History UsefulNotes / BritishCoppers

The British police are known for their distinctive helmets (worn outside Scotland when uniform officers are on foot patrol), properly called "custodian helmets" and giving rise to the derogatory term "tithead". These are only worn by men (women wear a bowler hat with police checker hatband) and are good for, among other things, [[HandOrObjectUnderwear covering up a naked man's offensive bits]]. Some services have replaced them with a more modern design for routine patrols, but they are still seen on ceremonial occasions such as Remembrance Day parades.

The classic blue serge uniforms of old, being classic fanservice if worn by a female, have gone for everyday use. Nowadays, police uniforms are black, worn sometimes with a white shirt and often with a yellow hi-vis jacket.

British uniformed police use the following ranks, in order of authority/seniority:

* '''Chief Superintendent (Ch Supt):''' In most forces, the commander for the highest geographic subdivision of the force. Not the case in the Met, where they are instead in charge of a borough. A "Chief Super" will often be a long serving officer whose days on the beat are far behind them. Their duties are mostly as a liaison with the Superintendents at the various police stations inside their jurisdiction. Many officers who reach this position are not far from retirement.

* '''Commissioner:''' The person in overall charge of the Met and City forces as a whole. He/she is at the top of the chain. May be required to appear at ceremonial services (a funeral, a commendation ceremony, the opening of a new police station, etc), but otherwise the Commissioner is a rarely seen member of the force. Not to be confused with the elected position of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_and_Crime_Commissioner Police and Crime Commissioner]], who is independent from the service they're attached to and manages how their funds are spent.
* '''Commander (CMDR):''' A bit of a curates' egg rank. It exists only in the London Metropolitan (The Met) force and sits roughly in-between the two above ranks. If you meet a Commander in fiction it will probably be on the way out of a brothel and they stand a good chance of being a corrupt sexual deviant (which some might claim is TruthInTelevision) and will probably end up dead in a very messy way. Commander Gideon is an outstanding exception.

* '''Detective Inspector (DI):''' an experienced and seasoned detective. May have [=DCs=] reporting to him/her as well as DSs.
* '''Detective Chief Inspector (DCI):''' roughly equivalent to an American Chief of Detectives. The boss of the detectives within a local police station; all the other detectives will report to him/her, while he/she will report to the station's uniform Superintendent. The most common rank for fictional detectives.
* '''Detective Superintendent (DSupt):''' These officers are never in charge of divisional CID (that job belongs to the DCI), but are commonly in charge of outside investigation teams who are called in for very special circumstances (aka a murder scene). They bring their own team with them, and will then liason with the divisional officers.

A creation of the Blair government, [=PCSOs=] (you might hear the name "Blunkett's Bobbies", after David Blunkett, the then Home Secretary) are uniformed civilians with blue epaulettes and limited powers (basically to detain you until an actual constable arrives). Felt by some to be a cheap way to boost police numbers, their appearances in fiction have been very little, but usually mocked mercilessly. One term, employed by ''PrivateEye'' among others, is 'plastic police'.

The classic blue serge uniforms of old, being classic fanservice if worn by a female, have gone for everyday use. Nowadays,

* '''Police Sergeant (Sgt or PS):''' The corporal of the police services. Sergeants fill a number of roles, usually as a kind of "group manager" for the constables. The first step up the greasy pole of promotion. A common position to find a Uniform Sergeant in would be at the charge desk in the cell area of a police station (usually referred to as the "desk sergeant", even if others of the same rank are also desk-bound). Usually, a television PoliceProcedural will depict (at least) one of the uniform Sergeants as the kindly old "seen it all before" copper who the younger officers see as a kind of father figure. Roughly equivalent to the American rank of the same name.
* '''Police Inspector (Insp):''' Effectively the office manager to an entire Uniform relief. Mostly a desk bound position, although a Uniform Inspector can still regularly be called out to any kind of major incident. Roughly equivalent to the American rank of Lieutenant.
* '''Chief Inspector (Ch Insp):''' The 'operations manager' of a police station. Indeed, many uniform Chief Inspectors will have the subtitle "Chief Inspector of Operations", followed by the station at which they're based. The Chief Inspector is an entirely desk bound job. His/her duties seldom involve actually going out on the street, and most usually involve endless meetings with community groups. Roughly equivalent to the American rank of Captain.
* '''Superintendent (Supt):''' The overall boss of a large police station, often responsible for detectives as well as the uniformed officers present. If anything an even more desk bound job than the Chief Inspector, a Superintendent is responsible for a police stations performance overall, and liaises frequently with the Police Chiefs.

