news on low, toddlers screaming with joy or pain, the overlapping echo of flight announcements.

2022, Namwali Serpell, The Furrows, Hogarth, page 232:

San Francisco International Airport
w:San Francisco International Airport

Abbreviation of San Francisco International Airport.


deass

en-verb

deass (third-person singular simple present deasses, present participle deassing, simple past and past participle deassed)

deasses (present singular third-person)
deassing (participle present)
deassed (participle past)
deassed (past)

(transitive, US, military, law enforcement, slang) To exit or depart from (an area) rapidly.


neurocriminology

An emerging sub-discipline of biocriminology and criminology in general, which applies brain imaging techniques and principles from neuroscience to understand, predict, and prevent crime.


summon auntie

using the pronunciation of saman in Malay

Compound noun formed with the English word summon (see summons, noun) and auntie (“term of familiarity or respect applied to elderly women”).

Summon Auntie is a Singlish phrase that describes meter attendants, usually middle-aged women, who give parking fines to cars that are illegally parked

2011 October 18, Willis Wee, “iPhone App Spots Parking Meter Attendants in Singapore”, in Tech in Asia, retrieved 2016-03-28:

‘Summon auntie’ chases off bikini-clad sunbathers at Redhill car park. A video of a female car park attendant chasing off two bikini-clad girls sunbathing at the top of a multi-storey car park in Redhill has gotten people talking.

2013 October 3, Azilah, “‘Summon auntie’ chases off bikini-clad sunbathers at Redhill car park”, in Yahoo! News, retrieved 2016-03-28:

The New Paper recently wrote a story on Feb. 4 about the plight of parking enforcement officers, also known as parking wardens or summon aunties

2014 February 5, Belmont Lay, “This Will Convince Everybody Why No One Should Ever Become a Summon Auntie”, in mothership.sg, retrieved 2016-03-28:

Take, for instance, the summon auntie who dishes out fines to cars parked illegally - she's someone everyone recognizes

2015 July 10, Lim Min Zhang, The Straits Times::

(Singapore, colloquial, informal) A parking enforcement officer who goes around public parking spaces to issue parking tickets to illegally parked cars


ACAB

Having a tattoo or a bomberjack with the text '1312' or 'ACAB' (All Cops Are Bastards).

2015, Thomas Bustamante, Christian Dahlman, Argument Types and Fallacies in Legal Argumentation, →ISBN, page 70:

One group is simply called 'ACAB'; the other is called 'Visitors 1312'. The latter was formed from the amalgamation of two groups, '1312' and 'Visitors'. '1312' is significant because it refers to the numerical positions in the alphabet of the letters comprising 'ACAB'.

2015, Mark Doidge, Football Italia: Italian Football in an Age of Globalization, →ISBN, page 174:

(derogatory) Acronym of all cops are bastards: an anti-police slogan protesting against police behavior, often used in graffiti, tattoos, and other imagery.


bid rigging

en-noun

bid rigging (usually uncountable, plural bid riggings)

(law) a conspiracy in which two or more competitors agree about who will submit the winning bid when there is a call for bids.


CBP

BATF

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms

CBP continues to find ways to improve the entry process through the use of mobile technology to ensure it is safe and efficient. To that end, CBP has deployed a process which allows travelers to use a mobile app to submit information to CBP prior to arrival in domestic locations and prior to departure at preclearance locations. This process, called Mobile Passport Control (MPC) allows travelers to self-segment upon arrival into the United States or departing a preclearance location.

2023 October 27, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, “Agency Information Collection Activities; Revision of Existing Collection; U.S. Customs Declaration (CBP Form 6059B)”, in Federal Register, Document Number 2023-23783, pages 73867-73868:

(US law enforcement) Initialism of Customs and Border Protection.

USCBP

United States Customs and Border Protection


Fagin

From the character named Fagin in Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist.

The indignation of the self-respecting deaf is aroused by the fact that nine-tenths of the mendicant peddling is engineered by slick Fagins who teach inexperienced deaf youths the tricks of the trade and then collect the lion's share of the profits.

1947, California News - Volumes 63-67, page 104:

We sort of treat a situation whereby the proprietor or operator or person running a foster home, if he were to make a profit, we sort of regard him as sort of a Fagin because he has been making money off little kids.

1967, Public Hearing: Subject: Licensing of Private Facilities, page 14:

Each such group exercises a formative influence on the active dispositions of its members. A clique, a club, a gang, a Fagin's household of thieves, the prisoners in a jail, provide educative environments for those who enter into their collective or conjoint activities, as truly as a church, a labour union, a business partnership, or a political party.

2009, Problems of Education, →ISBN, page 70:

A few of its occupants were poor, law-abiding folk just trying to get by peaceably, but it was a heaven-sent recruiting center for Jack and Ralph who, Neal said, ran a Fagin-like academy for aspiring pickpockets, sneak thieves, and burglars.

2010, Graham Vickers, Neal Cassady: The Fast Life of a Beat Hero, →ISBN:

At Midwest there is a Fagin character, Quinton, who is running a school for terrorists or something on that order.

2013, Charles Samuel, Ghost of Honor, →ISBN, page 177:

Apocalypse also happens to be a Fagin figure, shuffling around the back alleys of Cairo, where he makes the weather-controlling pickpocket Storm (Alexandra Shipp) his first follower by offering her baubles.

2016 May 23, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, “Apocalypse pits the strengths of the X-Men series against the weaknesses”, in The Onion AV Club:

A person who entices children into criminal activity, often teaching them how to conduct those crimes, and profits from their crimes in return for support.


crime doesn't pay

If you commit a crime you will most likely be punished for it.

罪有應得 /罪有应得

if you a commit a crime you will most likely be punished for it

winie depcze po piętach kara (Latin: culpam poena premit comes)

if you can't do the time, don't do the crime


dine and dash

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-dine and dash.wav

He was also an irresponsible boozehound who habitually ran out on the check in restaurants, even though he must have known it was the waitress who had to pay the bill for such dine-and-dash customers.

2009 November 20, Stephen King, “Raymond Carver’s Life and Stories”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(Canada, US, informal) The crime of eating a meal in a restaurant and leaving without paying.

eetpiraterij

leaving a restaurant without paying after eating


lathicharge

The alleged desecration of an ancient temple in Jammu triggered violence as protesters from right-wing groups torched vehicles and threw stones at cops who responded with lathicharge and teargas shells late on Tuesday night.

2016 June 18, “Mobile internet services restored in Jammu”, in The Times of India:

(India) The police tactic of charging a crowd with lathis or batons in order to disperse it.


reverse rape

reverse rape (countable and uncountable, plural reverse rapes)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-reverse rape.wav

So called because it is the opposite of the more common case of a man raping a woman.

Minutes later it was over and the victim, Doug, an advertising executive in Connecticut, had been raped by a woman. Occurrences of reverse rape have increased dramatically in recent years.

1986, Bob Larson, Larson's Book of Family Issues, page 149:

To understand why she reacted in that way to both the social climate of rape and the rape of the woman reader in Les Liaisons, it is instructive to remember how every rape in Laclos is a staged event — simultaneously high-spirited and cruel as with Cecile, paradoxical as with Merteuil's reverse-rape of Prevan, and both theatrical and repugnantly sentimental as with Madame de Tourvel, who is permitted short-lived bliss before consigning herself to near-madness and death.

2006, Suellen Diaconoff, Through the Reading Glass: Women, Books, and Sex in the French Enlightenment:

[…] female invasive orality (and King's metaphors for the process of lifesaving revolve around a kind of reverse rape, the male author 'being raped back into life by the woman's stinking breath' (M, 7), as the text misogynistically expresses it).

2011, John Sears, Stephen King's Gothic:

Judith's decapitation of Holofernes is often interpreted as a kind of reverse rape, in which a woman penetrates the male body rather than allowing a man to penetrate her own.

2012, Jacqueline Stodnick, Renée Trilling, A Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Studies:


scampsman

Now Oliver puts his blank nightcap on,¶ And every star its glim is hiding,¶ And forth to the heath is the scampsman gone,¶ His matchless cherry-black prancer riding;

1834, William Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood, The Game of High Toby:

Up comes some saucy kiddy, a scampsman on the hot, / But ere he pulls the trigger I am off just like a shot.

