Most of the police forces of the United Kingdom use a standardised set of ranks, with a slight
variation in the most senior ranks for Greater London's Metropolitan Police Service and the
City of London Police. Most of the British police ranks that exist today were chosen
by Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel, the founder of the Metropolitan Police, enacted under
the Metropolitan Police Act of 1829. The ranks at that time were deliberately chosen so that
they did not correspond with military ranking, due to fears of a paramilitary force.
Rank insignia Badges of rank are usually worn on the epaulettes.
However, when in formal uniform sergeants wear their rank insignia on their upper sleeves.
When police tunics had closed collars, constables and sergeants did not wear epaulettes but
had their divisional call number on their collar. Sergeants wore their stripes on their
upper sleeve. Inspectors and more senior ranks wore epaulettes at a much earlier stage, although
they once wore their rank insignia on their collars. Most forces no longer use divisional
call numbers, and retain only the collar number and rank insignia.
Senior officers usually wear distinguishing marks around the outer edge of the peaks of
their caps. Normally this is a raised black band for inspectors and chief inspectors,
a silver or gold band for superintendents and chief superintendents, and a row of silver
or gold oakleaves for chief officers. Chief constables, the Commissioner of the City of
London Police, and all commissioner ranks of the Metropolitan Police wear oakleaves
on both the outer and inner edges of their peaks.
Additionally, officers at or above the rank of commander or assistant chief constable
wear gorget patches on the collars of their tunics. The gorget patches are patterned after
those worn by general officers of the British Army and Royal Marines; the police versions,
however, are of silver on black rather than gold on red, in keeping with the police uniform
colours. The above ranks are used by all territorial
forces in the United Kingdom, and the specialist national forces: the British Transport Police,
Ministry of Defence Police, and Civil Nuclear Constabulary. Other specialist forces, and
those outside of the United Kingdom use the same general system, but often have fewer
senior ranks. Chief Constable is the title of the head of
each United Kingdom territorial police force except the Metropolitan Police and City of
London Police, which are headed by commissioners. Ranks above Chief Superintendent are usually
non-operational management roles, and are often referred to as "Chief Officer" ranks
but the longer phrase "chief police officer" or similar in legislation is specifically
a commissioner or chief constable, a "senior police officer" being their immediate deputy.
The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police is often considered to be the highest police
rank within the United Kingdom, although in reality every Chief Constable and the two
Commissioners are supreme over their own forces and are not answerable to any other officer;
there is also the matter that a police officer of any rank only holds the office of constable
in any of the three UK national jurisdiction(s) in which he/she has been attested thus implicitly
limiting any general comparison or ranking to a chief police officer's home jurisdiction.
Epaulettes are normally black with white sewn on or silver metal insignia, although high-visibility
uniforms are often yellow with black insignia. Uniform insignia
The rank of an officer can be found in varying details of the uniform such as headgear, sleeve
patches and tunic collar details, although these details do not vary for every rank.
Examples of variations City of London Police
The City of London Police has fewer ranks above Chief Superintendent:
Commander Assistant Commissioner
Commissioner The Commissioner of the City of London Police
has the unique status of not holding the office of constable, but is classed as a justice
of the peace. This was the same for the Metropolitan Police until recent years; Sir Paul Condon
was the last Commissioner of that force to have this status, along with his deputies.
The Commissioner has the power to attest his own officers as constables without putting
them before a local magistrate to do so, as happened in the Metropolitan Police.
City of London Police insignia is gold where that of other forces is silver. For example,
rank insignia and collar numbers on epaulettes are gold, as are the bands and oakleaves on
the caps of senior officers, and officers of or above the rank of Commander wear gold-on-black
gorget patches on the collars of their tunics. The City of London Police also have variations
for some acting ranks such as Sergeant and Inspector: acting sergeants wear their chevrons
above their divisional letters, whilst acting inspectors are denoted by a crown in the place
of their divisional letters, whilst keeping their collar number and chevrons.