* '''Detective Chief Inspector (DCI):''' roughly equivalent to an American Chief of Detectives. The boss of the detectives within a local police station; all the other detectives will report to him/her, while he/she will report to the station's uniform Superintendent.

The British police services (no longer called "forces"), since there's not one national one, are the oldest such organised ones in the world.

The classic blue serge uniforms of old, being classic fanservice if worn by a female, have gone for everyday use.

* '''Police Sergeant (Sgt or PS):''' The corporal of the police services. Sergeants fill a number of roles, usually as a kind of "group manager" for the constables. The first step up the greasy pole of promotion. A common position to find a Uniform Sergeant in would be at the charge desk in the cell area of a police station (usually referred to as the "desk sergeant", even if others of the same rank are also desk-bound). Usually, a television PoliceProcedural will depict (at least) one of the uniform Sergeants as the kindly old "seen it all before" copper who the younger officers see as a kind of father figure.
* '''Police Inspector (Insp):''' Effectively the office manager to an entire Uniform relief. Mostly a desk bound position, although a Uniform Inspector can still regularly be called out to any kind of major incident.
* '''Chief Inspector (Ch Insp):''' The 'operations manager' of a police station. Indeed, many uniform Chief Inspectors will have the subtitle "Chief Inspector of Operations", followed by the station at which they're based. The Chief Inspector is an entirely desk bound job. His/her duties seldom involve actually going out on the street, and most usually involve endless meetings with community groups.
* '''Superintendent (Supt):''' The overall boss of a police station, all the other officers (both uniform AND detective branches) are answerable to him/her. If anything an even more desk bound job than the Chief Inspector, a Superintendent is responsible for a police stations performance overall, and liaises frequently with the Police Chiefs.

* '''Chief Superintendent (Ch Supt):''' One of many bureaucrats based at Scotland Yard or in charge of a borough, a "Chief Super" will often be a long serving officer whose days on the beat are far behind them. Their duties are mostly as a liaison with the Superintendents at the various police stations inside their jurisdiction. Many officers who reach this position are not far from retirement.

** You may well hear references to "Borough Commanders" who are, confusingly enough, Chief Superintendents.

* '''Detective Sergeant (DS):''' roughly equivalent to the American rank of Sergeant.
* '''Detective Inspector (DI):''' an experienced and seasoned detective. May have [=DCs=] reporting to him/her. Roughly equivalent to the American rank of Lieutenant.
* '''Detective Chief Inspector (DCI):''' roughly equivalent to an American Chief of Detectives. The boss of the detective branch; all the other detectives will report to him/her, while he/she will report to the station's uniform Superintendent.
* '''Detective Superintendent:''' These officers are never in charge of divisional CID (that job belongs to the DCI), but are commonly in charge of outside investigation teams who are called in for very special circumstances (aka a murder scene). They bring their own team with them, and will then liason with the divisional officers.

Most British police officers do not carry guns. This dates back to the founding of the first Police force in Victorian London: citizens were strongly opposed to the idea of lawmen patrolling the streets, so they were designed to be as PR-friendly as possible. The Police themselves, the Police Federation (the Union for rank and file officers) and the general public are all strongly against the routine arming of police officers in modern times. For the police, the reasons for this are twofold: a) it enables officers to get a lot more hands-on in taking down a suspect, rather than resorting to pepper-spray or a taser, because they don't have to worry about the perp trying to grab their gun and b) if the olice were armed, they would have to train officers in how to ''use'' them. This would mean laying off everyone who failed to qualify, or accepting ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy levels of skill at arms. As "ordinary" British criminals[[note]]Gang members and those involved in organised crime might do so, but your average burglar won't as it will massively increase his sentence if he gets caught[[/note]] generally do not carry firearms either this is not a major limitation. Most officers instead carry a baton. This is often called a truncheon, though this term specifically refers to the traditional 14-inch wooden baton. These days, a 21-inch collapsible baton is more common.