1846, James Henry, ed. Dixon, “The Trotting Horse”, in Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads, page 244:


active shooter

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-active shooter.wav

The sense “individual engaged in a shooting spree” was popularized in the wake of the Columbine High School massacre (1999).

In most cases, active shooters use firearms and there is no pattern or method to their selection of victims.

“When you have an active shooter going after people at random—a shooter with a plan,” he said, “that's completely different than your typical barricade hostage situation.”

1999 April 28, Timothy Egan, quoting Larry Glick, “School Attack May Bring Changes in Police Tactics”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Today, the sound of gunshots often prompts “active shooter” warnings on social media, whether or not the event fits the F.B.I.’s definition of the term. In many cases, reports of active shooters have turned out to be false.

2021 May 5, Jacey Fortin, “What Does ‘Active Shooter’ Really Mean?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US, military, law enforcement) A person actively engaged in a shooting spree.


FinCEN

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
w:Financial Crimes Enforcement Network

(US) Abbreviation of Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.


drug trafficking

The process of smuggling, distributing and selling illegal drugs.

narcotràfic

smuggling, distribution and sale of drugs


Yahoo boy

Named after the Internet company Yahoo!, whose free e-mail accounts are sometimes used by scammers.

The EFCC has a cyber crimes unit to monitor the activities of internet scam artists, also known as "Yahoo boys" (probably because they conduct their activities through their Yahoo e-mail accounts).

2009, Patience Idaraesit Akpan-Obong, Information and Communication Technologies in Nigeria, →OCLC:

(Nigeria) A man who carries out 419 fraud.


contract system

contract system (plural contract systems)

(law enforcement) The system of selling the labor of convicts to a contractor, who provides the necessary materials and supervises the work in the premises of the prison.


CHiP

An officer of the California Highway Patrol.


Abbot's Priory

After Charles Abbott, Lord Chief Justice from 1818 to 1832.

[…] after this lady’s retirement to enjoy the otium cum dignitate [leisure with dignity] in Abbot’s Priory, she was visited by a gentleman who had previously and subsequently rendered her the most unequivocal and disinterested assistance, by frequent pecuniary supplies.

1822, Benchiana; or, Sketches of Life and Character in St. George’s Fields […], page 18:

Upon inquiring after George Charteris, Esq. he finds that he has bolted from Palace-yard, and taken refuge in “Abbot’s Priory;” and, to comfort him, the person who has received the 200l. bill, informs him “that Charteris is a notorious swindler.”

1824, “An Accommodating Customer ‘Queered’”, in The Spirit of the Public Journals, for the Year M.DCCC.XXIII […], page 65:

Ned and Tom were soon outside of the King’s Bench, (or Abbot’s Priory, as it was called by the prisoners,) they had not walked far before they fell in with Little Kiam […]

1825, The Dialogists; or, the Circuit of Banco Regis, page 93:

(obsolete, British slang, idiomatic) King's Bench Prison, a former prison in the south of London.


Swedish model

The combating of prostitution by criminalizing the buyer, rather than the seller, of sexual services.


crony capitalism

crony capitalism (usually uncountable, plural crony capitalisms)

While many things can be blamed for the rampant crony capitalism in India (e.g., British imperialism, the License Raj, etc.), we are particularly interested in understanding what role cultural values play in fostering crony capitalism.

2017, Naresh Khatri, Abhoy Ojha, Crony Capitalism in India: Establishing Robust Counteractive Institutional Frameworks, Springer, →ISBN, page 118:

(politics, idiomatic) A form of capitalism in which success in business depends on corrupt close relationships with government officials, often implying favouritism.


RFX

(security, law enforcement) Abbreviation of recognition of firearms and explosives. (a skill and qualification)


jailmate

An acquaintance in prison; a person imprisoned at the same time.


public enemy number one

John Dillinger, America's Public Enemy No. 1 and the most notorious criminal of recent times, was shot and killed at 10:40 o'clock tonight by Federal agents.

1934 July 22, “Dillinger Slain in Chicago”, in New York Times, retrieved 2016-10-26, page 1:

"Sure you never heard of him?" he asked incredulously. "Never," I said flatly. "You must have," he argued. "Why Hamilton was a Public Enemy No. 1 at one time."

1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 119:

(US, law enforcement, dated) A person who ranks highest on the federal government's prioritized list of wanted criminal fugitives.


prison camp

A camp in which either prisoners of war or political prisoners are interned.


prisoner-of-war camp

prisoner-of-war camp (plural prisoner-of-war camps)

A camp in which prisoners of war are interned.


big money

Republicans push Big Government to raise cash from one religious sect, but stomp on Big Government antitrust measures that prevent big money control of illegal monopolistic corporations like Wal-Mart and Microsoft.

2011, Rick Martin, No Money!: The Surviving Middle Class American, page 31:

To oversimplify a bit[…]the [Bernie] Sanders view is that money is the root of all evil. Or more specifically, the corrupting influence of big money, of the 1 percent and the corporate elite, is the overarching source of the political ugliness we see all around us.

2016 January 29, Paul Krugman, “Plutocrats and Prejudice”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

The political triumph of Donald Trump shattered the establishments in the Democratic and Republican parties – both wedded to the rule of Big Money and to the reign of meretricious politicians.

2016 November 17, Cornel West, “Goodbye, American neoliberalism. A new era is here”, in The Guardian:

The progressive wing of the Democratic Party is skeptical: The Republican Party has gone authoritarian. Mitch McConnell is obstructionist. Big money pulls the strings. The system is broken.

2021 August 5, David Brooks, “The Biden Approach Is Working”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(politics) Large corporations, the people who run them, or corporate interest generally, seen as exerting political influence and prioritising profits over other political concerns.


Coalgate

A small town in Selwyn District, Canterbury, New Zealand, where lignite was mined.

A small city, the county seat of Coal County, Oklahoma, United States.

A former unincorporated community in Raleigh County, West Virginia, United States.


regulatory capture

regulatory capture (countable and uncountable, plural regulatory captures)

First described in The Theory of Economic Regulation (1971).

Coordinate term: elite capture

This process, known as “'regulatory capture,” turns regulators from watchdogs into lapdogs. You don't have to look far to see regulatory capture in action. Securities and Exchange Commission officials are often accused of ignoring warnings about fraud, stifling investigations, even helping miscreants avoid paying big fines or going to jail.

2014, Charles Seife, “Capture”, in John Brockman, editor, What Should We Be Worried About?, Harper Collins, →ISBN, page 36:

The problem is regulatory capture. We need to want new companies to build these things, even if incumbents don’t like it, even if only to force the incumbents to build these things. And the problem is will. We need to build these things.

2022 August 5, Jerusalem Demsas, quoting Marc Andreessen, “The Billionaire’s Dilemma”, in The Atlantic:

special interest group
special interest group

The situation where a regulatory agency, created by government to act in the public interest, instead advances the commercial or political concerns of special interest groups that dominate the affected industry or sector.


Cinderella effect

Named after the mistreated girl from the fairy-tale Cinderella.

evolutionary psychology
evolutionary psychology

(evolutionary psychology) The alleged higher incidence of child abuse and mistreatment by stepparents than by biological parents.


Chekist

From Russian чеки́ст (čekíst) from Чека́ (Čeká) + -ист (-ist).

intelligence agencies
intelligence agencies

(by extension, metonymically) A national security official of the KGB, FSB or any of the state security intelligence agencies of the Soviet Union or Russian Federation.


cronynomics

Obviously they didn't teach me cronynomics (crony-economics) in university.

2007 August 15, “PKFZ bailout: The CRONYNOMIC / EKORNOMIC rationale”, in Sean-the-man:

Frankly, I'm not sure why BT was ever privatised (aside from conservitard cronynomics) if it can't even pick its nose without public funding.

