assume the position

en-verb

assume the position (third-person singular simple present assumes the position, present participle assuming the position, simple past and past participle assumed the position)

assumes the position (present singular third-person)
assuming the position (participle present)
assumed the position (participle past)
assumed the position (past)

A day or two later we took down another seller and this time the rookie performs the search. Assume the position! he tells the guy. So the guy leans against the side of the car.

2002, James Harper Walker, Inside Your Local Police:

(idiomatic, US, law enforcement) To turn away, with one's hands in a visible and unmovable position, so that one can be searched.


chummy

What happens when the Old Bill turns up and want to look at 'chummies^([sic]) dental records, guv, 'cos 'e's bitten a bloke's ear off in the pub'?

2002, Roy C. Lilley, Paul Lambden, The Tool Kit for Dental Risk Management, page 21:

(law enforcement slang) Nickname for a person, especially a suspect or criminal.


OP

en-noun

OP (countable and uncountable, plural OPs)

(military, law enforcement) Initialism of observation post.


carding

carding (countable and uncountable, plural cardings)

(Canada, law enforcement) A police practice where an officer stops, questions, and documents information from a person to gather intelligence, when no crime or suspicion of crime has been committed.


pursuivant

pursuivants (plural)
poursuivant (alternative)
pursevant (alternative)

From Middle English pursevant et al., from Old French pursuivant, present participle of pursuivre (“to follow”). Doublet of pursuant.

(law enforcement, by extension) A warrant officer.


FSB

From Russian ФСБ (FSB), initialism of Федеральная Служба Безопасности (Federalʹnaja Služba Bezopasnosti, “Federal Security Service”).

Possible victims included Roman Tsepov, Putin’s bodyguard in 1990s St Petersburg, who died after drinking tea in 2004 at a local FSB office.

2020 August 20, Luke Harding, “Alexei Navalny and the long history of poisoned Kremlin critics”, in The Guardian:

(initialism, Russia, politics, espionage, law enforcement) The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation.


flatfoot

From flat + foot. Piecewise doublet of platypus.

(colloquial, archaic, derogatory, law enforcement) (plural typically flatfoots) A policeman.


QPP

QPP (countable and uncountable, plural QPPs)

Sûreté du Québec
Sûreté du Québec#English

(law enforcement, Canada, uncountable) Initialism of Quebec Provincial Police (Sûreté du Québec); the police force of the Canadian province of Quebec..


freelancer

(EMS, fire service, law enforcement) One who performs duties outside of the chain of command and SOPs.


TIC

TIC (countable and uncountable, plural TICs)

TICs must be admitted by a defendant in addition to the crimes for which they have been convicted.

offence to be taken into consideration#English

(countable, UK, criminal law, law enforcement) Initialism of offence to be taken into consideration.


vic

(Ryotaro Dojima): We haven't found the cause of death for the first vic, and now we've got a second one just like it […]

2008, Atlus Co., Ltd., Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (04/16, Evening)

We did find some black fibers stuck between the victim's teeth, presumably from a glove, and lastly, seeing as the vic was found completely naked, we can't process her clothes for any potential evidence.

“The vic was found by some birdwatchers at the Theler Wetlands,” he began.

(law enforcement, slang) A victim of a homicide.


RUC

Whereas the R.U.C. was highly militarized and overwhelmingly Protestant, the current force has tried to be more representative of the community it polices — although because of a “substantial” terrorist threat from paramilitary groups opposed to the peace process, it is the only police force in the United Kingdom whose members regularly carry firearms.

2023 September 5, Megan Specia, “Northern Ireland Police Chief Resigns Amid Mounting Scandals”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Royal Ulster Constabulary
w:Royal Ulster Constabulary

(Northern Ireland, historical, law enforcement) Initialism of Royal Ulster Constabulary (now known as the PSNI).


air marshal

T.S.A. said its office of inspection makes quality assurance visits to ensure that the air marshals are properly prepared for their missions. […] Employees with the air marshals view their jobs as crucial to overall efforts to protect airplanes and airports from terrorist attacks.

2018 April 25, Ron Nixon, “Scandals and Investigations, but Few Arrests, for Air Marshals Program”, in The New York Times:

(US, law enforcement) An armed, undercover guard on a commercial-airline flight.


DT

DT (countable and uncountable, plural DTs)

DTs (plural)
DT. (alternative)
Dt. (alternative)
Dt (alternative)
D/T (alternative)

(law enforcement) Abbreviation of (police) detective.


FI

FI (countable and uncountable, plural FIs)

(law enforcement) Initialism of field interview/interrogation.


DCS

DCSs (plural)
D.C.S. (alternative)
D. C. S. (alternative)

It is being led by DCS Jim Taylor, who is the head of Opal, the national intelligence unit for organised acquisitive crime.

2023 December 22, Robyn Vinter, “Britons increasingly turning to food black market, experts say”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

detective chief superintendent
detective chief superintendent#English

(law enforcement, Commonwealth) Initialism of detective chief superintendent, a police rank.


ODC

(Ireland, law enforcement, informal) Initialism of ordinary decent criminal (a prisoner not associated with terrorism).


unsub

Further analysis may identify that the unsub has no specific schedule and has been escalating in the type of fire activity he or she is involved in.

2002, Brett Martinez, Multiple Fire Setters: The Process of Tracking and Identification, page 110:

In short, UNSUB profiling is premised on two fundamental assumptions: (1) behavioral uniformity across offenses and (2) steady associations between configurations of offense behaviors and background characteristics.

2011, Brent E. Turvey, Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis, page 639:

(law enforcement) Abbreviation of unknown subject of an investigation..


DCI

detective chief inspector
detective chief inspector#English

(law enforcement) Initialism of detective chief inspector, a police rank used in Commonwealth countries.


armoured car

armoured cars (plural)
armored car (alternative)

(law enforcement) An armoured vehicle resistant to small arms fire.

警用裝甲車 /警用装甲车

(law enforcement) armoured vehicle resistant to small arms fire


OIC

(law enforcement) Initialism of officer in the case.


antiterrorism

Antiterrorism funding was increased after 2001.

(law enforcement, military, often attributive) Activity aiming at opposing or preventing terrorism.


PCC

police clearance certificate
w:police clearance certificate

(law enforcement) Initialism of police clearance certificate.


antiterror

(law enforcement, military) Opposing or preventing terrorism.


antismuggling

Israel’s foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, was in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss the antismuggling effort with European officials.

2009 January 23, Isabel Kershner, “Hamas to Start Paying Gaza Residents Compensation and Reconstruction Aid”, in New York Times:

(law enforcement) Acting to combat or prevent smuggling


antiviolence

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

And one-quarter of teenagers in relationships say they have been called names or harassed by their partner through cellphones and text messages, according to a study commissioned by the clothing company Liz Claiborne, which sponsors antiviolence programs.

2009 January 27, Stephanie Clifford, “Teaching Teenagers About Harassment”, in New York Times:

(law enforcement, sociology) Acting against or opposing violence.


RD

RD (countable and uncountable, plural RDs)

(US, law enforcement) Initialism of reporting district.


MPD

Manila Police District
w:Manila Police District

(Philippines) Initialism of Manila Police District.

Five current and former employees of the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC, have filed a lawsuit against the District of Columbia, alleging that MPD management created a hostile work environment and retaliated against them for speaking out.

2022 February 19, Maya Brown, “Fourth lawsuit makes 20 employees alleging a toxic culture within the DC police department”, in CNN:

Police Department
police department#English

Initialism of Metropolitan Police Department.

“The number of reported violent crimes, like assaults, robberies and homicides are up compared to 2019, according to MPD crime data.

2021 November 5, Chris Cillizza, “Even Democrats are now admitting ‘Defund the Police’ was a massive mistake”, in CNN:

Minneapolis Police Department
w:Minneapolis Police Department

Initialism of Minneapolis Police Department.


MPD

MPD (countable and uncountable, plural MPDs)

(physics, engineering, space science, astronautics) Initialism of magnetoplasmadynamics.

motive power depot
motive power depot#English

(rail transport, countable) Initialism of motive power depot.

(aviation, travel industry) Initialism of multi-purpose document.

The WSO station had four multipurpose displays, MPDs, including a moving map that could show a TSD—tactical situation display.

2013, David Lyons, Blood Game: A Jock Boucher Thriller, New York, N.Y. […]: Emily Bestler Books, →ISBN, pages 8–9:

(aviation) Initialism of multi-purpose display.

(pathology) Initialism of myeloproliferative disease.

mammary Paget's disease
mammary Paget's disease#English

mammary Paget disease
mammary Paget disease#English

(medicine) Initialism of mammary Paget's disease / mammary Paget disease.

multiple personality disorder
multiple personality disorder#English

(psychology, dated) Initialism of multiple personality disorder.