* Or in this ''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation'' review for ''ZombiU'':

While patrolling officers do not normally carry side-arms and have repeatedly declared an overall preference ''not'' to carry them, [[note]]The reasoning behind this is twofold; a) it enables officers to get a lot more hands-on in taking down a suspect, rather than resorting to pepper-spray or a taser, because they don't have to worry about the perp trying to grab their gun and b) no routinely-issued firearms means no training in how to ''use'' them, so the Force would either have to lay off everyone who failed to qualify or accept ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy levels of skill at arms.[[/note]] some police in the United Kingdom are in fact regularly issued semi-automatic weapons for special duties and are authorised to shoot armed suspects ''without'' prior warning in special circumstances. These include [=CO19=] (formerly [=SO19=], until it got moved in the MPS structure) for the Metropolitan Police, and are generally referred to simply as the Armed Response Unit by regional forces. A semiautomatic-only version of the famous Heckler & Koch [=MP5=] was the most common shoulder-arm until relatively recently, but 5.56mm carbines such as the H&K G36 or Steyr AUG have begun to displace the aging 'Hockler'. Minimum qualifications for membership of these units are comparable to that of a SWAT team in a major US city. The Police themselves, the Police Federation (the Union for rank and file officers) and the general public are all strongly against the routine arming of Police officers, this dates back to the founding of the first Police force in Victorian London: citizens were strongly opposed to the idea of lawmen patrolling the streets, so they were designed to be as PR-friendly as possible, meaning no guns. As "ordinary" British criminals[[note]] Gang members and those involved in organised crime might do so, but your average burglar won't as it will massively increase his sentence if he gets caught[[/note]] generally do not carry firearms either this is not a major limitation - unarmed officers will be accompanied by armed officers if armed resistance is expected or will be called in if required.

The English and Welsh police are divided up into regional constabularies, each covering a different area of the country. The Scottish police used to be the same, but they were combined into a single force called Police Scotland in 2013. Northern Ireland also has a single force, the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Greater London has two, the [[UsefulNotes/ScotlandYard Metropolitan Police]] ("the Met") and the City of London Police. In fiction the Met tends to be horribly corrupt and sometimes being worse criminals than the people they arrest and has [[InterserviceRivalry poor relationships with the other forces]] (in the past, at least, this was very much TruthInTelevision, but it is still a popular fiction trope). Most of the remaining constabularies cover either a metropolitan area, a county or a couple of counties.

The English and Welsh police are divided up into regional constabularies, each covering a different area of the country. The Scottish police used to be the same, but they were combined into a single force called Police Scotland in 2013. Northern Ireland also has a single force, the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Greater London has two, the [[UsefulNotes/ScotlandYard Metropolitan Police]] ("the Met") and the City of London Police. In fiction the Met tends to be horribly corrupt and sometimes being worse criminals than the people they arrest and has [[InterserviceRivalry poor relationships with the other forces]] (in the past, at least, this was very much TruthInTelevision, but it is still a popular fiction trope)

The classic blue serge uniforms of old, being classic FetishFuel if worn by a female, have gone for everyday use.