2012 July 5, aidanjt [username], “Re: News - £1.1 billion funding hole in super-fast broadband plans”, in Hexus:

[article title] Cronynomics: China stock market rebound the result of ‘secret’ government intervention

2015 August 27, “Cronynomics: China stock market rebound the result of ‘secret’ government intervention”, in Against Crony Capitalism, archived from the original on 2020-03-22:

crony capitalism
crony capitalism#English


phisherman

From phisher + -man, modeled on fisherman.

Thus if he mistakenly enters his Citibank password into a phishing site, the phisherman gets a different password and cannot use it to impersonate him.

2010, Ross J. Anderson, Security Engineering: A Guide to Building Dependable Distributed Systems:

(computing, Internet) The criminal performing phishing attacks.


getaway car

There was an average Monday
There was a movie star
There was a man with a gun
There was a getaway car

2004, Tub Ring (lyrics and music), “Alexander in Charge”, in Zoo Hypothesis, performed by Tub Ring:

I'm in a getaway car
I left you in a motel bar
Put the money in the bag and I stole the keys
That was the last time you ever saw me

2017, Taylor Swift (lyrics and music), “Getaway Car”, in Reputation, performed by Taylor Swift:

The police had found the getaway car in the field. The rain had washed most of the yellow paint off the Mini to reveal the Union Jack underneath. There was no doubt that the car was Queenie. This led the police to their prime suspect, the car’s owner, Gilbert Goodie.

2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

A car (motor vehicle) that is left with the motor running and a driver in position while a crime is being committed so that the perpetrators may flee the scene quickly.


cyberfraudster

(Internet) A cybercriminal who carries out online fraud.


confidential informant

confidential informant (plural confidential informants)

(law, law enforcement, criminology) An individual who secretly provides information to the police about wrongdoing which they are aware of due to the individual's relationship to the wrongdoer.

indic

person who secretly provides information to the police


reeducation camp

reeducation camp (plural reeducation camps)

From reeducation + camp. First use appears c. 1935 in the Oakland Tribune.

Although the Socialist Republic of Vietnam now encourages Vietnamese refugees to visit their native land, many refuse to do so, fearing that [...] they would be hustled off to reeducation camps to face starvation, over-work, and slow death.

1989, James Freeman, Hearts of Sorrow: Vietnamese-American Lives, page 11:

(euphemistic) A camp or prison where ideological dissidents undergo reeducation or indoctrination.

再教育營 /再教育营

camp where dissidents undergo reeducation

By degrees the seriously wounded were concentrated in this hospital, which remained open till 1919, and the discharged drafted to a Belgian reeducation camp in France.

1922, “Women's War Work”, in Hugh Chisolm, editor, The Encyclopedia Britannica, volume 32, page 1064:

(dated) A camp where people are rehabilitated to health, especially after injury.


queer ken

From queer (“weird; odd”) + ken (“house”).

Fact is, / she’ll end up in the charpering carsey / of Jennifer Justice. What is this / queer ken she’s in?

2015 October 12, Adam Lowe, “Poem of the week: Vada That”, in The Guardian:

(dated, UK, thieves' cant and Polari) A prison.


decrime

en-verb

decrime (third-person singular simple present decrimes, present participle decriming, simple past and past participle decrimed)

decrimes (present singular third-person)
decriming (participle present)
decrimed (participle past)
decrimed (past)

(law enforcement) To remove the criminal status of a reported crime, typically due to insufficient evidence or to artificially reduce crime statistics


assassinee

/əˌsæsɪˈniː/

From assassin(ate) + -ee (suffix forming nouns meaning people or things to whom or to which actions are done).

suffix

In some ways I regret the failure to arrive at a definite conclusion, but it has provided me with an extremely interesting list of suicides and assassinees that includes such great names as Hannibal, [Julius] Cæsar, [Thomas] More, [Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of] Strafford, [Robert] Clive, [Maximilien] Robespierre and [Robert Stewart, Viscount] Castlereagh.

1924 March, A[ubrey] Wyatt Tilby, “A Study in Life Values”, in The Nineteenth Century and After: A Monthly Review, volume XCV, number DLXV, London: Constable & Company […], →OCLC, footnote 1, page 462:

The general rule, I suppose, is that if the assassinee is deep enough sunk in turpitude the assassin may secure an honourable place in history.

1941, The Spectator: A Weekly Review of Politics, Literature, Theology, and Art, volume 167, London: F. C. Westley, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 228, column 1:

On entering the city room, I was met by the managing editor, who asked me if I knew that the assassinee’s brother-in-law owned the money behind the paper. The family had had the story jerked, and had managed to keep it out of every other paper in the city.

1953, A[bbott] J[oseph] Liebling, “The Navasota Murder”, in The Honest Rainmaker: The Life and Times of Colonel John R. Stingo, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, →OCLC; republished in Liebling at Home, New York, N.Y.: Wideview Books, 1982, →ISBN, page 311:

"Who was it?" / "They haven't caught him yet." / "I mean the—the assassinee." / "Nobody important. But he looked like the Minister. Where did you have supper?"

1958 October 24, Graham Greene, chapter 1, in Our Man in Havana: An Entertainment, London: The Reprint Society, published 1960, →OCLC, part IV, section I, page 119:

On the even brighter side, if the rubbed-out would-be reader were a person of some note, the assassination might merit some free widespread publicity resulting in a rush to buy and read what was so thoughtfully tucked under the armpit of the assassinee at the moment the fatal bullet struck home.

2007, Robert George Cooper, Thailand beyond the Fringe, Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions, →ISBN, page 25:

(nonstandard, often humorous) One who is assassinated.

salamurhan uhri

(nonstandard, often humorous) one who is assassinated


juvy

en-noun

juvy (countable and uncountable, plural juvies)

From juvenile + -y with elision; morphologically analogous to bougie = bourgeoisie + -ie/-y.


spit hood

(law enforcement) A head restraint intended to prevent spitting and biting.


Bananagate

A scandal of the 1970s involving bribes to the Honduran president to reduce the export tax on bananas. It provoked the overthrow of Honduras' military government.


Wilson Doctrine

After Harold Wilson, British politician who established the rule.

The convention in the United Kingdom that restricts the police and intelligence services from tapping the telephones of Members of the House of Commons and House of Lords.


flatch

Phonetic spelling of the backslang for half (with /tʃ/ substituted for the /h/).

(dated, costermongers, crime) A counterfeit half-crown.

costermongers; crime; costermongers; crime


counter-genocide

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-counter-genocide.wav

A genocide perpetrated in response or retaliation to another genocide.


Like 911, 119, etc., selected as a number both fast and easy to call from rotary or touch-tone phones and less likely to be mistakenly dialed.

110 handles police emergencies in Japan, Taiwan, and Korea but fires and medical emergencies have a separate number, 119.

The telephone number for law enforcement in China, Japan, Germany, Indonesia, Latvia, Bolivia, Guatamala, Andorra, Nauru, and the Ivory Coast and on Taiwan.


The telephone number for law enforcement in Jamaica, Mozambique, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka.

The telephone number for COVID-19 emergencies in the United Kingdom's Home Counties.


slicktop

(US, Canada, law enforcement, informal) a police car with painted markings and decals but no external rooftop lights.


identity parade

identity parade (plural identity parades)

He moved through the circle and sat down on Cost’s left like a criminal taking his place in an identity parade.

1943, Graham Greene, The Ministry of Fear, London: Heinemann, published 1950, Book 1, Chapter 4, p. 61:

‘I deny it, I utterly deny it, my movements were those I’ve given you.’
‘Yet you refuse to take part in an identity parade?’

1984, Alan Hunter, chapter 6, in The Unhanged Man, New York: Walker, pages 87–88:

(UK, Ireland, law enforcement) A process by which a witness confirms the identity of a criminal suspect, by viewing the suspect together with other people who were not involved in the crime.


squad room

A room in a police station where officers congregate


stranger crime

A crime committed by someone who does not know the attacker


Saint Nicholas' clerk

Saint Nicholas' clerk (plural Saint Nicholas' clerks)

After Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of thieves.

And like the Saint Nicolas Clarkes on Salsburie plaine (I vse the si∣militude, for that Martin loues Sarum so well) stept out before vs in the high waie, and bidde vs stand.

