Brittish Police Ranks
=====================

NB: Britain has a number of largely autonomous regional police forces
(although there is increasing integration these days and we are supposed to
say "Police Service").  You are right to say that "Chief Constable" is the
highest rank in most forces, and is held only by one person at a time, who is
in command of the whole force.  However, the police force in London is (and
was in the Victorian period) called the Metropolitan Police Force (usually
just "the Met" for short).  The highest rank in that force is called
"Commissioner", not Chief Constable.


This is very simplified and will not be accurate for every date, but here
goes:

Uniformed officers ranks from lowest upwards:

"Constable" - this is the lowest rank, and typically a constable will patrol a
beat, or a specific area, reporting in to a specific police station (we don't
call them "precincts" in the UK).  The slang for the station is "nick" which
is also used as a slang verb, meaning to arrest.  There are a variety of slang
terms for constables (some used for policemen in general) - "The Bill" "Old
Bill", "Copper", "Plod", "Rozzer", "Bobby" (Victorian) and "Peeler" (very
Victorian).  In London's Metropolitan Police Force, each rank may address the
ranks above as "guv" or "governor".  Although informal, this is still
respectful enough to be acceptable.

"Sergeant" - Next rank up.  Recognised by three stripes on uniform sleeve
(same as army sergeant). Typically a uniformed sergeant will be in charge of a
watch or shift of constables (the modern term is a "relief", but I'm not sure
when this came into general usage).  Slang terms = "Sarge" and (rarely)
"Skipper".  Although usually based in the station, the sergeant may sometimes
accompany a constable on patrol, especially a probationer (= a rookie in the
US).

"Inspector" - Next rank up from Sergeant.  Typically, a uniformed inspector or
Chief Inspector will be responsible for all uniformed personnel attached to a
specific station (depends on size of station).

"Chief Inspector" - 1 rank up from Inspector.  The last rank likely to have
direct "hands on" responsibility for investigating crimes.


C.I.D. (Criminal Investigation Department).

CID is a separate chain of command up to about (Detective) Chief Inspector
level.  They are the plain clothes detectives.  The ranks follow that in the
uniformed branch, only with the word "Detective" in front.  In modern usage,
these are often abbreviated to the initials of their rank)  Most famous
fictional British police detectives are Detective Inspector (DI) or Detective
Chief Inspector.  However, informally the word detective may be dropped,
especially when referred to by a member of the public (e.g. Detective
Inspector Lestrade or Detective Chief Inspector Morse may both be referred to
as "Inspector -----").  All other things being equal, uniformed officers will
defer to detectives of similar rank, however e.g. a Detective Sergeant still
has to call a uniformed Inspector "sir" (or "guv" at least).  Detectives will
usually have had a number of years experience as a uniformed officer before
transferring to CID and the sought after "plain clothes".


Above these functional ranks are various "management" ranks (which get
increasingly political the higher you go and the nearer to modern times).  The
exact names etc. of these ranks may vary from force to force and time to time,
but very roughly;

Superintendent Chief Superintendent (in modern times at least, the mostly
likely rank to be in overall charge of a metropolitan police station).
Borough Commander?  District Commander?  Assistant Chief Constable (Assistant
Commissioner in the Met) Chief Constable (Commissioner in the Met).

"Scotland Yard"/"The Yard"

Now used as a euphemism for the Police in London (esp their HQ), in fact it
was originally:

	  Great Scotland Yard: This was a small street at the northern end of
	  Whitehall. The original Metropolitan Police Commissioner's office (No. 4
	  Whitehall Place) backed on to it. The name became colloquially attached
	  to the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, especially as additional
	  buildings were acquired to house branches of the expanding force.
	  (around 1875).

And later:

	  1890: New HQ opened on the Embankment and known as: "New Scotland Yard".
	  When this moves again in 1967 to a yet another new site in Broadway, the
	  name "New Scotland Yard" is retained.

In common usage "The Yard" is used to mean the HQ or upper management of the
"Met".


 Lewis Griffiths