MPD

(physics, engineering, space science, astronautics) Initialism of magnetoplasmadynamic.

MPD thruster — magnetoplasmadymanic thruster


panda car

/ˌpændə ˈkɑː/

/ˌpændə ˈkɑɹ/

From the original black and white colouring of the automobiles, like that of a giant panda.

(UK, Ireland, law enforcement, informal) A police car; specifically (historical), one with a broad white stripe painted around its middle on a darker-coloured or, originally, black background.


antigang

These changes occurred independent of any antigang program (CIN is the first of its kind in Chicago) and bore no relation to the number of officers in the Chicago Police Department's Gang Crimes Unit.

1988 March 4, Dan Cohen, “Our Gang”, in Chicago Reader:

(law enforcement) Intended to combat or reduce the activity of criminal gangs

antigangue

intended to combat or reduce the activity of criminal gangs


antinarcotics

Since 1993, the United States has twice helped set up special antinarcotics forces here, only to watch their commanders become embroiled in the drug trade themselves.

2007 March 5, James C. Mckinley Jr., “In Guatemala, Officers’ Killings Echo Dirty War”, in New York Times:

(law enforcement) Intended to combat narcotics trade or production


WDC

woman detective constable
woman detective constable#English

(UK, law enforcement, historical) Initialism of woman detective constable, a former police rank.


antivandalism

(law enforcement) Opposing or proscribing vandalism.


perp walk

From perp + walk. First use appears c. 1980. See cite below.

... as well-dressed masters of the universe did the ritualized perp walk with their expensive Armani suit jackets draped over their handcuffs.

1980, Paul Fussell, Abroad - British Literary Traveling Between the Wars, page 114:

FBI agents gave former WorldCom executives Scott Sullivan and David Myers the same star treatment, parading the handcuffed quarry in an early-morning perp walk and prompting Sullivan's lawyer to complain about “the unfair taint of the current political climate.”

2002 August 12, Daniel Eisenberg et al., “Jail To The Chiefs?”, in Time:

The copter’s arrival at the Wall Street heliport led to an extraordinary scene: [Luigi] Mangione, surrounded by a swarm of gun-toting NYPD officers, in a slow, lengthy “perp walk” from the helicopter into a black van, with cameras catching every step.

2024 December 19, Eric Levenson, Ray Sanchez, “A whirlwind day for Luigi Mangione ends with new charges, revelations from a notebook and transfer to a federal prison”, in CNN, archived from the original on 2024-12-20:

(chiefly US, idiomatic, law enforcement) The intentional public display before news cameras of a person in police custody, especially someone famous or notorious, for the purpose of satisfying public interest, demonstrating the effectiveness of the authorities, or shaming the person.


beartrap

beartraps (plural)
bear trap (alternative)

(law enforcement, automotive, traffic) A radar trap used by police to catch speeders.


antitrafficking

(law enforcement) Serving to counter arms or drug trafficking.


luminol

en-verb

luminol (third-person singular simple present luminols, present participle luminoling, simple past and past participle luminoled)

luminols (present singular third-person)
luminoling (participle present)
luminoled (participle past)
luminoled (past)

First use appears in 1934 in a paper by E. Huntress, L. Stanley, and A. Parker. The verbal form first appears c. 1997, although the exact date of its first appearance is uncertain.

Luminoling of material can establish unequivocally that no blood is present.

1997, United States. Court of Military Appeals, West Publishing Company (contributors), West's Military Justice Reporter, volume 46, page 860:

For two nights Patterson, Frosch, and Nabors Luminoled the house, checking and re-checking the evidence they found.

1997, Patricia Springer, Flesh and Blood, page 105:

Perhaps the auto warrant had gone through and the vehicle was being raked and combed and vacuumed and luminoled in some forensic garage.

2000, Jonathan Kellerman, Dr. Death, An Alex Delaware Novel, page 314:

The crime scene unit was all over the apartment, photographing, luminoling, vacuuming, plucking with tweezers.

2004, John Lutz, Darker Than Night, page 13:

Lester brings the hard-shelled golf bag in and Grissom luminols the interior of the case. The whole case fluouresces briefly then immediately fades, indicating the insides were bleached.

2004, Mike Flaherty, Corinne Marrinan, Anthony E. Zuiker, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Companion, page 201:

"You may not find it," McClure said. He answered Walt's puzzled expression by explaining," We luminoled her." He picked up a tube light from a workstation. "Get the lights," he said.

2007, Ridley Pearson, Killer Weekend, page 201:

He sighs. "The cops luminoled everyone at the hospital right after they got there. They all came out clean as a whistle."

2021, Antoinette van Heugten, Saving Max:

The Dassey garage was never luminoled or checked for forensic evidence of any type; blood found between the Dassey garage and residence was never tested.

2023, John Ferak, Wrecking Crew: Demolishing The Case Against Steven Avery:

The State Police come in later and find this stuff, but you know where they don't find any blood is in Omar Evans's office. They luminoled that whole place, and nothing.

2024, Rebecca Makkai, I Have Some Questions for You, A Novel, page 183:

(transitive, criminology, law enforcement) To test or subject a sample or an individual to a luminol agent in order to locate traces of blood.

luminoli

chemical that exhibits blue chemiluminescence


OCB

(law enforcement) Initialism of organized crime bureau.


BOLO

BOLOs (plural)
BOL (alternative)
bolo (alternative)

William Davis Jr. admitted he had been drinking and driving, but he said he shouldn’t have been caught. Even though police had issued a BOLO or “be on the lookout” for his car and an officer testified Davis made several traffic violations, he said there wasn’t enough probable cause for the initial traffic stop that turned into a DUI. […] Davis said he should not have been stopped because the BOLO for his car was not checked out before he was pulled over, but Justice Cornelia Clark pointed out that shouldn’t matter.

2015 September 10, “Knoxville attorney admits to DUI, argues he shouldn’t have been pulled over”, in WATE, archived from the original on 2016-08-20:

Police had issue[d] a BOLO alert for Brown and the children when he suddenly arrived in the emergency room of Central Florida Regional Hospital, looking for his wife.

2016 April 20, Mo Barnes, “Father kills estranged wife, shoots kids”, in RollingOut, retrieved 2017-06-16:

Freeman was able to locate the male and recognized him from a BOLO.

2017 June 13, Keith Lane, “Frederick Freeman named MPD Officer of the Month”, in Local 15, retrieved 2017-06-16:

(US law enforcement, acronym) A broadcast issued from a law enforcement agency to others, typically containing information about a wanted suspect, a person of interest, or a related vehicle.


vice squad

The film is about a big city police vice squad, and the action opens with Gould and Blake posing as "fairies" in order to raid and 'bustup' a gay bar.

1974 February 2, “Notices”, in Gay Community News, volume 1, number 32, page 6:

(law enforcement, criminology) A police section specialized in vice crimes.


IAB

internal affairs
internal affairs#English

(law enforcement) Initialism of internal affairs bureau.


QPF

(law enforcement, Quebec) SQ — Quebec police force — Sûreté du Québec


SQ

(law enforcement) Sûreté du Québec - the Quebec provincial police force.


Sûreté du Québec

(Quebec, law enforcement) the Quebec provincial police force


SPVM

From French SPVM. initialism of Service de police de la ville de Montréal

init of

(law enforcement) Montreal police service — the police for the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada


police department

en-noun

police department (plural police departments)

(law enforcement) Police force, especially a local or regional branch of a national police force.

poliisilaitos

police force, especially a local or regional branch of a national police force


Sûreté

(law enforcement) The Sûreté Nationale of France.

(law enforcement, Quebec) The Sûreté du Québec.


SPCUM

Montreal Urban Community
Montreal Urban Community

(law enforcement) the Montreal Urban Community police service (Service de police de la Communauté urbaine de Montréal, SPCUM) — replaced by the SPVM


RAS

(law enforcement) Initialism of reasonable articulable suspicion.


FIN

force identification number
w:force identification number

(law enforcement, UK) Initialism of force identification number.


antivandal

(law enforcement) Opposing or proscribing vandalism.


arrestable

A person who lies frequently may be cut of the same mental fabric as the arrestable criminal.

2000, Samuel Yochelson, Stanton Samenow, The Criminal Personality: A Profile for Change, page 253:

(law enforcement) Capable of, or suitable for, being arrested (taken into police custody).


antipaedophile

en-adj

antipaedophile (comparative more antipaedophile, superlative most antipaedophile)

more antipaedophile (comparative)
most antipaedophile (superlative)
antipedophile (alternative)

For example, a voice accusing a man of being a paedophile might be based on recent TV news programmes about antipaedophile vigilante groups, plus the memory of having been accused of being a pervert by a neighbour, plus fears that he might be a secret paedophile because he enjoyed reading Lolita.