The British police are divided up into regional constabularies, each covering a different area of the country. Greater London has two, the [[UsefulNotes/ScotlandYard Metropolitan Police]] ("the Met") and the City of London Police. In fiction the Met tends to be horribly corrupt and sometimes being worse criminals than the people they arrest and has [[InterserviceRivalry poor relationships with the other forces]] (in the past, at least, this was very much TruthInTelevision, but it is still a popular fiction trope)

The British police are known for their distinctive helmets (worn outside Scotland when uniform officers are on foot patrol), properly called "custodian helmets" and giving rise to the derogatory term "tithead". These are only worn by men (women wear a different sort of hat) and are good for, among other things, [[HandOrObjectUnderwear covering up a naked man's offensive bits]]. Some services have replaced them with a more modern design for routine patrols, but they are still seen on ceremonial occasions such as Remembrance Day parades.

Uniformed Police Chiefs include:

* Chief Constable. Outside of the Met they replace the titles of Commissioner and their deputies (Deputy Chief Constable) replace Commander. Other than that there is no real difference.

Detectives (from the 'Criminal Investigation Department', or CID) use a similar system, but with different connotations in fiction:

There are some other forces though:

!Police Community Support Officers ([=PCSOs=])

* Police Constable (PC) - a.k.a. "[[Series/DixonOfDockGreen bobby]]". Rank-and-file police officer, like the American rank of Officer. Not a detective. Normally in uniform, sometimes in plainclothes; CID (the detectives) may refer to them as either "uniforms" or the less common "woodentops" (in reference to the iconic helmets worn by beat officers).
* Police Sergeant (Sgt or PS). The corporal of the police services. Sergeants fill a number of roles, usually as a kind of "group manager" for the constables. The first step up the greasy pole of promotion. A common position to find a Uniform Sergeant in would be at the charge desk in the cell area of a police station (usually referred to as the "desk sergeant", even if others of the same rank are also desk-bound). Usually, a television PoliceProcedural will depict (at least) one of the uniform Sergeants as the kindly old "seen it all before" copper who the younger officers see as a kind of father figure.
* Police Inspector (Insp). Effectively the office manager to an entire Uniform relief. Mostly a desk bound position, although a Uniform Inspector can still regularly be called out to any kind of major incident.
* Chief Inspector (Ch Insp). The 'operations manager' of a police station. Indeed, many uniform Chief Inspectors will have the subtitle "Chief Inspector of Operations", followed by the station at which they're based. The Chief Inspector is an entirely desk bound job. His/her duties seldom involve actually going out on the street, and most usually involve endless meetings with community groups.
* Superintendent (Supt). The overall boss of a police station, all the other officers (both uniform AND detective branches) are answerable to him/her. If anything an even more desk bound job than the Chief Inspector, a Superintendent is responsible for a police stations performance overall, and liaises frequently with the Police Chiefs.

* Chief Superintendent (Ch Supt). One of many bureaucrats based at Scotland Yard or in charge of a borough, a "Chief Super" will often be a long serving officer whose days on the beat are far behind them. Their duties are mostly as a liaison with the Superintendents at the various police stations inside their jurisdiction. Many officers who reach this position are not far from retirement.
* Commissioner. The person in overall charge of the Met and City forces as a whole. He/she is at the top of the chain. May be required to appear at ceremonial services (a funeral, a commendation ceremony, the opening of a new police station, etc), but otherwise the Commissioner is a rarely seen member of the force. Not to be confused with the elected position of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_and_Crime_Commissioner Police and Crime Commissioner]], who is independent from the service they're attached to and manages how their funds are spent.
* Commander (Cmdr). A bit of a curates' egg rank. It exists only in the London Metropolitan (The Met) force and sits roughly in-between the two above ranks. If you meet a Commander in fiction it will probably be on the way out of a brothel and they stand a good chance of being a corrupt sexual deviant (which some might claim is TruthInTelevision) and will probably end up dead in a very messy way. Commander Gideon is an outstanding exception.