1589, Thomas Nashe, Martins Months Minde:

Sirrah, if they meet not with Saint Nicholas' / clerks, I'll give thee this neck.

a. 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV Part 1, act 2, scene 1:

The théefe that commits the Robbery, and is the chiefe clerke to Saint Nicholas, is called the High Lawyer.

1608, Thomas Dekker, The Bel-Man of London, published in The Guls Hornbook and The Belman of London in Two Parts, J. M. Dent & Sons, published 1905, page 142:

And now hur prattle of Davie, I think yonder come prancing down the hills from Kingston, a couple of hur t'other cozens, Saint Nicholas' clerks.

c. 1622, William Rowley, A Match at Midnight, act 1, scene 1:

Next it is decreed, that the receivers of our rents and customes, to wit divers Rookes, and Saint Nicholas Clearkes shall certainely use no more slights to get more then they can clearely come off with, under penalty of being carried up Hol∣borne in a cart, and at Tiburne executed, which may tend to the dissolution of our whole fraternity.

1635, Henry Glapthorne, The Hollander, act 3, scene 1:

I was t'other night upon the randan, and who should I meet with but our old gang, some of St. Nicholas' clerks?

1662, John Wilson, The Cheats, published in The Dramatic Works of John Wilson, Edinburgh: William Paterson, published 1874, act 1, scene 1, page 18:


all-ports warning

all-ports warning (plural all-ports warnings)

(UK, law enforcement) A form of all-points bulletin circulated to international ports so that a fleeing suspect can be identified and apprehended.


snatch squad

There have been numerous reports of snatch squads detaining men on the street and drafting them into the army.

2022 September 19, Luke Harding, “Russia no longer has full control of Luhansk as Ukraine recaptures village”, in The Guardian:

(UK) A group of police officers who rush forward in formation so as to apprehend an individual from a crowd.


go equipped

en-verb

go equipped (third-person singular simple present goes equipped, present participle going equipped, simple past went equipped, past participle gone equipped)

goes equipped (present singular third-person)
going equipped (participle present)
went equipped (past)
gone equipped (participle past)

From the heading of section 25 of the Theft Act 1968: "Going equipped for stealing, etc."

Would I go equipped? You can get a stiff sentence for that! I've got a couple of skeleton keys, I don't deny, but I hope we won't need them. There are other ways.

1997, Claire Rayner, Fifth Member (George Barnabas; 4):

They were allegedly carrying cable cutters and a hammer when they were arrested and could face up to 10 years in prison if deemed to have "gone equipped" to commit an offence at the base.

2006 June 1, “Base trespass suspects rearrested”, in BBC News:

A Scotland Yard spokesman said three arrests were for public order offences, one was for possession of an offensive weapon, three were for going equipped and 12 breaches of the peace.

2011 November 9, “Thousands march in student fees protest”, in The Independent:

All had admitted conspiracy to burgle and Talbot also admitted going equipped to burgle and Eldred a breach of a conditional discharge.

2017 February 8, Ian Proctor, “JAILED: Burglars who went equipped with tools, disguises and homemade swag bags”, in The Lancashire Telegraph:

(UK, law and law enforcement, intransitive) To carry tools, weapons or other articles with the intent of using them to commit a crime.


swag bag

Mid-19th century UK. From swag (“stolen goods”).

Except in old-fashioned thrillers and detective stories there doesn't seem to be much talk of thieves and break-ins. There might be a robbery in P. G. Wodehouse, but only as a bit of comic business, as in the modern cartoon, where eye-mask and swag-bag identify the comic neighbourhood burglar.

2004, Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, Magic Seeds:

A career criminal was caught by police as he attempted to leave a swag bag of stolen goods with a friend's next-door neighbour.

2014 December 22, Jeremy Culley, “One of Bolton's most prolific criminals is caught after trying to leave bag of stolen goods with baffled neighbour”, in The Bolton News:

A bungling robber who had to abandon £9,000-worth of cigarettes because the swag bag was too heavy has been told he deserved every day of his four-and-a-half year sentence.

2017 March 14, James Cartledge, “Bungling raider who dumped stolen cigarettes because swag bag was too heavy loses jail appeal”, in The Birmingham Mail:


From the initialism ACAB with the letters substituted with their position in the alphabet.

(See title)

2007 December 16, MI5-V...@mi5.gov.uk, “MI5-Persecution: How Could It Be True? (1312)”, in alt.fan.george-michael (Usenet):

....anonymous member of anti-police-brutality activist group the 1312 Project - shorthand for "All Cops Are....

2015 September 18, _ G O D _, “Police Brutality California Style : It Takes 9 Stockton Officers To Arrest 1 Teen For Jaywalking [VIDEO]”, in alt.revisionism (Usenet):

Having a tattoo or a bomberjack with the text '1312' or 'ACAB' (All Cops Are Bastards).

2015, Thomas Bustamante, Christian Dahlman, Argument Types and Fallacies in Legal Argumentation, →ISBN, page 70:

One group is simply called 'ACAB'; the other is called 'Visitors 1312'. The latter was formed from the amalgamation of two groups, '1312' and 'Visitors'. '1312' is significant because it refers to the numerical positions in the alphabet of the letters comprising 'ACAB'.

2015, Mark Doidge, Football Italia: Italian Football in an Age of Globalization, →ISBN, page 174:

Synonym of ACAB (“all cops are bastards”).


blue light bandit

en-noun

blue light bandit (plural blue light bandits)

(criminology) Someone with criminal intentions who impersonates a police officer on the road using a vehicle that has been modified to appear to be a patrol car.


desk murderer

→ German: Schreibtischtäter (calque)

Used by Gideon Hausner to describe Adolf Eichmann, but often attributed to Hannah Arendt.

A bureaucrat, etc. who indirectly assists in genocide or other killing by performing clerical tasks.

Adolf Eichmann
Gideon Hausner
Hannah Arendt


kotong cop

From Tagalog kotong (“bribery & extortion; corrupt”) + cop.

compound

(Philippines, derogatory, informal) a police officer involved in kotong (bribery and extortion); a corrupt police officer


ninja cop

After their ability to climb the perimeter fences of warehouses where the confiscated drugs are stored.

These 'ninja cops,' explained Carlos, are legitimate cops who are part of the operating group of the anti-illicit drugs campaign, but conduct illegal activities like reselling of the contraband

2016 July 7, Trishia Billones, “Top policemen linked to drugs face probe over 'ninja cops'”, in ABS-CBN News, ABS-CBN News and Public Affairs:

Police officers who are part of an anti-drugs operating group but conduct illegal activities like reselling of the contraband have been dubbed as “ninja cops.”

2016 August 11, Tetch Torres-Tupas, “‘Ninja cops’ unmasked, charged with selling illegal drugs”, in Inquirer.net, Philippine Daily Inquirer:

2018 August 17, Pia Ranada, “Duterte dangles P5M for dead 'ninja cops,' only P10k if caught alive”, in Rappler, Rappler:

2019 September 26, Azer Parrocha, “'Ninja cop' syndicate ‘a thing of the past’: Palace”, in Philippine News Agency:

2019 October 3, Eimor Santos, “Senate orders detention of ‘ninja cop’ for contempt”, in CNN Philippines, archived from the original on 2019-10-13:

(Philippines, informal) A police officer involved in the illicit resale of confiscated illegal drugs.


(organized crime) Mara Salvatrucha, a criminal gang operating in some Salvadoran communities in Central and North America.


Red Room

(Internet) According to an urban legend, a room where people are tortured and murdered for an audience of viewers via the Dark Web, the viewers sometimes voting or bidding on the form of torture to be performed.


PDEA

Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency
w:Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency

(Philippines, law enforcement) Acronym of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.