2005, Hazel E. Nelson, Cognitive-behavioural therapy with delusions and hallucinations, page 217:


NFA

Home Minister Hamzah Zainuddin said the case has been classified as "no further action" (NFA) due to lack of evidence.

2020 November 24, “Individuals linked to Chin Peng's ashes will not face charges - minister”, in Malaysiakini:

ACP Nik Ezanee closed the investigation by classifying it as no further action (NFA) after hearing about the woman's plight.

2021 January 31, Farik Zolkepli, “PJ police go the extra mile to help the needy”, in The Star:

Police have completed investigations into a Physical Education (PE) teacher who allegedly made a rape joke in front of his students at school, and have classified it as No Further Action (NFA).

2021 August 5, Muhaamad Hafis Nawawi, “Case of teacher who allegedly made rape joke classified as NFA”, in New Straits Times:

no further action
no further action#English

(law enforcement, criminal law, UK, Malaysia) Initialism of no further action; a potential outcome for a suspect from a police investigation.


NFA

en-verb

NFA (third-person singular simple present NFAs, present participle NFAing or NFA'ing, simple past and past participle NFAd or NFA'd or NFAed)

NFAs (present singular third-person)
NFAing (participle present)
NFA'ing (participle present)
NFAd (participle past)
NFAd (past)
NFA'd (participle past)
NFA'd (past)
NFAed (participle past)
NFAed (past)

After that interview, I think we can NFA him.

(law enforcement slang, UK) To formally end the police investigation of a suspect with no further action.


antismuggler

Thailand has built an antismuggler and antiterrorist fence along the Malaysian border.

1996, Martin Ira Glassner, Political geography, page 90:

(law enforcement) Acting to combat or prevent the activities of smugglers.


antiviolent

en-adj

antiviolent (comparative more antiviolent, superlative most antiviolent)

more antiviolent (comparative)
most antiviolent (superlative)

(law enforcement, sociology) Acting against or opposing violence.


antikidnapping

In the capital on Friday, a city police commander, Esteban Robles Espinosa, 52, who once headed the department’s antikidnapping division, was shot and killed as he left his house at 7:30 a.m.

2008 May 10, James C. Mckinley Jr., “Caught in a Swirl of Drug Violence, Mexico Vows to Fight Back”, in New York Times:

(law enforcement) Preventing or countering kidnapping.


antikidnap

He was never seen again, and the case remains unsolved today. Its haunting aftermath produced new antikidnap legislation[…]

2002, Michael Newton, The Encyclopedia of Kidnappings, page 187:

A first step in a company's defense against executive kidnapping is to develop a policy and obtain approval of an antikidnap plan.

2010, John Fay, Contemporary Security Management, page 359:


quality of life

en-noun

quality of life (countable and uncountable, plural qualities of life)

جَوْدَة الْحَيَاة

general well-being of individuals and societies

In July 1994, New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani and police commissioner William Bratton began implementing an order-maintenance policing strategy emphasizing proactive and aggressive enforcement of misdemeanor laws against quality-of-life offenses such as graffiti writing, loitering, public urination, public drinking, aggressive panhandling, turnstile jumping, and prostitution.

2001, Bernard E. Harcourt, Illusion of Order:

The general well-being of something or someone.


antilaundering

(law enforcement) Countering money laundering.


PNP

Philippine National Police
w:Philippine National Police

(Philippines, law enforcement) Initialism of Philippine National Police.


prison guard

prison guards (plural)
prisonguard (alternative)

And Tietelbaum has been bought and sold so many times by the dark Republican powers that be, look at the prisonguard beating trial and the Ventura County sewer fiasco.

1997, Gary Indiana, Resentment: A comedy, New York: Anchor Books, published 1998, →ISBN, →OL, page 170:

During his services as a praetorian, Caesium Verus was twice promoted, first to tubicen (trumpeter), then to optio carceris (camp prisonguard): ordinatus tubicem item optio at carcarem factus est.

1987, Arctos: Acta philologica fennica, volumes 21-23, page 29:

The Telfaire Prisonguard towers rise miragelike in the swampy sunlight like giant mushroom caps on grey concrete stalks.

2011, Marc Ian Barasc, The Compassionate Life: Walking the Path of Kindness, San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, →ISBN:

(law enforcement) An armed person working to provide order, security, discipline, punishment, and prevent escapes of prisoners in a jail that answers to a warden.

zindançı

person working to provide order to in a jail


blue wall

From blue + wall. From the representative color of the political party, and the solidity of support for that party in that region.

blue wall of silence
blue wall of silence#English

(law enforcement politics) Alternative form of blue wall of silence.


SOCO

scenes of crime officer
w:scenes of crime officer

(UK, law enforcement) Acronym of scenes of crime officer.


moving violation

moving violation (plural moving violations)

Under present law, the Department of Public Safety can suspend a license from 30 to 90 days when the holder accumulates three moving violations.

1959 May 20, Taking Violators Off the Road, St Petersburg Times, p. 8A

(US, Canada, Australia, law enforcement) Violation of the law by the driver of a vehicle while in motion.

Verkehrsverstoß

violation of law by the driver of a moving vehicle


antiextortion

In response, the federal authorities initiated a nationwide antiextortion program, including a national database to track protection rackets and a promise to protect all willing to formally complain about extortion practices.

2010, Niels A. Uildriks, Mexico's Unrule of Law, page 226:


smurf account

Coined by Geoff Fraizer and Greg Boyko, who played the online multiplayer game Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness under the names Shlonglor and Warp. The pair had become so proficient at the game that few people would play against them, so, in order to avoid scaring off potential competitors, they created alternate accounts named PapaSmurf and Smurfette (characters from the Smurfs comic franchise).
Smurf account as a banking term, however, predates Warcraft II by about a decade.

They were smurf accounts and other people and companies contracted by me. I never used my name.

1997, U.S. Government Printing Office, Law Enforcement Efforts to Combat International Money Laundering Through Black Market Peso Brokering, page 15:

(law enforcement, banking, slang) A bank account of many intended to handle illicit money in amounts too small to raise suspicion.


red ball

* ("high-profile high-priority" sense) From a routing system on the Santa Fe Railroad in the early 1900s. Fast freight trains which were to receive priority routing were marked with placards depicting a red disc, and were called "red ball" trains.

A police-involved shooting is by definition a red ball and, by definition, a red ball requires every warm body.

1991, David Simon, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, →ISBN, →OL:

The only exception to that edict was the Eighth, the French Quarter district, since any homicide at the core of the tourist area was such a potential red ball.

2005, Eileen Dreyer, Sinners and Saints, St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, →OL:

(law enforcement, slang, US) A high-profile high-priority case which draws political or media attention.


Dt

(law enforcement) Alternative form of DT (“detective”).


Det.

(law, law enforcement) Abbreviation of detective.


Inv.

(law enforcement, criminology) Investigator. (as a title)


all-points bulletin

all-points bulletin (plural all-points bulletins)

(law enforcement) A broadcast issued from one law enforcement agency to another, typically containing information about a wanted suspect or a person of interest.


OFC

(military, law enforcement) Abbreviation of officer.


Insp

(law enforcement) Abbreviation of inspector.


stop-and-search

stop-and-frisk (alternative)
stop and search (alternative)

Adding to the department's problems is a long-running controversy over a stop-and-search policy that includes random searches of young black men.

1990 January 18, Constance L. Hays, “3 Cases Raise Questions on Boston Police Methods”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-08-20:

The high court renewed its decision to throw out evidence in a 1992 Montgomery County traffic stop-and-search case that uncovered a small amount of marijuana and a methamphetamine pill.

1997 November 13, Rob Modic, “Motorist Must Know "Free to Go"”, in Dayton Daily News, USA, retrieved 2013-08-20:

Both parties support ‘stop and search’ – also known as ‘sus’ laws. Under these laws, the police can stop anyone under ‘reasonable’ suspicion that they could commit a crime.

2008, Simon Assaf, “London mayor elections: Ken and Boris launch a war on young people”, in Socialist Worker, UK, retrieved 2013-08-20:

A U.S. judge has ruled the New York Police Department has violated the rights of tens of thousands of people by intentionally discriminating against racial minorities with its controversial "stop-and-search" policy.

2013 August 12, “US Court says NYPD ‘Stop-and-Search’ Violates Rights”, in Voice of America, retrieved 2013-08-20:

(law, law enforcement) Of or pertaining to laws or policing practices, found in some jurisdictions, which permit a law enforcement officer to temporarily detain and search a member of the public based on the officer's suspicions.


racial profiling

racial profiling (usually uncountable, plural racial profilings)

This legislation represents a substantial step toward ending an insidious form of discrimination that is plaguing African-American and Hispanic drivers on our roadways — racial profiling.

1999, Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 106th Congress, First Session, vol. 145, part 5, p. 6720 (Google preview)

A recent report on the Ontario government's safe schools policy in the Toronto district school board addressed the issue of racial profilings in the educational system, especially with regard to the disproportionate impact of suspensions and expulsions on racialized students.