* Detective Constable (DC) - roughly equivalent to the American rank of Detective. Bottom of the totem pole: that's why [[TheLastDetective DC "Dangerous" Davies]] is so pathetic--he's experienced and quite competent, but has never been promoted above DC.
* Detective Sergeant (DS) - roughly equivalent to the American rank of Sergeant
* Detective Inspector (DI) - an experienced and seasoned detective. May have [=DCs=] reporting to him/her. Roughly equivalent to the American rank of Lieutenant.
* Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) - roughly equivalent to an American Chief of Detectives. The boss of the detective branch; all the other detectives will report to him/her, while he/she will report to the station's uniform Superintendent.
* Detective Superintendent - these officers are never in charge of divisional CID (that job belongs to the DCI), but are commonly in charge of outside investigation teams who are called in for very special circumstances (aka a murder scene). They bring their own team with them, and will then liason with the divisional officers.

!!Police Powers

!!No Guns Please, We're British Police Officers

!!Police Forces Or Services

* British Transport Police- deal with policing on the rail network.
* Ministry of Defence Police- a civilian force, who protect MOD sites, such as ports like HMNB Clyde, home of the British nuclear deterrent (a place, for obvious reasons, that people break into a lot). All officers are armed when on duty.
* The Royal Military Police, the Royal Navy's Regulating Branch, and the RAF Police have all been folded under the same banner as Service Police with the introduction of the 2009 Armed Forces Act; although keeping the same names they now have a common set of regulations. As their names suggest, they are each a military police for a different section of the armed forces
* The Civil Nuclear Constabulary- If it's nuclear and not a weapon (which are the problem of the MOD police) then this lot are responsible for protecting it. Unlike pretty much all other police in the UK, these guys are ''heavily'' armed, regular patrol issue including G36 assault rifles, Glock sidearms, tasers, ASP batons, CS spray and ''30mm Autocannons''.[[note]]These are mounted on nuclear material ships that they protect in transit[[/note]]

!!Special Branch

!!Officer numbers

In case anyone is interested, the reason they traditionally don't wear nametags is because officers with unusual or embarassing names (Pratt, Dick, etc) would be subject to ridicule by antisocial types.

!!Police Community Support Officers ([=PCSOs=])

Interestingly, despite the significantly smaller quantity of firearms in circulation in the United Kingdom and unlike some US forces, a ballistic vest is part of every British police officer's uniform and taking it off while on duty can be a disciplinary offence if they're currently compulsory (for instance after a firearms incident, or gang violence is expected). This is because it's also an anti-stab vest.

Uniformed officers traditionally haven't worn name badges, but instead have an alpha-numeric designator on their epaulettes (if they're Constables or Sergeants) that varies from force to force in layout. In the Met, it's generally two letters representing your borough and two or three numbers, so an officer from Havering (KD) might be KD 719. Times are always changing, however, and since 2009 name badges are generally compulsory for public-facing officers.

In case anyone is interested, the reason they don't wear nametags is because officers with unusual or embarassing names (Pratt, Dick, etc) would be subject to ridicule by antisocial types.

A creation of the Blair government, [=PCSOs=] (you might hear the name "Blunkett's Bobbies", after David Blunkett, the then Home Secretary) are uniformed civilians with blue epaulettes and limited powers (basically to detain you until a full constable arrives). Felt by some to be a cheap way to boost police numbers, their appearances in fiction have been very little, but usually mocked mercilessly. One term, employed by ''PrivateEye'' among others, is 'plastic police'.

An interesting side note is that while there is a perception that officers who graduate from uniform to CID detective have undergone a 'promotion', this is not strictly true. Uniform officers actually have greater powers in the United Kingdom as far as arresting and charging suspects in concerned. This is why the person in charge of the cells is a uniform officer: they simply have greater power within the law to charge and retain suspects (to whom they also have something of a duty of care), while the detectives go about collecting evidence and interviewing suspects. This is a marked difference to the American style of policing: in the UK, a move from uniform Constable to Detective Constable is more of a ''sideways step'' than any kind of promotion, while the American model sees "earning your detective badge" as being a step up. Still, the perception persists that detectives are somehow "better" than uniform because the responsibilities of their work are usually more varied.