Royal Ulster Constabulary/Police Service of Northern Ireland
The Royal Ulster Constabulary was headed by an Inspector-General and had a different rank
structure until 1 June 1970, when it fully adopted the rank system used elsewhere in
the United Kingdom. The RUC has now been succeeded by the Police Service of Northern Ireland,
which uses the same ranks, but has a different version of the rank insignia, with the star
from the PSNI badge replacing the crown. Unusually, the star is worn below the pip by chief superintendents
and by the Chief Constable, who wears both symbols above his tipstaves. The PSNI has
retained the RUC's distinctive inverted sergeants' chevrons.
Isle of Man Constabulary The Isle of Man Constabulary has fewer ranks
above Superintendent: Deputy Chief Constable
Chief Constable Miscellaneous constabularies
There are, in the United Kingdom, a number of miscellaneous constabularies. These are
not operated, regulated or funded by the Home Office, although they are fully authorised
establishments. In general they provide the policing for ports, docks, tunnels, or other
particular institutions. Although these forces tend to require high standards of training
and accountability, which closely mirror those of the Home Office police forces, they are
usually much smaller in terms of personnel, and therefore utilise fewer of the 'standard'
ranks. History of police ranks
All police forces have used a wide variety of ranks to meet their organisational needs,
especially the Metropolitan Police Service. Ranks have been created, abolished, amalgamated
and sometimes revived during the history of British policing.
Defunct rank insignia Powers
In law, every member of a police force is a Constable whatever their actual rank, in
the sense that, despite being a low-ranking or high-ranking officer, all have the same
powers of arrest. The basic police powers of arrest and search of an ordinary Constable
are identical to those of a superintendent or chief constable; however certain higher
ranks are given administrative powers to authorise certain police actions. In England and Wales,
these include the powers to: authorise the continued detention of up to
24 hours of a person arrested for an offence and brought to a police station,
authorise section 18 PACE house searches, or
extend the length of prisoner detention to 36 hours.
Some authorities are matters of force or national or force policy and not subject to law, such
as authorising the use of tyre deflation devices, and authorising the use of safe controlled
crashes of pursued vehicles, by trained traffic police officers.
In relation to police officers of the Home Office or territorial police forces of England
and Wales, section 30 of the Police Act 1996 states that "a member of a police force shall
have all the powers and privileges of a Constable throughout England and Wales and the adjacent
United Kingdom waters". Police officers do not need to be on duty to exercise their powers
and can act off duty if circumstances require it. Officers from the police forces of Scotland
and Northern Ireland and non-territorial special police forces have different jurisdictions.
See List of police forces in the United Kingdom for a fuller description of jurisdictions.
Detectives Officers holding ranks up to and including
Chief Superintendent who are members of the Criminal Investigation Department or Special
Branch have the prefix "Detective" before their rank. Due to the nature of their duties,
these officers generally wear plain clothes and so do not wear the corresponding rank
insignia; however, they still operate within the same structure as their uniformed counterparts.
It is a misconception often portrayed by the media that detective ranks are superior to
those of uniformed officers. In the United Kingdom, this is not the case, and a detective
sergeant has the same powers and authority as a uniformed sergeant. The "Detective" prefix
designates that the officer has a proven investigative ability and has received suitable training
and passed related examinations, to conduct all manner of criminal investigations.
Trainee, temporary and acting ranks Constables who are training to become Detective
Constables sometimes bear the title Trainee Investigator or Trainee Detective Constable.