2006, Grace-Edward Galabuzi, Canada's Economic Apartheid, →ISBN, page 192:

A special unit of the TSA at Newark Liberty International Airport, trained to detect suspicious behavior, reportedly earned the nickname "Mexican hunters" for racial profiling.

2011 June 15, “Quotes of the Day”, in Time, retrieved 2013-09-10:

A recent campaign by Stockholm police to crack down on illegal immigrants by racial profiling at the city's subway turnstiles has formed the backdrop to a reignited debate about racism.

2013 April 2, Sven Hultberg Carlsson, “Does Sweden have a racial profiling problem?”, in Christian Science Monitor, retrieved 2013-09-10:

Racial profiling is emerging as a flashpoint in Japan as increasing numbers of migrant workers, foreign residents and mixed-race Japanese change the country’s traditionally homogenous society and test deep-seated suspicion toward outsiders.

2024 March 4, Victoria Kim, Hisako Ueno, “Racial Profiling in Japan Is Prevalent but Unseen, Some Residents Say”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(public policy, law enforcement) The practice (usually considered discreditable), by some police and other officials, of treating members of certain racial groups as more likely to be involved in criminal or other antisocial behavior than members of other racial groups.


ITO

(law enforcement) Initialism of information to obtain order, a search warrant.


antinarcotic

en-adj

antinarcotic (comparative more antinarcotic, superlative most antinarcotic)

more antinarcotic (comparative)
most antinarcotic (superlative)
anti-drug (alternative)

(law enforcement) Opposing or countering narcotics.


protective custody

A so‐called star witness in the Brooklyn grand jury inquiry of alleged links between the police and gamblers sought unsuccessfully yesterday to free himself from protective custody.

1964 July 25, Alfred E. Clark, “Gambling Witness Under Guard Fails in Move to Gain Freedom”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-06-03:

The government has earmarked a paltry $1.2 million . . ., not enough to properly fund even the state-run counseling centers—the only institutions with the authority to put battered children into protective custody.

1999 June 7, Donald MacIntyre, Hiroko Tashiro, “Hearing Their Cries”, in Time, retrieved 2014-06-03:

Authorities charged a man today with 'arson causing death' after a week of devasting fires that killed a total of more than 180 people in Australia, and whisked him into protective custody to guard him from public fury.

2009 February 13, Tanalee Smith, “Man charged over deadly Australian fire”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 2014-06-03:

(law enforcement) Lawful confinement of a person or close supervision of his or her movements, on a voluntary or involuntary basis, by authorities in order to safeguard that person from attack or other dangers.


stovec

I think it is because if a garage get a stovec and no one claims it, they dont^([sic]) get paid, not only that, they have to pay AADL too.

2008 July 16, Chocolate boy, “Re: Heavy Recovery”, in PrisonOfficer.org.uk, retrieved 2014-10-26:

If there's a car on your drive when you get home, and you can't get onto the drive yourself, there's no obstruction as such. However, it would be worth a phone call to the police (non emergency number) as you never know, the car might be an outstanding stovec, in which case we will come, and it will be removed.

2010 March 4, Damsel, “Parked on a private driveway without permission”, in PoliceSpecials.com, archived from the original on 2014-11-22:

(UK, law enforcement) A stolen car, van, lorry or other motor vehicle.


SERT

w:Special Emergency Response Team (Queensland)

(law enforcement, Australia, Queensland) Acronym of Special Emergency Response Team.

Special Emergency Response Team
w:Special Emergency Response Team

(law enforcement, Canada) Acronym of Special Emergency Response Team.


PORT

w:Victoria Police Public Order Response Team

(law enforcement in Australia) Abbreviation of Public Order Response Team.


LPR

en-noun

LPR (countable and uncountable, plural LPRs)

LPRs (plural)
lpr (alternative)
LP (alternative)
lp (alternative)
LPRN (alternative)
lprn (alternative)

"The breadth of this LPR system is spectacular and amounts to a warrantless search."

2023 July 24, Chris Eberhart, “NY police used AI to track drivers on highways as attorney questions legality”, in Fox News:

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

The surveillance program includes at least 480 LPRs that scan and record about 16.2 million vehicles per week and stores that data for two years, he wrote in the court filing.

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


peace officer

Coordinate term: peacekeeper

(US, Canada, law enforcement) A civil law enforcement officer with a duty to maintain law and order, i.e., a bylaw officer, a police officer, a sheriff, etc.


Juanita Doe

(US, law, law enforcement) A Latina who is unknown, a Jane Doe of Latin descent.


Juan Doe

(US, law, law enforcement) A Latino male who is unknown, a John Doe of Latin descent.


ALPR

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:

"Surveillance networks based on ALPR technology can track people’s movements retroactively with a simple search query," he wrote.

(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.


bodycam

bodycams (plural)
body cam (alternative)

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:

The sheriff’s office released a compilation of bodycam footage Friday from deputies at the scene that shows them handcuffing Earl and pinning him down for more than 20 minutes as he struggles and repeatedly shouts for help.

2024 September 30, Chelsea Bailey, “‘Take his pulse, he’s blue’: Bodycam footage shows fatal encounter between epileptic Indiana man and first responders”, in CNN:

(chiefly law enforcement) A body camera.


unmarked car

(law enforcement) A police car that has no markings to distinguish it from a civilian car.


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.


KA

(slang, law enforcement) Initialism of known associate.


PCG

Philippine Coast Guard
w:Philippine Coast Guard

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


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

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


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.


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


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.


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)
de-ass (alternative)

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


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


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.


contract system

en-noun

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.


square grouper

(police slang) A set of bales of marijuana or blocks of cocaine, packed in plastic, and sometimes thrown overboard a boat.


RFX

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


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.


confidential informant

confidential informant (plural confidential informants)

confidential informants (plural)
CI (alternative)
C.I. (alternative)

(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


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


spit hood

spit hoods (plural)
spithood (alternative)

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


slicktop

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


identity parade

en-noun

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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


susp

(law enforcement) Abbreviation of suspect.


school resource officer

school resource officer (plural school resource officers)

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


super recogniser

super recogniser (plural super recognisers)

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


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.


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


CVPI

Crown Victoria Police Interceptor#English

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


SAF

Special Action Force
w:Special Action Force

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


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.


CrASBO

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


on the pad

The badge showed that he was on the inspector's pad and the telephone numbers suggested that he had connections.

1978, Burgess Laughlin, Job Opportunities in the Black Market, page 5:

New York City police officers "on the pad" were found to receive up to $850 a month to protect a single dealer.

2002, Samuel Walker, Charles M. Katz, The Police in America: An Introduction, page 325:

But I swear to you, Dave, I never got any free action because of my badge, and I never went on the pad.

2011, James Lee Burke, A Dave Robicheaux Ebook Boxed Set:


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.


POLAC

I doubt that the organisation is going to be terribly concerned that you arrive at that call thirty seconds later than you would have done otherwise but can be pretty sure that they would have something to say had you smashed up your police car on the way there. I doubt also that CPS would be satisfied with the defence of '...It was my first night duty … and I was rather tired...' after your high profile POLAC gets splashed all over the national newspapers and television news.

2019, Darren Moor, How To Survive Your Police Career, Troubador Publishing, →ISBN:

And it really brought it home to me when I was involved in my own POLAC (police accident) in March 2012.

2015 January 14, Jessica Davies, “Pc moved into office role 'after telling bosses blue-flashing lights on police cars don't work'”, in The Telegraph:

First, a woman goes missing, and leaves her things and a mysterious note in her car. Now a POLAC with a DCI in the passenger seat.

2015, Martin Edwards, The Dungeon House, Allison & Busby, →ISBN:

When you have an at fault POLAC on camera!

2018 February 1, StopFightingTheDog, “That moment you have a POLAC . . . in the middle of the day in town . . . whilst being recorded for a television programme”, in Reddit, r/PoliceUK:

(UK, law enforcement) Alternative letter-case form of polac.


POLAC

(Nigeria, law enforcement) The Police Academy of Nigeria.


stick on

en-verb

stick on (third-person singular simple present sticks someone on, present participle sticking someone on, simple past and past participle stuck someone on)

sticks someone on (present singular third-person)
sticking someone on (participle present)
stuck someone on (participle past)
stuck someone on (past)

[…] took him to the nick, stuck him on, and he spent the night in the flowery.

1931, The Police Journal, volume 4, page 501:

You can be stuck on for anything from serious misconduct to minor infringements of the police's absurdly draconian and catch-all disciplinary codes, which make it possible for a senior officer with a grudge against a junior to stick him on for almost anything. For example, the PC may have been caught slipping unobtrusively into a restaurant or pub on his ground to scrounge […] a drink or a meal.