* Police Sergeant (Sgt). The corporal of the police services. Sergeants fill a number of roles, usually as a kind of "group manager" for the constables. The first step up the greasy pole of promotion. A common position to find a Uniform Sergeant in would be at the charge desk in the cell area of a police station (usually referred to as the "desk sergeant", even if others of the same rank are also desk-bound). Usually, a television PoliceProcedural will depict (at least) one of the uniform Sergeants as the kindly old "seen it all before" copper who the younger officers see as a kind of father figure.

The first one, London Town's [[UsefulNotes/ScotlandYard Metropolitan Police]] was founded by Sir UsefulNotes/RobertPeel in the 1830s. Peel has the Met's training centre at Hendon (featured in ''Film/HotFuzz'') named after him and his name is the source of ''two'' of the UsefulNotes/BritishEnglish terms for police officers. These are the now-defunct "peelers" (except in Northern Ireland, where it is still used) and the slightly less defunct "[[Series/DixonOfDockGreen bobbies]]".

While patrolling officers do not normally carry side-arms and have repeatedly declared an overall preference ''not'' to carry them, [[note]]The reasoning behind this is twofold; a) it enables officers to get a lot more hands-on in taking down a suspect, rather than resorting to pepper-spray or a taser, because they don't have to worry about the perp trying to grab their gun and b) no routinely-issued firearms means no training in how to ''use'' them, so the Force would either have to lay off everyone who failed to qualify or accept ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy levels of skill at arms.[[/note]] some police in the United Kingdom are in fact regularly issued semi-automatic weapons for special duties and are authorised to shoot armed suspects ''without'' prior warning in special circumstances. These include [=CO19=] (formerly [=SO19=], until it got moved in the MPS structure) for the Metropolitan Police, and are generally referred to simply as the Armed Response Unit by regional forces. A semiautomatic-only version of the famous Heckler & Koch [=MP5=] was the most common shoulder-arm until relatively recently, but 5.56mm carbines such as the H&K G36 or Steyr AUG have begun to displace the aging 'Hockler'. Minimum qualifications for membership of these units are comparable to that of a SWAT team in a major US city. The Police themselves, the Police Federation (the Union for rank and file officers) and the general public are all strongly against the routine arming of Police officers. As "ordinary" British criminals[[note]] Gang members and those involved in organised crime might do so, but your average burglar won't as it will massively increase his sentence if he gets caught[[/note]] generally do not carry firearms either this is not a major limitation - unarmed officers will be accompanied by armed officers if armed resistance is expected or will be called in if required.

While patrolling officers do not normally carry side-arms and have repeatedly declared an overall preference ''not'' to carry them, [[note]]The reasoning behind this is twofold; a) it enables officers to get a lot more hands-on in taking down a suspect, rather than resorting to pepper-spray or a taser, because they don't have to worry about the perp trying to grab their gun and b) no routinely-issued firearms means no training in how to ''use'' them, so the Force would either have to lay off everyone who failed to qualify or accept ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy levels of skill at arms.[[/note]] some police in the United Kingdom are in fact regularly issued semi-automatic weapons for special duties and are authorised to shoot armed suspects ''without'' prior warning in special circumstances. These include [=CO19=] (formerly [=SO19=], until it got moved in the MPS structure) for the Metropolitan Police, and are generally referred to simply as the Armed Response Unit by regional forces. A semiautomatic-only version of the famous Heckler & Koch [=MP5=] was the most common shoulder-arm until relatively recently, but 5.56mm carbines such as the H&K G36 or Steyr AUG have begun to displace the aging 'Hockler'. Minimum qualifications for membership of these units are comparable to that of a SWAT team in a major US city.

The British police are known for their distinctive helmets (worn outside Scotland when uniform officers are on foot patrol), properly called "custodian helmets" and giving rise to the derogatory term "tithead". These are only worn by men (women wear a different sort of hat) and are good for, among other things, [[HandOrObjectUnderwear covering up a naked man's offensive bits]]. Some forces have replaced them with a more modern design for routine patrols, but they are still seen on ceremonial occasions such as Remembrance Day parades.