NBI

Coordinate term: FBI

National Bureau of Investigation#English

(Philippines, law enforcement) Initialism of National Bureau of Investigation.


catch red-handed

en-verb

catch red-handed (third-person singular simple present catches red-handed, present participle catching red-handed, simple past and past participle caught red-handed)

catches red-handed (present singular third-person)
catching red-handed (participle present)
caught red-handed (participle past)
caught red-handed (past)

(transitive) To discover or capture someone in the act of committing a crime.


unincriminating

en-adj

unincriminating (comparative more unincriminating, superlative most unincriminating)

more unincriminating (comparative)
most unincriminating (superlative)


FIR

en-noun

FIR (countable and uncountable, plural FIRs)

first information report
w:first information report

(South Asia, Singapore, law enforcement) Initialism of first information report.


celebricide

celebricide (countable and uncountable, plural celebricides)

Mark David Chapman's celebricide of John Lennon and John Hinckley, Jr.'s attempted assassination of President Reagan were neither politically motivated acts of terror nor psychologically motivated […].

1991, Joël Black, The Aesthetics of Murder, page 188:

“This started with O.J.,” he declares. […] Not only were we sanctioning celebricide, but we were watching it as a daily ritual.

2017, David Friend, The Naughty Nineties:


mass shooting

mass shooting (countable and uncountable, plural mass shootings)

There is no consensus on what constitutes a mass shooting; different groups define it differently, depending on circumstances including the number of victims, whether the victims are killed or wounded, and whether the shooting occurs in a public place. The Gun Violence Archive[…] defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people were killed or injured.

2023 March 28, Daniel Victor, “U.S. Mass Shootings in 2023: A Partial List”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(chiefly US, crime) The shooting of multiple people over a short period of time, particularly when there are many victims and in which the victims are targeted indiscriminately.


military prison

military prison (plural military prisons)


grass-eater

Calque of Japanese 草食系男子 (sōshokukei danshi, “herbivorous/grass-eating male”).

calque

That is what the modern men of Japan have done, these grass-eaters.

2011 March 17, Paul Mceuen, Spiral, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

The grass-eaters fail to maintain a 'manly' appearance, snared instead by the world of cosmetics and fashion which makes them look soft, 'fragile and girlie' ([…]).

2016 July 1, Genaro Castro-Vazquez, Intimacy and Reproduction in Contemporary Japan (Routledge Research on Gender in Asia Series), Routledge, →ISBN, page 62:

She dubbed them “herbivore men” (shoshoku danshi) in a 2006 article, and the phrase caught on as the nation took note of the gentle grass-eaters. Their lesser-known counterparts are the “carnivore women” (nikushoku joshi) who take the initiative in life and love.

2016 November 14, Kittredge Cherry, Womansword: What Japanese Words Say About Women, Stone Bridge Press, →ISBN, →OCLC:

(derogatory, slang) A celibate man, especially a Japanese man, who eschews dating and sexual relationships.


meatwagon

'Meatwagon is here,' Warren said as the ambulance pulled up with only one headlight and a smashed grill.

1990, Robert Henry, No man alone, page 110:

He gets the walk-ins, I drive the meatwagon and fetch home the ones like you.

2001, David Drake, Ranks of Bronze, →ISBN:

'Goddamn, Sollie...hold on brother. Meatwagon's comin'!'

2009, Red Edit Red, City Smells, →ISBN, page 18:

Alternative form of meat wagon
An ambulance.

Unmarked vehicles usually meant federal intervention. And if it didn't belong in federal interdiction, then it might be a Mafia meatwagon, which was a far worse circumstance.

2010, Joseph Armstead, Krymsin Nocturnes, →ISBN, page 228:

Get them off the door and into a meatwagon. They're almost certainly involved.

2012, Pat W Hendersen, Club, →ISBN, page 201:

We were handcuffed to each other, then bundled into a meatwagon for the journey across Madrid to the Carabanchel prison.

2012, Christopher Chance, The Lone Brit on 13: A Prisoner's Hell in Spain's Toughest Jail, →ISBN:

And when he started demanding an explanation, one of them radioed someone, and there was this meatwagon and about twelve more policeman– all in full bulletproof riot gear, truncheons and helmets– came pouring out. But there was already about ten policeman there, so in all there were about twenty-five policemen all manhandling Peter into this meatwagon, and the rest of them just stood there.

2014, Spencer Honniball, Beg, Steal or Borrow: The Official Baby Shambles Story, →ISBN:

A police vehicle for transporting prisoners.


crime rate

(law, criminology) A measure of incidences of crime in a given area, especially in comparison to its population.


cronyist

One who supports or encourages cronyism.


susp

(law enforcement) Abbreviation of suspect.


decarceration

en-noun

decarceration (countable and uncountable, plural decarcerations)

/diːˌkɑː.səˈɹeɪʃən/

/diːˌkɑɹ.səˈɹeɪʃən/

Modeled on incarceration, replacing the prefix with de-.

Whereas rates of COVID-19 vary nationwide, our results add to a growing body of literature emphasizing high COVID-19 rates in carceral settings and the importance of testing and decarceration.

2020 August 21, Jiménez, M. C. et al., “Epidemiology of COVID-19 among incarcerated individuals and staff in Massachusetts jails and prisons”, in JAMA, →DOI:

A policy of reducing the amount of imprisoned people in a given population.


decarcerate

en-verb

decarcerate (third-person singular simple present decarcerates, present participle decarcerating, simple past and past participle decarcerated)

decarcerates (present singular third-person)
decarcerating (participle present)
decarcerated (participle past)
decarcerated (past)

Modeled on incarcerate, replacing the prefix with de-.

Refusing to decarcerate and now increasing spending on policing that will drive the shuttling of even more Americans into jails and prisons is especially perverse given the recent attention paid to the worsening conditions of confinement and the mistreatment of the incarcerated.

2022 January 25, Eric Reinhardt, “How Joe Biden Launched a New Prison Boom”, in Slate:

To implement a policy of decarceration; to reduce prison populations.


plainclotheswoman

Coordinate term: plainclothesman

A female police officer (especially a detective) who wears civilian clothes when on duty.


pedicide

en-noun

pedicide (countable and uncountable, plural pedicides)

Pedicide victims are much apt to be killed by close relatives than are adult homicide victims.

1991, L. Adelson, “Pedicide revisited. The slaughter continues.”, in The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology:


armed police

A member of the People's Armed Police of China.


buzzie

Dredging wasn't mining. A man had to know something about lode mining, and could Andy name a man working on the boat who knew a muckstick from a buzzie?

1950, Helen Rich, The Willow-bender: A Novel, page 236:

Both buzzies were broke down. Burke left me alone to do my work. I disconnected teh compressed-air lines, opened my tool box and got at it.

1980, Donald McCaig, The Butte Polka: A Novel, page 114:

Technology such as steam-powered hoists and "buzzies," hand-held, two-man air drills, speeded up production but did nothing to improve working conditions. The buzzies, in fact, produced so much fine dust that they led to a higher rate of silicosis, a debilitating respiratory disease, and were soon dubbed "widowmakers."

2006, Clemens P. Work, Darkest Before Dawn: Sedition and Free Speech in the American West, →ISBN:

(mining, slang) A hand-held pneumatic drill used in mining.


put in the ground

en-verb

put in the ground (third-person singular simple present puts in the ground, present participle putting in the ground, simple past and past participle put in the ground)

puts in the ground (present singular third-person)
putting in the ground (participle present)
put in the ground (participle past)
put in the ground (past)


Judas-hole

A moment, and an iron-grated Judas-hole in the door slid open, and a servant, an elderly man, sleek and respectable, looked out at him.

1922 [1901], Stanley J. Weyman, Count Hannibal: A Romance of the Court of France:

A small hole in a door through which a person can spy without being seen from the other side, used especially in prisons.


school resource officer

en-noun

school resource officer (plural school resource officers)

(US, law enforcement) A police officer stationed at a school, such as a high school.


bunkerer

The JTF security report signed by Briagier General Lawrence Ngubare, former commander of the task force further stated that BoyLoaf was bent on becoming an illegal oil bunkerer and is known to have a violent disposition.

2008, Newswatch: Nigeria's Weekly Magazine, page 15:

Bunkering is comprised of a complex network of engineers, welders, intelligence and armed security operatives, boat and ship captains, pumpers, handlers, and traders. One bunkerer describes the process as “pipeline vandalization to steal refined or crude oil products and transportation of these products in various vessels such as barges and tankers to sell locally and internationally”.