1995, Verbatim, volume 22, number 3, page 13:

But because you're under pressure for numbers and it looks good on your report that you done x number of processes, you can't come in and say 'Well, I didn't stick him on because I felt that it was a better result just to tell him off.'

quoted in 2005, Mike McConville, Dan Shepherd, Watching Police, Watching Communities (page 200)

(transitive, UK, law enforcement, slang) To charge (someone) with an offence.


dawn raid

(law enforcement) An early-morning visit by police or law enforcement with the intention of taking the suspects by surprise.


PIT maneuver

(law enforcement, automotive) A technique in which a pursuing car bumps the rear fender of a pursued car, causing it to spin out, in order to terminate a car chase.


GOA

G.O.A. (alternative)
G. O. A. (alternative)

(US, law enforcement) Initialism of gone on arrival (“where the intended target was not present at the location that was sought when an agent arrived”).


police scanner

(radio, law enforcement) A scanner that is tuned to receive the frequencies used by police for their communications.


red notice

Interpol issues red notice for 'fugitive' Anne Sacoolas

Under a red notice, local authorities make the arrests on behalf of the country that requested it. The notices cannot force countries to arrest or extradite suspects, but can put government leaders on the spot and limit suspects' travel.

June 29, 2020, “Iran issues arrest warrant for Trump, asks Interpol to help”, in Al Jazeera:

(law enforcement) A notice from Interpol that a person is an international fugitive and should be arrested.


confessing Sam

The first potentially believable confessing Sam, Daniel Voorhees, arrived at police headquarters on the same day as the second note from The Avenger. During an interview with LAPD Consulting Psychiatrist Dr. Paul De River, Voorhess ^([sic]) claimed that he "couldn't stand [keeping such a dark secret] any longer." The police knew that Voorhees was not The Avenger […]

2017, Jon Lewis, Hard-Boiled Hollywood: Crime and Punishment in Postwar Los Angeles, page 27:

(Canada, US, law enforcement slang) A person who falsely confesses to a crime.


CPD

“Defendant Officers violated numerous laws and CPD policies during their encounter with Dexter. The initial stop was unlawful and pretextual. Defendant Officers had no reasonable suspicion that Dexter violated any law, and they falsely stated otherwise in official CPD reports,” the suit states.

2024 April 24, Family of Chicago man fatally shot by police files federal civil rights lawsuit against city and tactical officers, CNN:

Chicago Police Department
w:Chicago Police Department

(law enforcement) Initialism of Chicago Police Department.


police lives matter

Coined in analogy to black lives matter.

black lives matter
black lives matter#English

(US, politics, law enforcement) A phrase used to counter "black lives matter", rallying people to defend police officers and their use of lethal force in carrying out their duties.


blue lives matter

Coined in analogy to black lives matter; the color blue is frequently used for police uniforms.

police lives matter
police lives matter#English

(US, law enforcement, politics) Synonym of police lives matter.


police work

The complement will consist of 290 persons, and these cruisers should prove valuable additions to our service, especially in the line of police-work—the peace time duty of most of our ships not assigned for manœuvres.

1899, Carl Schurz, George Brinton McClellan Harvey, George William Curtis, Henry Loomis Nelson, Henry Mills Alden, John Bonner, John Foord, John Kendrick Bangs, Montgomery Schuyler, Norman Hapgood, Richard Harding Davis, Samuel Stillman Conant (editors), Harper's Weekly, page 1090:

Many who are unfamiliar with real police work little realize the extent to which police science has developed.

1927, National Probation Association (U.S.), Annual Report and Proceedings of the Annual Conference, Volume 21, page 243:

All the ordinary developments in telecommunications can be applied to police work.

1951, Anthony K. Martienssen, Crime and the Police, page 96:

White officers were more likely to select skilled or other protective service positions (such as fireman) as a preferred employment at the time they entered police work.

1967, Albert J. Reiss, Donald J. Black, Studies in Crime and Law Enforcement in Major Metropolitan Areas: Patterns of Behavior in Police and Citizen Transactions, page 16:

Many puzzling aspects of police work fall into place when one ceases to look at it as primarily concerned with law enforcement and crime control, and only incidentally and and often incongruously concerned with an infinite variety of other matters.

1980, Susan Ehrlich Martin, Breaking and Entering, Policewomen on Patrol, page 81:

As a result, there exists little or no transparency in police work at the station house level.

1999, James Vadackumchery, Indian Police and Equal Justice Under Law, page 160:

That's not a bad motto for police work overall, he thought. A vain and arbitrary search for a needle in a haystack, that's exactly what it always seemed to be like.

2012, Håkan Nesser, Münster's Case, An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery:

(law enforcement) Work performed by police; the investigation of criminal activities.


SLED

(US, law enforcement) Abbreviation of South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.


have a visual on

have a visual on (third-person singular simple present has a visual on, present participle having a visual on, simple past and past participle had a visual on)

has a visual on (present singular third-person)
having a visual on (participle present)
had a visual on (participle past)
had a visual on (past)

“We have a visual on you,” the pilot of Gopher Alpha stated, ...

2012, Robert G. Davis, Ten Short Mysteries, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 102:

“Hey, partner, where the hell's your twenty? I should have a visual on you by now and I' m overdue to begin my rounds.”

2004, Michael Pinchot, Panamanian Tundra, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 157:

“This is Alpha Sky Four. I have a visual on the suspect running east on Hudson Avenue.

2012, Sherard H. Adams, The Prince of Pentium: A Life of a Hustler and a Computer Hacker, Trafford Publishing, →ISBN, page 25:

(transitive, law enforcement and military) see


Nampol

NamPol (alternative)
NAMPOL (alternative)

(Namibia, law enforcement) The Namibian Police Force.


DVE

Some DVEs and other violent actors might target events related to the 2020 Presidential campaigns, the election itself, election results, or the post-election period. […] Spikes in other DVE threats probably will depend on political or social issues that often mobilize other ideological actors to violence, such as immigration, environmental, and police-related policy issues.

2020 October 2, “Homeland Threat Assessment”, in Department of Homeland Security, pages 17-18:

(US, law enforcement) Initialism of domestic violent extremist


HVE

Despite territorial defeats in Iraq and Syria, ISIS continues to draw support from HVEs in the United States and the group’s global calls for attacks have intensified since the death last year of senior leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

2020 October 2, “Homeland Threat Assessment”, in Department of Homeland Security, page 19:

(US, law enforcement) Initialism of homegrown violent extremist


bent copper

From bent (“not straight, corrupt, dishonest”) + copper (“policeman”), a variant of cop. It could also be a pun taken from a bent copper coin.

Onay remembered that he had placed 40 kilos at the bottom of his wardrobe. That meant approximately three and a half kilos had disappeared during the police raid. Bulent kept quiet but the officers eventually found out and a bent copper was later blamed for the alleged theft.

2007, Graham Johnson, Druglord, Mainstream Publishing, →ISBN:

Anticorruption is a double-edged sword. We need to find just enough bent coppers to avoid accusations of a cover-up, but not so many that the public starts to wonder if the police can be trusted.

2016 April 28, “Getting to the Truth”, in Line of Duty, season 3, episode 6, spoken by Gill Biggeloe (Polly Walker), archived from the original on 2021-05-17:

He had always been a bent copper. He had joined the police force with the intention of being a bent copper. In that, he had been eminently successful.

2019, Alan Jacobs, Me? I Kill People, Troubador Publishing, →ISBN, page 298:

(UK, informal, law enforcement) A corrupt police officer.


CHIS

(UK, law enforcement) Initialism of covert human intelligence source.


desk sergeant

A woman ran into the police station and told the desk sergeant she had been robbed.

After arriving at the Area A police station, I renewed my protests that as a working reporter with visible police credentials, I should not have been arrested. The desk sergeant insisted that I be booked, however, and I was put into the holding tank, a fifteen-by-fifteen dark and filthy cell, with 49 other people.

1983 December 24, Larry Goldsmith, “Cops Bust 70 Anti-Nuke Demonstrators”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 23, page 6:

(law enforcement) A sergeant who has an administrative position inside of a police station.


VPD

V.P.D. (alternative)
V. P. D. (alternative)

Police Department
police department#English

(law enforcement) Initialism of Vancouver Police Department.

(Canada) The police service of the city of Vancouver, in British Columbia, Canada.

(US) The police service of the city of Vancouver, in the State of Washington, USA.


on the beat

bobby on the beat

From midsize departments like the one in Indianapolis to big-city forces like New York City's, from top commanders to officers on the beat, police officers nationwide were unprepared to calm the summer's unrest, and their approaches consistently did the opposite.

