- an official organization whose job is to make people obey the law and to prevent and solve crime; the people who work for this organization
- Get out of the house or I'll call the police.
- Contact the police if you see anything suspicious.
- The police arrested three men and took them for questioning.
- Police are investigating the break-in.
- Armed police soon arrived on the scene.
- traffic/transport police
- Hundreds of police in riot gear struggled to control the violence.
- a police car
- the police investigation into the killings
Culture law enforcementlaw enforcementBritain has regional police forces, which are responsible for maintaining law and order in their own area. London has two police forces, the Metropolitan Police, often referred to as the Met, which covers Greater London and has its headquarters at New Scotland Yard, and the smaller City of London Police.Each regional police force is led by a chief constable. In England and Wales since 2012 there have been directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners who direct the work of the chief constable and his or her force. Police officers wear dark blue uniforms, and constables and sergeants in some forces sometimes wear tall hard helmets . Some members of the public are trained as special constables and are available to help the police in an emergency.Each police force has a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of detectives. CID officers are chosen from the uniformed police. They do not wear uniforms and have the title Detective before their rank, for example Detective Sergeant Jones. Individual police forces have other special units for areas such as traffic, child protection, etc. The Metropolitan Police has Counter Terrorism Command which works to prevent terrorism and some other police forces have a Special Branch to do the same job. The National Crime Agency was set up to fight organised crime at a national and international level.Police officers in Britain generally carry only batons (= long clubs) as weapons, although they may also have a Taser or a special kind of spray to defend themselves with. Only certain officers, who have had special training, carry a gun. Police forces are trying to build better relationships with local communities, a practice called community policing. More police now patrol on foot, instead of in police cars, so that they have more contact with people.In the US, law enforcement is carried out by different organizations at the various levels of government. There are many thousands of law enforcement agencies. At national level, the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) employs special agents, who investigate crimes across the US. At state level, state police departments are responsible for highway patrols and their officers are called state troopers. Each county within a state has an elected sheriff and the people who work in the sheriff's office, deputies, are responsible for investigating crimes. Cities have their own police departments. They may be very large in cities like New York, but those in small towns have only a few officers. Most colleges and universities have their own small police forces.The members of the US police force who have most contact with the public are uniformed officers, who patrol usually in cars or sometimes on foot and are the first to arrive when a crime is reported. More serious crimes are investigated by detectives, who usually wear plain clothes instead of a uniform. Police officers in the US usually carry a gun.Extra ExamplesTopics Law and justicea1- Contact your local police department to file a report.
- I'd really rather not involve the police.
- No arrest has been made, but a man is helping the police with their enquiries.
- Police have appealed for witnesses to come forward.
- The police arrived to break up the battle.
- The police charged him with impaired driving.
- I had a police record.
- All prosecution witnesses were given police protection.
- He spent the night in a police cell after his arrest.
- He was held in police custody for a month
- Nine arrests were made in a series of police raids across the city.
- Some protesters managed to break through the police cordon.
- The visiting fans returned to the railway station under police escort.
- There was a huge police presence at the demonstration.
- A man was arrested by the police and held for questioning.
- Police suspect a local gang.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- armed
- mounted
- plain-clothes
- …
- call
- contact
- alert
- …
- arrest somebody
- detain somebody
- catch somebody
- …
- captain
- chief
- commissioner
- …
- helping the police with their enquiries
- in police custody
Word Originlate 15th cent. (in the sense ‘public order’): from French, from medieval Latin politia ‘citizenship, government’, from Greek politeia ‘citizenship’, from politēs ‘citizen’, from polis ‘city’. Current senses date from the early 19th cent.
Check pronunciation:
police