2015, Hannah Appel, Subterranean Estates: Life Worlds of Oil and Gas, page 79:


super recogniser

super recogniser (plural super recognisers)

(law enforcement) A person whose face recognition ability is significantly better than average.


black jail

A facility in which individuals are detained by the state without access to legal process or representation.


delictuous

en-adj

delictuous (comparative more delictuous, superlative most delictuous)

more delictuous (comparative)
most delictuous (superlative)

From Latin dēlictum (“crime”), from neuter of delictus, past participle of delinquo (“to be lacking; to fail; to transgress”).


Columbine

census-designated place
census-designated place

Jefferson County
Jefferson County#English

A census-designated place in Arapahoe County and Jefferson County, Colorado, United States.


work the oracle

en-verb

work the oracle (third-person singular simple present works the oracle, present participle working the oracle, simple past and past participle worked the oracle)

works the oracle (present singular third-person)
working the oracle (participle present)
worked the oracle (participle past)
worked the oracle (past)

Holdaway reports that procedural rules are often considered irrelevant by the British police as they go about their daily duties. The occupational culture of the British police condones the use of “verbals” or “working the oracle.”

2006, Thomas Barker, Police Ethics: Crisis in Law Enforcement, page 90:

(UK, law enforcement slang) To fabricate a suspect's verbal statement.


shark-gull

From shark (“to swindle; to trick”) + gull (“dupe; mark; sucker”).

compound

Complainest thou of bad doings, when there are harlots of all trades, and knaves of all languages? Knowest thou not that sin may be committed either in French, Dutch, Italian, or Spanish, and all after the English fashion? But thou excusest the negligence of thy practice by the last summer's pestilence: alas, poor shark-gull, that put-off is idle! for sergeant Carbuncle, one of the plague's chief officers, dares not venture within three yards of an harlot, because monsieur Drybone, the Frenchman, is a leiger before him.

1604, Thomas Middleton, The Black Book; republished in The Works of Thomas Middleton, volume 5, London: Edward Lumley, 1840, page 524:

confidence trickster
confidence trickster

(obsolete) A confidence trickster; a person who preys on simpletons.


broken man

(UK, historical) An outlaw, especially one inhabiting the Highlands and border country.


cementochronology

(anthropology, paleodemography, criminology) A method for assessing age at death and determining season at death based on the annulation (formation of rings) in tooth cementum.


gangbusting

2020 November 1, Alan Young, “In the 1980s a slipping career was revived with The Untouchables (1987), with his role as a tough gangbusting Irish policeman winning him an Academy Award for best supporting actor.”, in The Scotsman:

The disruption by law enforcement of organized crime.


clinicide

en-noun

clinicide (countable and uncountable, plural clinicides)

LL-Q1860_(eng)-I learned some phrases-clinicide.wav

From clini(cal) (“dealing with the practical management of patients”) + -cide (suffix meaning ‘killing’).

suffix

[page 90, column 1] [Harold] Shipman killed himself in Wakefield prison on 13 January 2004. The Coronial hearing brought to an end a series of inquiries that found he had committed at least 250 murders in a killing career – a clinicide – that went back to internship at Pontefract General Infirmary. [...] [page 92, column 1] The frenetic consulting was a process of constant preparation for the clinicides, familiarizing himself with the killing ground and meticulously preparing for the moment when he could catch the patient alone, swiftly kill them and loot the place for their stock of narcotics, either for his own use or to use on the next victim.

2006 March, Robert [M.] Kaplan, “Harold Shipman: An Awful Sod: Review of Clarkson W., Evil beyond Belief”, in Gary Walter, editor, Australasian Psychiatry, volume 14, number 1, [Thousand Oaks, Calif.]: SAGE Publications for the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-08-17, pages 90 and 92:

Clinicide is the unnatural death of multiple patients in the course of treatment by a doctor. Clinicide occurs in a group that has a high rate of homicide. [H. G.] Kinnell maintains that doctors kill more than any other group (veterinarians, apparently, have never produced a serial killer).

2007 August, Robert [M.] Kaplan, “The Clinicide Phenomenon: An Exploration of Medical Murder”, in Gary Walter, editor, Australasian Psychiatry, volume 15, number 4, [Thousand Oaks, Calif.]: SAGE Publications for the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-08-17, pages 299–300:

The analogies between poisoning patients, forging a will to announce the end of the clinicides and finally, death by hanging seem uncannily close.

2009, Robert M. Kaplan, “Searching for Shipman”, in Medical Murder: Disturbing Cases of Doctors Who Kill, [Sydney, N.S.W.]: Read How You Want, published 2010, →ISBN, page 117:

Clinicide can also be detected by the substantiation of injurious, unnecessary, and potentially lethal medical procedures or treatment.

2010, Joshua A. Perper, Stephen J. Cina, “To Catch a Killer: Investigating Serial Murders”, in When Doctors Kill: Who, Why, and How, New York, N.Y.: Copernicus Books, Springer Science+Business Media, →ISBN, section 2 (When Doctors Kill), page 50:

The striking aspect of clinicide is the scale of suspicious deaths with which it is associated, which outnumbers proven murders by an order of magnitude (in [Harold] Shipman's case, a factor of (240-15)#47;15#61;15), a figure that only hints at the enormous interpersonal disruption and family grief which follows in its wake.

2013, Brian Hurwitz, “Healthcare Serial Killings: Was the Case of Dr Harold Shipman Unthinkable?”, in Danielle Griffiths, Andrew Sanders, editors, Bioethics, Medicine and the Criminal Law (Cambridge Bioethics and Law), volumes 2 (Medicine, Crime and Society), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 19:

The deliberate killing of a patient in the course of medical treatment.


breaker-inner

(informal, nonstandard) One who breaks in; a robber or home invader.


home invader

(law, criminology) Someone who commits a home invasion.


lootocracy

en-noun

lootocracy (usually uncountable, plural lootocracies)

Blend of loot + plutocracy, or pluto- + -cracy.

(derogatory) A corrupt political system in which the elite fraudulently help themselves to money or resources intended for other purposes.


IC code

(UK, law enforcement) A code used by British police to identify the apparent ethnicity of a person


(UK, law enforcement) A person of white, north European ethnicity


(UK, law enforcement) A person of white, south European ethnicity


(UK, law enforcement) A person of black ethnicity


(UK, law enforcement) A person of asian (Indian) ethnicity


(UK, law enforcement) A person of asian (Chinese, Japanese) ethnicity


(UK, law enforcement) A person of arab or north African ethnicity


(UK, law enforcement) A person of unknown ethnicity


cop car

I backed my car into a cop car the other day / Well, he just drove off, sometimes life's okay

2004, Modest Mouse (lyrics and music), “Float On”, in Good News for People Who Love Bad News:


CVPI

Crown Victoria Police Interceptor#English

(US, automotive, law enforcement) Initialism of Crown Victoria Police Interceptor.


defelonize

en-verb

defelonize (third-person singular simple present defelonizes, present participle defelonizing, simple past and past participle defelonized)

defelonizes (present singular third-person)
defelonizing (participle present)
defelonized (participle past)
defelonized (past)

From de- + felon + -ize, apparently on the model of decriminalize.

His solution, however, was not to reform sentencing laws or decriminalize or defelonize nonviolent crimes, […]

2011, Elana Zilberg, Space of Detention, Duke University Press, →ISBN, page 248:

(transitive) To reduce the status of (a crime) such that it is no longer a felony.


police court

(law) A court of justice for trying small cases brought before it by the police.


child molestation

(crime) Sexual abuse of a child by an adult or older child.


footpaddery

The smugglers were a lawless and desperate body, but they did not, as a rule, descend to footpaddery or robbery.

Not just a little footpaddery, but robbery on the grand scale.

2001, Wilbur Smith, The Angels Weep, →ISBN:

Whilst descriptions of 'The West End Fair Gang', and freferences to the 'Captain of the Gan' John Henley, recall models of criminal confederacy evoked in earlier accounts of highway robbery and footpaddery, these events, wrapped as they were in the language of hustling, also reflect some of the newer concerns about public space in this period.