2021 March 20, Kim Barker, Mike Baker, Ali Watkins, “In City After City, Police Completely Mishandled Black Lives Matter Protests”, in The New York Times:

(law enforcement) Of a police officer: patrolling his or her assigned area; on duty.


command and control

"American police simply were not prepared for the challenge that they faced in terms of planning, logistics, training and police command-and-control supervision," said Chuck Wexler, the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit that advises departments on management and tactics.

(military, law enforcement) The management and logistics of a military or paramilitary force.


field stop

(law enforcement) An on the ground stop made by a police officer.


OCCB

(New York, law enforcement) Initialism of organized crime control bureau of the New York Police Department.


rule of engagement

en-noun

rule of engagement (plural rules of engagement)

The military, which acknowledged that the killings violated its rules of engagement, announced the deaths on Friday, hours after saying it had recovered the bodies of three other Israeli hostages in Gaza.

2023 December 16, Aaron Boxerman, Ben Hubbard, Thomas Fuller, “Israel Says 3 Hostages Bore White Flag Before Being Killed by Troops”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(military, law enforcement, chiefly in the plural) An internal rule among a military, police, etc. force defining the circumstances in which and manner with which to use force.


VIW

VIW (countable and uncountable, plural VIWs)

(law enforcement) Abbreviation of victim/informant/witness.


TSG

tactical support group
tactical support group#English

(UK, law enforcement) Initialism of tactical support group.


VCP

vehicle checkpoint
vehicle checkpoint#English

(UK, law enforcement) Initialism of vehicle checkpoint.


clearance rate

(crime, law enforcement) The proportion of crimes that are solved by the police with respect to the total number of crimes reported.


OIS

OIS (countable and uncountable, plural OIS)

But an objective overview of the current literature and research associated with post-OIS officer support compared to various aspects of the research ...

2007, David E. Hatch, Randy Dickson, Officer-Involved Shootings and Use of Force: Practical Investigative Techniques, Second Edition, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 188:

Officer-involved shooting (OIS) investigations are directed at the determination of whether the shooter officer's decision to use deadly force was "objectively reasonable […]"

2017, Darrell L. Ross, Gary M. Vilke, Guidelines for Investigating Officer-Involved Shootings, Arrest-Related Deaths, and Deaths in Custody, Routledge, →ISBN, page 285:

The SHOT database gathered a dataset of 4283 officer-involved shootings (OIS) that have occurred in 50 states between January 2000 and December 2017 […]

2019, James F. Albrecht, Garth den Heyer, Perry Stanislas, Policing and Minority Communities: Contemporary Issues and Global Perspectives, Springer, →ISBN, page 117:

officer-involved shooting
officer-involved shooting#English

(law enforcement) Initialism of officer-involved shooting.


highway patrol

(law enforcement) Any police unit which is primarily responsible for overseeing and enforcing of regulations on roads and highways.


crisis response team

crisis response team (plural crisis response teams)

(law enforcement) a group of individuals trained to provide trauma mitigation and education in the aftermath of a critical incident


slips and capture

A type of cognitive error whereby a person inadvertently performs one action while intending to do another.

(law enforcement) Particularly, the error by which a police officer bears a gun while intending to take out a Taser instead.


edge control

It is conditioned by edge control, minimizing threats to personal danger, resolving the encounter, avoiding excessive paperwork, and getting on with something more interesting.

2012, Carol Archbold, Policing: A Text/Reader, page 399:

In this section I describe edge control as a phenomenon associated with the contingent (or unpredictable) nature of police-citizen interactions.

2014, John P. Crank, Understanding Police Culture, page 174:

A great deal of police work is about edge control.

2018, Michael Caldero, Jeffrey Dailey, Brian Withrow, Police Ethics: The Corruption of Noble Cause, page 199:

(law enforcement) The management of an unpredictable situation in order to prevent it from becoming physically dangerous.


take the ride

en-verb

take the ride (third-person singular simple present takes the ride, present participle taking the ride, simple past took the ride, past participle taken the ride)

takes the ride (present singular third-person)
taking the ride (participle present)
took the ride (past)
taken the ride (participle past)

(idiomatic, slang, US, law enforcement) To concede to be arrested for a crime and be transported to jail.


trap car

(law enforcement) A vehicle used by law enforcement agencies as bait to capture car thieves or thieves who steal items from cars.


CODIS

Combined DNA Index System
w:Combined DNA Index System

(US, law enforcement, criminology) Acronym of Combined DNA Index System


have got someone's six

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

has got someone's six (present singular third-person)
having got someone's six (participle present)
had got someone's six (participle past)
had got someone's six (past)
have someone's six (alternative)

Six is slang for "rear; behind", which is itself an ellipsis of six o'clock; see more at the entry for six.

I've got your six!

have someone's back
have someone's back#English

(US, chiefly military and law enforcement slang) Synonym of have someone's back.


perimeter check

en-noun

perimeter check (plural perimeter checks)

(law enforcement) A patrol conducted by law enforcement to monitor or secure an area.


hot pencil

A police officer uses a pencil to write tickets, which would get warm if used a lot due to friction.

He was a hot pencil who kept CHP brass happy by writing more tickets than anybody. Secretly, he was using his highly polished Badge 861 1 to stalk young women for weird, sexually tinged power games.

From what he could ascertain, he was at least as good or even better as a police detective and as a partner than Charga ever was or could ever be. “he was more than a hot pencil when he was in uniform.” Dunne continued, “Did you know ...

2011, Joseph "Champagne Joe" Militello, Canister Of Evil, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 34:

Exposing Police Sexual Misconduct Tom Barker. about the same time as the police. ... As is common in police agencies, his fellow officers were aware of his bizarre antics. ... Known as “hot pencil,” he averaged 250 tickets a month.

2020, Tom Barker, Aggressors in Blue: Exposing Police Sexual Misconduct, Springer Nature, →ISBN, page 104:

(law enforcement slang) A police officer who writes many tickets.


radio car

Daniels: Can I get you out of a radio car? ... I'm short two men in ops and my follow-up squad couldn't make a case to save its life. You're too damned good to be humpin' calls.

2006 Sept. 10, David Simon & al., "Boys of Summer", The Wire, 00:23:10

(US law enforcement slang) Synonym of police car.


murder book

(law enforcement) A case file of a murder investigation.


HMP

(Newfoundland, law enforcement) Initialism of Her/His Majesty's Penitentiary.

(Commonwealth, law enforcement) Abbreviation of Her/His Majesty's Prison The name of several prisons in the British Commonwealth and British Empire.


HMP

HMP (countable and uncountable, plural HMPs)

(UK, law enforcement) Initialism of Her/His Majesty's Prison: The prefix used in the names of prisons in the United Kingdom.


OCTB

(Hong Kong, law enforcement) Initialism of Organised Crime and Triad Bureau.


interview under caution

interview under caution (plural interviews under caution)

From the mandatory caution given by the police to the suspect at the beginning of such interviews: “You do not have to say anything. But, it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.”.

(criminal law, law enforcement, England and Wales, formal) A formal interview of a suspect by the police as part of a criminal investigation, for which the suspect is entitled to legal representation. Used to determine whether or not to prosecute the suspect, and most commonly conducted following arrest, though sometimes in other circumstances.


CTSFO

(UK, law enforcement) Abbreviation of counter-terrorist specialist firearms officer.


POCC

(law enforcement) Abbreviation of police operations command centre.


PoCC

prisoners of conscience
prisoner of conscience#English

(law, politics, law enforcement, incarceration) Abbreviation of prisoners of conscience committee.


NYAG

Among the issues the NYAG is examining is whether WeWork’s founder and former chief executive, Adam Neumann, indulged in self-dealing to enrich himself.

2019 November 19, “WeWork: New York attorney general investigating founder's possible self-dealing”, in The Guardian:

attorney general
attorney general#English

(law enforcement) Initialism of New York State attorney general.


USCP

United States Capitol Police
w:United States Capitol Police

(law enforcement) Initialism of United States Capitol Police: a federal law enforcement agency in the United States with nationwide jurisdiction charged with protecting the United States Congress.


felony stop

(US, law enforcement) A traffic stop of a person that is deemed dangerous, and performed from a distance by shouting instructions with weapons drawn.


felony traffic stop

felony traffic stop (plural felony traffic stops)

(US, law enforcement) Synonym of felony stop.


no further action

Alternative form: (abbreviation) NFA

(law enforcement, criminal law, UK, Malaysia) A potential formal outcome for a suspect from a police investigation, indicating that no action will be taken.


ICV

ICV (countable and uncountable, plural ICVs)

(law enforcement) Abbreviation of in-car video.


on the hurry up

'Read the CAD as you go – on the hurry up please. Need you there as soon as possible. Make sure you let Control know when you're on scene.'