The prefix "Temporary" before a rank denotes an officer who has been temporarily promoted
to a rank, whilst the prefix "Acting" denotes an officer who is performing the role of a
higher rank than the one actually held. Temporary ranks are often used for set periods, whereas
acting ranks, although sometimes held for extended periods, are often used for a very
short time. Under section 107 of the Police and Criminal
Evidence Act 1984, Sergeants and Chief Inspectors may be designated to exercise the powers of
an Inspector or a Superintendent respectively. Such a designation will generally accompany
such an officer being given an acting rank, so for most operational purposes there is
no difference between substantive, temporary and acting ranks at Inspector and above. On
the other hand, under section 36 of that Act, only substantive Sergeants may be appointed
custody officers. Identification numbers
All officers have a unique identification number. These are usually referred to as shoulder
or collar numbers, referring to the fact that they were once worn on the uniform collar
and later on the epaulettes by constables and sergeants. Uniformed officers in many
forces still wear them on the epaulettes, but other forces have badges or other ways
of displaying their identification numbers. Kent Police, for instance, refers to its numbers
as force numbers and officers wear them on a velcro tab on their stab vest or on a badge
attached to their shirt or tunic. Officers in all forces of the rank of inspector or
above do not usually wear their numbers. In most forces these identification numbers
are simple numbers, with 1 to 5 digits. The Metropolitan Police, being a much bigger
force, uses a different system: Sergeant - borough code and 1 or 2 digits
Constable - borough code and 3 digits Special constable - borough code and 4 digits,
usually beginning with the number 5 PCSO - borough code and 4 digits, the first
digit being a 7 or an 8 The borough code is a two-letter code preceding
collar numbers. Before the reorganisation into boroughs, each division had a different
code. A few other forces still use divisional codes.
Special constables Special constables are volunteer police officers
who have exactly the same powers as a regular officer, and wear the same uniform and are
issued the same equipment. The roles of "specials" can vary greatly from force to force, though
normally include working with local regular officers to provide an additional and heightened
police presence on the streets and in the local community. They may also be requested
to police particular events such as football matches and community events.
In virtually all police forces, there are various grades of special constable which
assist in the tasking and management of the constabulary. The ranks are management grades;
those holding them are not "sergeants" or "inspectors" for the purposes of the law.
Originally, specials held the same ranks and used the same rank insignia as regular officers,
but there was a general shift to distinct terms such as "area officer" and "divisional
officer" in the 1980s. However, recent national practice has been for most special constabularies
to revert to the regular ranks, although only Merseyside Police and Wiltshire Police have
reverted to regular rank insignia. Special constabulary epaulettes frequently
bear the letters "SC" to differentiate them from regular officers. Senior special constables
wear the same markings on their cap peaks as equivalent regular ranks.
Forces using regular rank insignia Since 2000, the National Policing Improvement
Agency has encouraged special constabularies to return to rank structures and epaulette
insignia identical to their regular counterparts. Although most forces have now reverted to
regular rank titles, only Merseyside Special Constabulary, later followed by Wiltshire
Special Constabulary and the City of London Special Constabulary have reverted to regular
rank insignia. Forces using "bars" rank insignia
Other special constabularies use combinations of bars, half bars, pips, crowns, laurel wreaths,
collar numbers, force crests and the SC identity to distinguish ranks.
Police Community Support Officers
Police Community Support Officers in general do not have a rank system: their epaulettes
simply bear the words "POLICE COMMUNITY SUPPORT OFFICER" and their shoulder number, or, in
the Metropolitan Police, a borough identification code and shoulder number.
South Yorkshire Police and Kent Police have PCSO Supervisors. In South Yorkshire they
wear a bar above the words "Police Community Support Officer Supervisor" and the shoulder
number. Traffic wardens
Traffic wardens are administered by the police and exercise some police powers to control
traffic or issue fixed penalty notices for traffic offences; their epaulettes bear their
shoulder number and the words TRAFFIC WARDEN. They are not to be confused with local authority
civil enforcement officers who, under decriminalised parking enforcement, have powers to issue
fixed penalty notices for breaches of parking laws on highways or in local authority car
parks and compel the production of a disabled parking permit for inspection.
References ^ a b "Badges of Rank". Metropolitan Police
Service. Retrieved December 1, 2011. ^ a b Thames Valley Police: Uniformed police
ranks ^ CNC ranks listed here on their website.
^ Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011
^ Stephenson is named new Met Police chief, The Independent
^ Police Service of Northern Ireland: Badges of Rank