2015, Heather Shore, London's Criminal Underworlds, c. 1720 - c. 1930, →ISBN, page 78:

(historical) The crime of robbing travelers on the road.


mafiocracy

(uncountable) Government by mafiosi; (loosely) government by organized crime.


porch pirate

After Bohlan's home security system recorded a porch pirate stealing packages from his doorstep, he reported the theft to the police department...and volunteered his own doorstep as a place where police could leave "bait" packages to catch porch pirates.

2018, Uncle John's Actual and Factual Bathroom Reader, page 271:

2019 November 1, Lauren Smiley, “The Porch Pirate of Potrero Hill Can’t Believe It Came to This”, in The Atlantic:

(slang) A criminal who steals a delivered package from a porch.


Club Fed

A pun on Club Med, a company offering luxurious holidays, and fed (“federal agent”).

(Canada, US, slang) A prison offering greater comfort and more facilities to inmates than is typical.


SAF

Special Action Force
w:Special Action Force

(Philippines, law enforcement) Initialism of Special Action Force.


Oilgate

A South African political scandal in which the petrol company Imvume Holdings was accused of paying millions of state money to the ruling African National Congress shortly before elections.


identification parade

en-noun

identification parade (plural identification parades)

He had once in his early days dropped in with his Superintendent at an identification parade. It was not his case, and they were both there on other business, but they lingered in the background and watched while a man and a woman, separately, walked down the line of twelve nondescript men, looking for the one they hoped to recognise.

1951, Josephine Tey, chapter 2, in The Daughter of Time, London: Peter Davies, page 24:

One of the ticket clerks at the Brahmpur Railway Station was going to be asked to try to pick Maan out at an identification parade in the jail. Under these circumstances, he could not let Maan’s head be shaved.

1993, Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy, Boston: Little, Brown, Chapter 17.26, pp. 1330-1331:

(law enforcement) A process by which a witness confirms the identity of a criminal suspect, by viewing the suspect together with other people who were not involved in the crime.


copaganda

/ˌkɒpəˈɡændə/

/ˌkɑpəˈɡændə/

Sick of all these Copaganda shows on TV. Are these the same cops that hide in vans every weekend and take 45 mins to respond to 999 calls?

2009 August 21, William McClymont, Twitter:

That David Simon could tell people with bricks in their hand to “go home,” and have no direct words of condemnation for the violence displayed by the police made me remember my friend Dashon — from Baltimore — who told me he would never watch The Wire because he believed it to be “copaganda,” since it was created not only by Simon but by longtime Baltimore police officer Ed Burns.

2015 May 4, Dave Zirin, “‘The Game Done Changed’: Reconsidering ‘The Wire’ Amidst the Baltimore Uprising”, in The Nation, archived from the original on 2019-02-15:

To counter this, police reform and police abolitionist activists on Twitter have invented a rather useful term: "Copaganda." Copaganda is any news story that uncritically advances a police department's image or helps undermine reform efforts. Here are eight of the most common forms of copaganda.

2016 February 23, Adam Johnson, “The 8 Most Popular Types of ‘Copaganda’: How the Police Play the Media”, in AlterNet, archived from the original on 2019-02-15:

However, while an article about Robert Downey Jr. visiting a child dying of leukemia doesn’t have an impact on the public perception of criminal justice, copaganda does.

2018 July 25, Brendan Gallagher, “Just say no to viral ‘copaganda’ videos”, in The Daily Dot, archived from the original on 2019-02-15:

“Yeah, wading down into the comments. "Winsomely compelling cop-aganda," says C-Rob-69. Oh, wait, that was me.” “Drivel for the unwashed. The Bard, how he weeps.”

2024 November 25, Max Brockman, “P.I. Undercover: New York” (1:34 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 6, episode 8, spoken by Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch):

(derogatory) Media that contains propagandistic pro-police messages.


fartsovka

In the Soviet Union, the illegal trade of acquiring desirable consumer goods and currency from foreigners.


on tag

The prisoner was released on tag.

(UK) Under judicial surveillance by means of an electronic tag worn on the ankle etc.


Special Branch

(UK, Commonwealth) A unit, typically part of the police, that is responsible for matters of national security and intelligence.


pussy posse

Chosen for the alliteration, with pussy (“female genitalia”) in reference to prostitution.


mobbed-up

en-adj

mobbed-up (comparative more mobbed-up, superlative most mobbed-up)

more mobbed-up (comparative)
most mobbed-up (superlative)

In this way, cartels of mobbed-up outfits drove everyone else out of the business. The impact of organized crime on the union movement was ruinous.

2006, Guy Lawson, William Oldham, The Brotherhoods: The True Story of Two Cops Who Murdered for the Mafia:

The following morning a little detective work led me to Spiro's, a mobbed-up social club on Eighteenth Avenue that was Frankie Carbone's hangout.

2005, Lou Eppolito, Bob Drury, Mafia Cop, page 218:


no-crime

en-verb

no-crime (third-person singular simple present no-crimes, present participle no-criming, simple past and past participle no-crimed)

no-crimes (present singular third-person)
no-criming (participle present)
no-crimed (participle past)
no-crimed (past)

Nevertheless, if the recommendations of the Working Party had been strictly observed, no reported cases in 1986 should have been 'no-crimed' on the basis of the victim withdrawing her complaint.

1989, Lorna J. F. Smith, Great Britain. Home Office. Research and Planning Unit, Concerns about rape, HMSO Books

Gregory and Lees (1999) suggest that, in contrast, the high rates of 'no criming' for rape and sexual assault demonstrate the low priority attached by the police to these offences.

2004, J. Jordan, The Word of a Woman?: Police, Rape and Belief, Springer, →ISBN, page 63:

According to these figures, in Lincolnshire, for example, 26% of all reported rapes were no-crimed in 2012–13 and 20% were no-crimed in 2011–12. This contrasts with Merseyside, where 4% reported rape crimes were no-crimed in 2012–13 ...

2014, Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: International Development Committee, Caught Red Handed: Why We can't Count on Police Recorded Crime Statistics - HC 760, The Stationery Office, →ISBN, page 16:

Of cases reported, half to two-thirds are “no-crimed” or, in US parlance, “unfounded” or determined to be “baseless” by the police (Brown, 2010; Kelly et al., 2010).

2014, Karen Rich, Interviewing Rape Victims: Practice and Policy Issues in an International Context, Springer, →ISBN:

(chiefly UK) To determine that an alleged crime, especially a sexual assault or rape, should not be prosecuted as a crime (e.g. because the victim has withdrawn their complaint).


MMIWG

(Canada, politics, crime) Abbreviation of National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.


MMIWG

(Canada, US, politics, crime) Abbreviation of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

FFADA (Enquête nationale sur les femmes et les filles autochtones disparues et assassinées)

FFADA (les femmes et les filles autochtones disparues et assassinées)


shed blood

shed blood (third-person singular simple present sheds blood, present participle shedding blood, simple past and past participle shed blood)

sheds blood (present singular third-person)
shedding blood (participle present)
shed blood (participle past)
shed blood (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-shed blood.wav

For he to day that sheds his blood with me, / Shall be my brother:

1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

(idiomatic) To kill or wound, or be wounded or killed, in violence.


hospital order

Where hospital orders were made, direct admission to hospital from the court was arranged if possible.

2002, Robert Harris, David Webb, Mentally Disordered Offenders: Managing People Nobody Owns, →ISBN:

Patients admitted to hospital under a hospital order without a restriction order are treated largely the same as patients detained on the basis of an application for admission for treatment under section 3.

2008, Great Britain. Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety Department of Health, Reference Guide to the Mental Health Act 1983, →ISBN, page 55:

In the case of an offender who is subject to an interim hospital order the court may make a hospital order without his being brought before the court if he is represented by an authorised person who given an opportunity of being heard.

2014, John Gunn, Pamela Taylor, Forensic Psychiatry: Clinical, Legal and Ethical Issues, →ISBN:

A court order requiring an offender who is found not guilty by reason of insanity to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital.