2018, Alice Vinten, On the Line: Life – and death – in the Metropolitan Police:

(UK, law enforcement, slang) At top speed; as fast as possible.


detective inspector

detective inspector (plural detective inspectors)

detective inspectors (plural)
DI (alternative abbreviation)

(UK, law enforcement) A police rank used in Commonwealth countries.


officer down

(law enforcement) A police officer has been critically wounded, incapacitated, or killed.


black notice

(law enforcement) A notice from Interpol seeking information on unidentified dead bodies.


green notice

(law enforcement) A notice from Interpol warning about the criminal activities of a person considered to be a possible threat to public safety.


blue notice

A 26-year-old woman named ‘S A’ “was identified as a DAESH (Islamic State) terrorist wanted with a ‘blue notice’,” the tweet said. An Interpol blue notice is issued to collect additional information about a person’s identity, location or activities in relation to a crime.

2021 February 15, “Turkey catches New Zealanders linked to Isis entering from Syria”, in The Guardian:

(law enforcement) A notice from Interpol seeking to locate, identify or obtain information on a person of interest in a criminal investigation.


yellow notice

(law enforcement) A notice from Interpol seeking to locate a missing person or to identify a person unable to identify themselves.


orange notice

(law enforcement) A notice from Interpol warning of an imminent threat and danger to persons or property.


purple notice

(law enforcement) A notice from Interpol providing information on modi operandi, procedures, objects, devices, or hiding places used by criminals.


FAM

“I ultimately decided to leave (retire) because I was denied the ability to leverage my experience for the good of the FAMs and I realize that I was part of a system which was putting the emotional well-being of FAMs at risk,” Kathleen Christian, who resigned last year as a clinical psychologist with the federal air marshals, said on Nov. 17 in a scathing email to several marshals.

2018 April 25, Ron Nixon, “Scandals and Investigations, but Few Arrests, for Air Marshals Program”, in The New York Times:

(US, law enforcement) Initialism of federal air marshal.


IHAT

Iraq Historic Allegations Team
w:Iraq Historic Allegations Team

(UK, law enforcement) Initialism of Iraq Historic Allegations Team.


Coordinate term: JO2

(Philippines, law enforcement) Abbreviation of jail officer, grade one (“prison guard”) The lowest grade of jail officers, the entry level jail officer.


re-Mirandize

en-verb

re-Mirandize (third-person singular simple present re-Mirandizes, present participle re-Mirandizing, simple past and past participle re-Mirandized)

re-Mirandizes (present singular third-person)
re-Mirandizing (participle present)
re-Mirandized (participle past)
re-Mirandized (past)

(transitive, US, law enforcement) To Mirandize again.


SIO

(UK, law enforcement) Initialism of senior investigating officer.


compliance strike

en-noun

compliance strike (plural compliance strikes)

(euphemistic, law enforcement) A punch or kick.


EOW

Police Officer Thomas Frederick (Tom) Ballman, Kirkwood Police Department, MO, EOW: Thursday, February 7, 2008, Cause of Death: Gunfire.

2009 February 25, “Peace Officers Killed Last Year in the Line of Duty”, in Congressional Record (Bound Edition), volume 155, number 5, U.S. Government Publishing Office, page 5581:

(US, law enforcement) Initialism of end of watch.


offence to be taken into consideration

offence to be taken into consideration (plural offences to be taken into consideration)

offences to be taken into consideration (plural)
offence taken into consideration (alternative)
TIC (alternative)

From offence + to be + taken into consideration.

com

(UK, criminal law, law enforcement) An additional criminal offence which a defendant agrees to admit to following their conviction, which is formally taken into account when they are sentenced, but with a lesser weight than a full conviction.


OCG

(UK, law enforcement) Initialism of organised crime group.


AFO

(UK, law enforcement) Initialism of authorised firearms officer.


FTO

field training officer
field training officer#English

(US, law enforcement) Initialism of field training officer.


RWI

rotary-wing intercept
rotary-wing intercept#English

(law enforcement, military) Initialism of rotary-wing intercept.


HMPS

(UK, law enforcement) Abbreviation of His/Her Majesty's Prison Service.


NYSP

New York State Police
w:New York State Police

(US, law enforcement) Abbreviation of New York State Police.


spy cop

(UK, law enforcement, slang) An undercover police officer tasked with infiltrating a politically active group which is deemed to pose a risk of criminal activity, so as to allow the police to monitor the group's activities on an ongoing basis.


pretty police

(UK, law enforcement, slang, historical) Male police officers disguised as gay men who instigated sexual encounters with gay men as an excuse to arrest them for soliciting sex.


hold-up squad

Amnesty International (AI) has found that allegations of torture and other forms of abuses by members of the hold-up squad of this city's police department are "substantial enough to justify an inquiry."

1982 April 24, David Morris, “Torture in the North”, in Gay Community News, page 2:

(law enforcement) A subsection of a police department specializing in apprehending violent and dangerous suspects.


process-serving

en-noun

process-serving (countable and uncountable, plural process-servings)

(law enforcement) The act or assignment of delivering processes or summonses.


Ch Supt

The inquest into how 96 Liverpool supporters died at that 1989 match was told that in Ch Supt Brian Mole's F division, four officers had to resign and seven were disciplined after the prank, which occured^([sic]) in October 1988, came to light.

2014 July 7, David Conn, “Hillsborough inquest hears of police commander's transfer before match”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

chief superintendent
w:chief superintendent

(UK, law enforcement) Abbreviation of chief superintendent.


chief super

(UK, law enforcement, colloquial) Clipping of chief superintendent.


tac squad

Jammed onto a narrow, steep sidewalk, police barricades all around, we march with placards, drums, and angry spirit: "The Moral Majority, cops and Klan. Work together hand in hand." — helmeted tac squad on horses, Hondas, facing us on Powell Street, itching to wield their billy clubs, waiting for any excuse to let fly.

1984 August 11, Merle Woo, “Revolutionary Optimism—The Order of the Day”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 5, page 5:


NOPD

New Orleans Police Department
w:New Orleans Police Department

(law enforcement) Initialism of New Orleans Police Department.


gotaway

Under Biden in 2021, gotaways leaped to almost 390,000 (a 465 percent increase over Trump's last year).

2024, Troy E. Nehls, Borderless by Design:

(US, law enforcement) An illegal immigrant who has successfully entered the country without being apprehended.


juice badge

(US, historical, law enforcement) An unofficial police badge issued in the 1930s by the LAPD chief and given to his supporters.


D/S

(law enforcement) Initialism of deputy sheriff.


crime scene tape

crime scene tape (countable and uncountable, plural crime scene tapes)

(law enforcement, criminology) Police tape that used to cordon off a crime scene.


MMEA

Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency
w:Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency

(Malaysia, law enforcement, nautical) Initialism of Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency.


tactical contact

tactical contact (countable and uncountable, plural tactical contacts)

(uncountable) The use of a police vehicle to deliberately ram another vehicle, in an attempt to bring a pursuit to an end.

(countable) An instance of such ramming.

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see tactical, contact.


STAR

Special Task and Rescue
w:Special Task and Rescue

(Malaysia, law enforcement, nautical) Acronym of Special Task and Rescue.

w:Special Tactics and Rescue (Singapore)

(Singapore, law enforcement) Acronym of Special Tactics and Rescue.


attitude-adjuster

(US, slang, law enforcement) A nightstick or any type of club.


traffic lead

(Philippines, law enforcement) unarmed traffic police


number coding

number-coding (alternative)
coding (alternative)

(Philippines, law enforcement) A policy in some urban areas where vehicles with plate numbers ending in a particular number are barred from using the main streets on a particular pre-assigned day to reduce traffic.


RBPF

Royal Brunei Police Force
w:Royal Brunei Police Force

(Brunei, law enforcement) Initialism of Royal Brunei Police Force.


racial profile

(public policy, law enforcement) An estimation or generalization about the behavior of a group based on their appearance, skin color, hair texture, or clothing.


racially-profile

en-verb

racially-profile (third-person singular simple present racially-profiles, present participle racially-profiling, simple past and past participle racially-profiled)

racially-profiles (present singular third-person)
racially-profiling (participle present)
racially-profiled (participle past)
racially-profiled (past)

(transitive, law enforcement, public policy) To engage in racial profiling; to act as a racial profiler.


patrol officer

(law enforcement) A member of a local or state law enforcement agency who patrols a particular area.


tickle the wire

tickle the wire (third-person singular simple present tickles the wire, present participle tickling the wire, simple past and past participle tickled the wire)

tickles the wire (present singular third-person)
tickling the wire (participle present)
tickled the wire (participle past)
tickled the wire (past)

(criminology, law enforcement, idiomatic) To create a situation that will encourage the target of a criminal probe to speak and divulge information on a wiretapped telephone.


police escort

(law enforcement) A service offered by police and law enforcement to assist in transporting important individuals or resources.


police report

(law, law enforcement) A formal documentation of an incident that occurs and is recorded by a police officer.


police lieutenant

en-noun

police lieutenant (plural police lieutenants)

