History UsefulNotes / BritishCoppers

* '''Chief Superintendent (Ch Supt):''' In most forces, the commander for the highest geographic subdivision of the force's territory. These used to be called 'Divisions' but these days are more often called 'Basic Command Units'. In the Met, 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. Many officers who reach this position are not far from retirement.

** You may also hear references to "Borough Commanders" who are, confusingly enough, Chief Superintendents.
* '''Commissioner:''' The overall chief of the Met and City of London forces. Because of the Met's size and extra responsibilities, its Commissioner is the highest profile police officer in the country, and the appointment of a new Commissioner attracts much media coverage. 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.
** The Met Commissioner has a deputy, assistants and [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs deputy assistants]]. The City of London police has one Assistant Commissioner. The Met's Assistant Commissioners wear the same insignia as a provincial Chief Constable and have as high a media profile. The Assistant Commissioner for Special Operations is the [=UK's=] most senior counter-terrorism cop.
* '''Chief Constable:''' In all other forces they replace the titles of Commissioner. Other than that, there is no real difference.
** Chief Constables have a deputy and at least one assistant. Police Scotland is the only one to have multiple deputies. Often, the Chief Constable will mediate between their police force, governments, media and public, while their deputy handles the day-to-day running of the force.

Another widespread symbol of policing is 'Sillitoe tartan' - a pattern of black and white chequers. The pattern appears on the hatbands and sometimes other places on an officer's uniform, as well as other police-related places such as logos and decorations. It is named after a former police chief who introduced it in Glasgow in the 1930s to make officers easily identifiable. The Sillitoe tartan also inspired the police car 'Battenberg' livery, with square panels of hi-vis blue and yellow.

The first modern police force was London Town's [[UsefulNotes/ScotlandYard Metropolitan Police]] was founded by Sir UsefulNotes/RobertPeel in 1829. 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]]". Police forces in some other [[UsefulNotes/TheCommonwealthOfNations Commonwealth nations]], including Australia and New Zealand, are heavily based on the British model.

The British police forces, since there's not one national one, are the oldest such organised ones in the world. Officially they are now "police services" rather than "forces".

The first modern police force was London Town's [[UsefulNotes/ScotlandYard Metropolitan Police]] was founded by Sir UsefulNotes/RobertPeel in 1829. 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]]".

* '''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):''' The manager of 3-5 uniform teams that work the same shift, and the highest rank that has to do shift work. 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):''' An '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 (appropriately, the epaulette insignia of three 'pips' is the same as that of a Captain in the British Army).

---> "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]] Bob, the [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] Community Support Officer!"

* Modern Bobby

* Politics Obsessed Superior

* '''Special Branch''' Also known by its initials (SB), this was a label customarily used to identify units responsible for matters of national security in British and Commonwealth police forces, working in close concert with [=MI5=] which does not have any powers of arrest or detention. In 2006, the Metropolitan Police's Special Branch was merged with the Anti-Terrorism Branch ([=SO13=]) to form a new department called Counter Terrorism Command ([=SO15=]).

* '''Commander (CMDR):''' A rank that exists only in the Met and City of London forces and has the same insignia as an Assistant Chief Constable. In the latter it is fully equivalent to an ACC. In the Met, it is an extra level of command between the chief supers and the Commissioner's assistants. 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 and will probably end up dead in a very messy way. Commander Gideon is an outstanding exception.

* '''Chief Constable:''' In all other forces they replace the titles of Commissioner. Other than that there is no real difference.