CrASBO

(British, law enforcement) Acronym of criminal antisocial behaviour order: a restriction like an ASBO, but where the forbidden behaviour constitutes a crime.


fuck 12

From fuck + 12, of uncertain origin. Widespread use of the phrase as an anti-police slogan grew following the 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
* Possibly from 1312, an alternative form of ACAB (“all cops are bastards”) in which the letters are substituted with their position in the alphabet.
* Alternatively, from the American police procedural television series Adam-12 (1968–1975), in which 1-Adam-12 refers to a patrol unit and its radio call sign.
Likely popularized by "F*ck 12", a song by American hip hop group Migos from their 2013 mixtape Y.R.N. (Young Rich Niggas), which uses 12 in reference to the police while describing a narcotics raid: “12 kickin' in my front door […] 12 in my home, they won't leave me alone”.

Vehicles with the words "Fuck 12" painted on the sides and windows drove down West Florissant Avenue, honking in support of protesters on the street as others would chant the straight-to-the-point slogan.

2014 August 17, Ray Downs, “Ferguson Protesters Defy State of Emergency Curfew and Fight Tear Gas”, in Riverfront Times:

Kwame Shakur, deputy chairman of the New African Black Panther Party, showed up with a megaphone and led the protesters in chants of "All power to the people" and "Fuck 12."

2020 May 7, Tyler Fenwick, “'We're just trying to get answers': Fatal IMPD shooting captured on Facebook Live”, in Indianapolis Recorder:

(slang, vulgar, derogatory) Fuck the police, an anti-police slogan protesting police behavior.

Adam-12
Migos
Y.R.N. (Young Rich Niggas)
killing of Michael Brown
murder of George Floyd


flash rob

(criminology) A form of organized theft in which a group of people enter a shop en masse and steal merchandise, while the employees are overwhelmed by sheer numbers.


premurder

We fail to see, and the State has not indicated, how the premurder statements to one who was not a co-conspirator can be termed in furtherance of the conspiracy.

1981, Illinois Appellate Reports: Official Reports of the Illinois Appellate Court, page 1008:

And in 1997, a grand jury that was grinding away at the case learned of an interesting premurder conversation between Neulander and Myron "Pep" Levin.

2006, Sam Stall, Suburban Legends: True Tales of Murder, Mayhem, and Minivans, Quirk Books, →ISBN, page 67:

Performing a premurder ritual that includes wine, dancing, and the music of Dusty Springfield's hit song “The Look of Love,” Rodriguez asks Frannie, “You ever been in love? All women want love, right?”

2012, Karen A. Ritzenhoff, Karen Randell, Screening the Dark Side of Love: From Euro-Horror to American Cinema, Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, page 56:


person unknown

(law, criminology) An individual yet to identified.


cellhouse

Such doorman will work at all times under the direct supervision of the cellhouse keeper and, during his tour of duty, will be responsible for the count of all inmates leaving or entering the cellhouse and for the security of the cellhouse door.

1962, Joseph Edward Ragen, Charles Finston, Inside the World's Toughest Prison, page 582:

65 The correctional officer in charge of the cellhouse, a sergeant, noticed the inmate resisting his transfer enter the cellhouse with five others and then go up a flight of stairs to an upper tier.

1991, Bert Useem, Peter Kimball, States of Siege: U.S. Prison Riots, 1971-1986, page 73:

The two mess halls were inadequate to feed the four thousand convicts from the four cellhouses at the same time, so the North and West honor units ate first.

2013, Edward Bunker, The Animal Factory:

One of the buildings in a prison that contains cells for the inmates; cellblock.


wilful homicide

en-noun

wilful homicide (plural wilful homicides)

211. (1) Whosoever shall be guilty of wilful homicide shall be punished with imprisonment for life. (2) A person shall be guilty of wilful homicide if, maliciously, with intent to kill another person or to put the life of such other person in manifest jeopardy, he causes the death of such other person.

2019, Criminal Code of the Republic of Malta (English version), article 211, subarticles 1 and 2

(law, Malta) murder; defined similarly as in English law


fingersmith

"What do you call yourself, then?"
"Me? I'm a fingersmith. I'm a professional fingersmith." He spoke the words solemnly and proudly, as though he were telling me he was the President of the Royal College of Surgeons or the Archbishop of Canterbury.
"I've never heard that word before," I said. "Did you invent it?"
"Of course I didn't invent it," he replied. "It's the name given to them who's risen to the very top of the profession. You've 'eard of a goldsmith and a silversmith, for instance. They're experts with gold and silver. I'm an expert with my fingers, so I'm a fingersmith."
"It must be an interesting job."
"It's a marvellous job," he answered. "It's lovely."
"And that's why you go to the races?"
"Race meetings is easy meat," he said. "You just stand around after the race, watchin' for the lucky ones to queue up and draw their money. And when you see someone collectin' a big bundle of notes, you simply follows after 'im and 'elps yourself.

1977, Roald Dahl, The Hitch-Hiker, Atlantic Monthly:

Mr Ibbs was found to have handled stolen goods: he was sent to Pentonville. Of course, he knew many of the men in there, and might be supposed to have had an easy time among them—except that, here was a funny thing: the fingersmiths and cracksmen who had been so grateful to get an extra shilling from him on the outside, now quite turned against him; and I think his time was very miserable.

2002, Sarah Waters, chapter 17, in Fingersmith, London: Virago, →ISBN, part 3, page 510:


pay-to-stay

But despite improvements, Mr Baruch says some complaints persist. “Pay to stay [cash to secure shelf space] is front and centre of the complaints we receive — it’s supply chain bullying and anti-competitive. They shouldn’t try to create barriers to business — it’s fundamentally unfair, particularly at a time when small business confidence is at an all-time low.”

2016 August 21, Paul McClean, “Supermarkets and suppliers take stock of relationships”, in Financial Times:

(business) The practice where retailers charge manufacturers a slotting fee to place their products on the shelves of stores.

(US) A scheme where prison inmates are charged for their accommodation (meals, clothing etc.) while in prison.

In what is commonly called “pay-to-stay” or “private jail,” a constellation of small city jails — at least 26 of them in Los Angeles and Orange counties — open their doors to defendants who can afford the option. […] The region’s pay-to-stay jails took in nearly $7 million from the programs from 2011 through 2015, according to revenue figures provided by the cities.

2017 March 9, Alysia Santo, Victoria Kim, Anna Flagg, “Upgrade your jail cell – for a price”, in Los Angeles Times:

(US) A scheme where prisoners can pay to be moved to a more desirable prison.

In 1979, 42% of Britons lived in council homes. Today that figure is just under 8%. Now, by scrapping secure tenancies and bringing in a pay-to-stay scheme, the government’s new housing bill could mark the end of a century-old dream[.]

2016 January 4, John Harris, “The end of council housing”, in The Guardian:

Under the so-called “pay to stay” plans, families or individuals with a total annual income of £30,000 outside London or £40,000 in the capital will have to pay rents “at market or near-market levels”.

2016 March 23, Nigel Morris, “Pay to stay: Moves to impose increases on rents paid by better-off council tenants set to be thrown out by peers”, in The Independent:

(UK) A United Kingdom government policy, due to come into effect in April 2017 but never implemented, whereby council tenants earning £30,000 (£40,000 in London) would have to pay "market or near market rents".


polac

An accident involving a police car is known as a 'polac', and is investigated 'independently' by the area traffic department rather than by the division to which the driver belongs.

1990, Robert Chesshyre, Force: Inside the Police, Pan Macmillan, →ISBN:

Before getting out of his van, he sent out a Polac (police accident) bulletin on his radio.

2001 February 12, John Sutherland, The Guardian:

Two weeks in my opinion cant surely be enough.¶ Oh well, whatever saves money. (they way to stop Polacs is apparently to create an initial phase pursuit course (1 to 2 days)! mmmm I think perhaps the way might be to stop decreasing the length of the course and to give drivers some appropriate vehicles, but thats another thread!

2007 January 2, magoo, “Standard Driving Test for Special Constables”, in Police Community, archived from the original on 2021-02-05, Roads Policing:

(UK, law enforcement) A road-traffic accident that occurs due to presence of a police vehicle.