(law enforcement) A police rank in the police departments of certain nations.


police captain

(law enforcement) A high-level officer in a police department who is usually responsible for an entire district or precinct.


police sergeant

police sergeant (plural police sergeants)

(law enforcement) A rank of law enforcement who supervises officers and handles daily precinct operations.


police van

(law enforcement) A type of vehicle operated by a police force, usually employed for the transport of prisoners inside a specially adapted cell.


police jury

(US, law enforcement) The most common type of governing body for a parish in the state of Louisiana.


security police

security police (plural security police)

(law enforcement) A law enforcement agency focusing primarily on providing security and law enforcement services to a particular area or a specific property.


police squad

(law enforcement) A small squad of law enforcement officers who are trained to deal with a particular kind of crime.


police constable

police constable (plural police constables)

(law enforcement) A law enforcement officer of the lowest rank.


most wanted

most wanted (countable and uncountable, plural most wanteds)

(crime, law enforcement) A list of criminals and alleged criminals who are believed to be at large and are identified as a law enforcement agency's highest priority for capture.


field training officer

field training officer (plural field training officers)

(US, law enforcement) An experienced or senior member of an organization who is responsible for the training and evaluation of a junior or probationary level member.


rotary-wing intercept

rotary-wing intercept (plural rotary-wing intercepts)

rotary-wing aircraft
rotary-wing aircraft

(law enforcement, military) An intercept performed by rotary-wing aircraft.


show-up

Deverbal from show up. (showing of a suspect): Compare lineup.

(law enforcement) The showing of a suspect to a victim by police in the hope of identifying the suspect as the culprit.


soft room

Glendale District 4 purchased toys and equipment for the "soft room" occupied by children when family violence/tragic events bring them into police headquarters.

1989, “Child Abuse Prevention”, in LACMA Physician, volume 119, number 12, Los Angeles County Medical Association, page 29:

Though he possessed no formal training in interviewing children, he had spent five years working with traumatized children and learning through trial and error how to interview them. His boss assigned him to show the Martensville rookie how to interview them too, in the Soft Room at the Saskatoon police station.

1997 November 2, Frann Harris, “The Prosecution”, in Martensville: Truth Or Justice?: The Story of the Martensville Daycare Trials, Dundurn Press, →ISBN, page 37:

In deliberate contrast, the soft room was outfitted with overstuffed chairs and painted a deep blue. In addition to improving interviewees’ experiences, Hill said, the physical and psychological comfort of the soft room will help officers obtain more detailed, accurate testimonies from victims.

2015 April 22, Allison Oligschlaeger, “West Valley police open 'soft' interview room for victims of violence”, in Deseret News, →ISSN:

The Kansas City, Missouri Police Department installed the first soft room in Missouri.

2024 June 25, Amanda Alvarado, “Police department creates ‘soft’ interview room for assault survivors”, in News, WIBW:

Last month, with the help of Project Beloved, Missouri’s Kansas City Police Department remodeled a formerly stiff and uninviting room (used for both victims and suspects) into a soft interview room to solely serve victims of sexual assault. Two years ago, another police department in the Kansas City suburb of Belton used a federal grant to create a similar soft room.

2024 July 11, Jaclyn Diaz, “After a tragedy, a mother wants to soften the rooms where police interview victims”, in National, NPR:

(law enforcement) A room set up in a police station with amenities that make it easier to talk with children, trauma victims, or other vulnerable populations.


UCR

The UCR report says that about 77% of reported murders in 2020 were committed with a gun, up from 74% in 2019. There is no federal database of gun sales, but other independent surveys have found that gun sales have soared during the Covid-19 pandemic.

2021 September 27, Priya Krishnakumar, “Murders rose sharply in 2020 but data is lacking across much of the country”, in CNN:

Uniform Crime Reports
w:Uniform Crime Reports

(US, law enforcement) Initialism of Uniform Crime Reports.


NIBRS

The FBI began publishing national quarterly crime reports last year, but has not done so for the first two quarters of 2021, stating that they require at least 60% of agencies to submit NIBRS data in order to publish quarterly data.

w:National Incident-Based Reporting System

(US, law enforcement) Initialism of National Incident-Based Reporting System.


enforcement authority

enforcement authority (plural enforcement authorities)

(law, law enforcement) A person or body having jurisdiction to enforce or to take action under or in respect of the relevant legal requirement.


Blue Revolution

In the policing sense, possibly coined by Michael Massing in the New York Review.

The order-maintenance approach has not been limited to scholarly books, law review articlees, and academic conferences. A number of the policy proposals have been implemented in large cities […] and in smaller cities and rural areas. In many cases, in fact, it is new policing strategies that have triggered social norm theorizing, not the other way around. And the combination of theorizing and practice has been truly combustible. It has ignited what has been dubbed the "Blue Revolution."

2001, Bernard E. Harcourt, Illusion of Order:

In contemplating the “Blue Revolution,” scholars of all stripes have generally proceeded on the assumption that no big-city police force in the postwar period offered an example of community policing worth investigating.

2011, Gregory Holcomb Umbach, The Last Neighborhood Cops, Rutgers University Press, →ISBN, page 3:

(law enforcement) A shift in law enforcement strategies and practices aimed at enhancing community management and improving public trust.


deputy chief constable

deputy chief constable (plural deputy chief constables)

(UK, law enforcement) The second highest rank in all territorial police forces in the United Kingdom.


assistant chief constable

assistant chief constable (plural assistant chief constables)

(UK, law enforcement) The third highest rank in all British territorial police forces.


NLEAD

“User agencies can no longer query or add data to the NLEAD,” the statement read. “The US Department of Justice is decommissioning the NLEAD in accordance with federal standards.”

2025 February 22, Gloria Oladipo, “Trump administration shuts down national database documenting police misconduct”, in The Guardian:

w:National Law Enforcement Accountability Database

(US, law enforcement) Initialism of National Law Enforcement Accountability Database.


FIO

“Over the past month, the Department has held three separate meetings with the ACLU to receive feedback and engage the organization in the solutions,” the department said in a statement. “As a result of the meetings, the Department agrees that publishing FIO statistics going forward is necessary, and the Department is working toward personalizing interactions between officers and citizens.”

2014 October 9, Marina Carver, “Study finds Boston police target African-Americans disproportionately”, in CNN:

(law enforcement) Initialism of field interrogation and observation.


ESSCOM

Eastern Sabah Security Command
w:Eastern Sabah Security Command

(Malaysia, law enforcement) Acronym of Eastern Sabah Security Command


WSE

WSEs have demonstrated longstanding intent to target racial and religious minorities, members of the LGBTQ+ community, politicians, and those they believe promote multi-culturalism and globalization at the expense of the WSE identity.

2020 October 2, “Homeland Threat Assessment”, in Department of Homeland Security, page 18:

(US, law enforcement) Initialism of white supremacist extremist


BSAP

British South Africa Police
w:British South Africa Police

(law enforcement, historical) Initialism of British South Africa Police.


ZRP

Zimbabwe Republic Police
w:Zimbabwe Republic Police

(Zimbabwe, law enforcement) Initialism of Zimbabwe Republic Police.


special victims unit

special victims unit (plural special victims units)

special victims units (plural)
Special Victims Unit (alternative)

(law enforcement) A specialized branch within some law enforcement agencies, focusing on cases involving vulnerable or high-risk victims.


NLEA

(Philippines, law enforcement, fiction) Acronym of National Law Enforcement Agency, a law enforcement agency that is commonly mentioned in the Philippine soap operas known as teleseryes.


Flock camera

Flock cameras (plural)
flock camera (alternative)

In the story of the Colorado children handcuffed and face down on the asphalt, the Flock cameras play the role as villain, not saviour.

2023, Jill Walker Rettberg, Machine Vision, How Algorithms are Changing the Way We See the World:

Despite opposition from the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights organizations, Flock cameras had been installed in 1,500 U.S. cities by April 2022.

2023, Fouad Sabry, Automatic Number Plate Recognition - Unlocking the Potential of Computer Vision Technology:

He wanted to know where every surveillance and Flock camera was so that on the days of the recon and mission, he wouldn't be easily spotted. The Flock cameras were the ones he was most worried about, and he felt he had already solved that problem.

Question: Are Flock cameras helpful for investigating these crimes? Answer: Yes, the Flock camera system has been a "game changer" for the police department, allowing them to identify vehicles and suspects involved in copper wire thefts.

2024 November 30, Artrese Morrison, “Crime Prevention Zoom meeting 11/27/24 recap”, in EastRichmondWatch (Usenet):

(law enforcement, criminology) A fixed, pole-mounted camera that captures images of vehicle license plates and used to provide actionable evidence to law enforcement to help solve and reduce crime.


Dt.

(law enforcement) Alternative form of DT (“detective”).