--> "It can be quite demoralising if you spend several hours as [[AwesomeMcCoolname Zack Danger]], [[HardboiledDetective PI]], only to make one stupid mistake and get stuck with [[DonutMessWithACop Fat]] [[FailOSuckyName Bob]], the [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] Community Support Officer!"

The first one, London Town's [[UsefulNotes/ScotlandYard Metropolitan Police]] was founded by SirRobertPeel in the 1830s. Peel has the Met's training centre at Hendon (featured in ''Film/HotFuzz'') named after him and his name is the source of ''two'' of the UsefulNotes/BritishEnglish terms for police officers. These are the now-defunct "peelers" (except in Northern Ireland, where it is still used) and the slightly less defunct "[[Series/DixonOfDockGreen bobbies]]".

The first one, London Town's [[UsefulNotes/ScotlandYard Metropolitan Police]] was founded by SirRobertPeel in the 1830s. Peel has the Met's training centre at Hendon (featured in ''HotFuzz'') named after him and his name is the source of ''two'' of the UsefulNotes/BritishEnglish terms for police officers. These are the now-defunct "peelers" (except in Northern Ireland, where it is still used) and the slightly less defunct "[[Series/DixonOfDockGreen bobbies]]".

* Commander (Cmdr). A bit of a curates' egg rank. It exists only in the London Metropolitan (The Met) force and sits roughly in-between the two above ranks. If you meet a Commander in fiction it will probably be on the way out of a brothel and they stand a good chance of being a corrupt sexual deviant (which some might claim is TruthInTelevision) and will probably end up dead in a very messy way.

Special Branch has been derided as the "Political Police", as they are given the politically sensitive cases. People tend to think that can include doing the bidding of the party in power in legally questionable ways.

* The Civil Nuclear Constabulary- If it's nuclear and not a weapon (which are the problem of the MOD police) then this lot are responsible for protecting it. Unlike pretty much all other police in the UK, these guys are ''heavily'' armed, regular patrol issue including G36 assault rifles, Glock sidearms, tasers, ASP batons, CS spray and the list goes on.

While patrolling officers do not normally carry side-arms and have repeatedly declared an overall preference ''not'' to carry them, some police in the United Kingdom are in fact regularly issued semi-automatic weapons for special duties and are authorised to shoot armed suspects ''without'' prior warning in special circumstances. These include [=CO19=] (formerly [=SO19=], until it got moved in the MPS structure) for the Metropolitan Police, and are generally referred to simply as the Armed Response Unit by regional forces. A semiautomatic-only version of the famous Heckler & Koch [=MP5=] was the most common shoulder-arm until relatively recently, but 5.56mm carbines such as the H&K G36 or Steyr AUG have begun to displace the aging 'Hockler'. Minimum qualifications for membership of these units are comparable to that of a SWAT team in a major US city.

Interestingly, despite the significantly smaller quantity of firearms in circulation in the United Kingdom and unlike some US forces, a ballistic vest is part of every British police officer's uniform and taking it off while on duty can be a disciplinary offence if they're currently compulsory (for instance after a firearms incident, or gang violence is expected).
** That's because it's not just a ballistic vest, it's also an anti-stab vest. [[TechnicalPacifist Knives are more common in Britain than guns]].

** The word "bobby" is now almost exclusively used in political reporting; "an increase/decrease in the number of bobbies on the beat" = officers on patrol. Oh, and also by American tourists who think it's still a commonly-used expression.

* It has been said that the design of the helmets was to allow them to be placed on the ground and stood on, in order to see over fences.
** That was the reinforced top hats worn as part of the earliest police uniforms, not the helmets worn today.
** The helmet allows members of the public needing assistance to spot and identify the constable.
** Contrary to the Urban Legend, police officers are not legally required to hand over their hat to a pregnant woman who can't make it to a toilet in time.

* Commissioner. The person in overall charge of the Met and City forces as a whole. He/she is at the top of the chain. May be required to appear at ceremonial services (a funeral, a commendation ceremony, the opening of a new police station, etc), but otherwise the Commissioner is a rarely seen member of the force.