What nicknames does police have in your country?

41 comments

1. Benga (idk the origin, wouldn’t be surprised if it came from the romas), švestky (plums, from originally blue uniforms)

2. In Norway, the classic nicknames are “purk” (dervied from norse and dialect) meaning  “a grumpy, quarrelsome person”
   And “snut”, meaning  “snout”, derived from Swedish.  Presumably “snout of a pig”. Snut has also been used as a nickname for satan

3. A classic nickname would be “aynasiz” which means “mirrorless”, but I don’t know where it comes from. I looked it up but didn’t find a definite answer.

4. Psy – “dogs” – Because they use dogs for drug search
   Pały – “batons” – Because of the batons they used especially during communist era to hit people
   Bagiety – “baguettes” – Again because their batons kinda looked like baguettes
   Gliny – “mud” – Because they stick (their noses into people’s business) like mud sticks to hands
   Smerfy – “smurfs” – For the same reason, blue uniform

   There are more but these are the most popular

5. The obvious and most popular nickname is *psy* (literally *dogs*). Some other vulgar term would be *pały* (*batons*).

   Some less offensive one would be *gliny*, literally *clays*, corresponding to English *cops* somehow. Some more niche slang would call them *bagiety* (literally *baguettes*), not really sure why.

   There’s also *krawężniki* (*curbs*, *curbmen*), referring to the lower rank traffic police.

   Some other terms referring to the color would be *smerfy* (*Smurfs*) or *niebiescy* (*the blue ones*). The road traffic inspection would be called *krokodylki* (*crocodiles*), as they have green patrol cars.

6. The most common term *kyttä* which come from an old Finnish word meaning ‘hunter’. *Kyttä* is also used as an adjective describing the act of following or watching someone.

   The Rapid Response Police are called *karhu* which translate to ‘bear’ and it comes from the colloquial name of the unit *Karhu-ryhmä* (Bear Group). The legend goes that the name was thought up one drunken evening in a sauna, where some higher up cops drew inspiration from the beer brand *Karhu*. The name is also often associated with [The Beagle Boys](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/scrooge-mcduck/images/f/f5/DuckTalesBeagleBoys.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20160925092126) as the Finnish translation is *Karhukoppla*.

   Military police are known as *koirat* which translates to ‘the dogs’. I don’t even know where this comes from, I just remember in the army how someone always warned that the dogs are on the loose again when the MP’s turned up to inspect the barracks.

7. Pigs and ‘the filth’ are common ones. Irvine Welsh wrote a book called Filth about a corrupt policeman.

   Oh and ‘the fuzz’, hence Hot Fuzz.

8. In Hungary we call our police force

   •”Zsaru” (it was a slang for Gendarmerie)

   •”Fakabát” (plank coat) its was originally a slang among soldiers, it was the sentry box.

   • “Kékek” (blues) The color of their uniforms

9. Sinivuokko = blue anemone, pretty innocent, but works since cops wear blue.

   Paskalakki = shit hat, no clue of the origin but it’s obviously derogative.

   Fobba = nickname of Marko Forss, who used to be (still is?) an ”internet police”, but often used on the internet as an umbrella term for police.

10. Pandur – it comes from Hungarian, it means “to forcibly break-off, to shoo away”.

    Murja – It is an old Slavic word for prison.

    Drot – it comes from an old Slavic word for barbed wire.

11. Lots, the original nickname was Peelers after Sir Robert Peel who started the police force. That went away but we still say Bobbys from the same source.

    Then there’s Pigs, Filth, Cops, and a popular 1970s TV show brought us The Sweeney for a particular section of the Police, The Flying Squad – it’s cockney rhyming slang – Sweeney Todd, the (fictional I hope) demon barber of Fleet Street.

    There are probably more that I’ve missed.

12. Pigs, bobbies, dibble, cop, peeler, old bill, fuzz. I’m sure there are many more but that’s off the top of my head. The Police force was founded by Sir Robert Peel which is where bobbies and peelers come from.

13. Most commonly zsaru which is thought to be formed from gendarme back in the 19th century.

    Another one would be közeg, which means something like a physical medium or milieu

14. We don’t really have multiple types of police, but we have a lot of nicknames for them.

    Bobbies, and peelers, both these come from the name of the guy that founded the police, Robert Peel

    Then there’s: the Fuzz, rozzers, pigs, plod, copper, old bill, dibble, swinney, woody, the filth

    A lot of these names are kinda rude and come from Cockney rhyming slang

    And then we have some modern American ones that are being used now like: the Feds, and po-po

15. 🇫🇷
    Les vaches,
    Les condés,
    Les flics,
    Les keufs,
    Les poulets,
    Les sympathisants neo-nazis (this one is more recent)

16. Juten, smerissen, klabakken, which I believe all come from Amsterdam Yiddish. Wout is originally from the south. There are more regional ones.

    More descriptive names like Dienstklopper (service-knocker) and bromsnor (grumpy stache) come from being strict and humorless.

17. Main ones in Dublin are ‘The Guards’, after their name ‘An Garda Síochána’ (Guardians Of The Peace), which most people use even in formal situations, and ‘The Rats’ because that’s their most comparable synonym according to criminals

18. Most commonly used is “μπάτσοι/μπάτσος” which as a noun it also means a punch in the face.Think its derived from Vlach language(Aromanian).

    We also call them “τσέος/τσαίοι” which is slang for shortened version of “Μπάτσος”

    We also call them “Μπασκίνες” which has a Turkish origin

    There’s also “στρουμφάκια” – smurfs,because they’re both blue I guess.

    Then there’s the classic pigs/pork (γουρούνια/χοιρινά).

19. In Italy the names I know aren’t that much derogatory – at least not as much as the English “pigs”. The force itself can be called the “pula” which I think it’s just a meaningless way to short “polizia”. The cops can be “guardie”, which just means “guards” (it’s the tone that makes the difference). A derogatory way to call them is “sbirri” (and “sbirraglia” as a collective) but I think the original term just meant “guards” in old Italian.

20. Strømer = From German: hobo, nomad.

    Strisser = from German: hobo, stupid person.

    Panser = Armed/amour

    Uroer = Unrest (from a department which doesn’t exist anymore, called the (civil) unrest patrol which was known to be impulsive, escalating, violent bastards).

21. Some people call the Mossos d’Esquadra (Catalan autonomous police) “Gossos d’Esquadra”, “gossos” being “dogs” in Catalan. It is pretty straightforward.

22. In Romania the most common nickname for police translates to turkeys. And I heard traffic enforcement agents sometimes referred to as crickets. This one is simple to figure out. Their whistles sound like chirping crickets.

23. Txakurrak (dogs), as if they have an owner and attack when ordered.

    Beltzak (blacks) in reference of the usual black uniform.

    Tzaraina, an on purpose mispronouncing of Ertzaintza (basque police) made popular by a comedy TV show

24. Ireland 🇮🇪 We have An Garda Síochána (“The Guardians of Peace”)

    The Gardaí (Gar-dee)

    The Guards

    The Narda

    The Cops

25. juten, wouten, dienders, smerissen.

    juten is i think from a nursery rhyme, wouten comes from a 19th century dutch dialect spoken by criminals, tradesmen etc. diender is a shortening of translated ”servants of the law”. smerissen is from the hebrew word *sjemiera* meaning ”supervision”.

26. Kieberei. A policeman/policewoman is Kieberer/Kieberin

    There’s also Polente, but that’s old-fashioned I would say, I at least haven’t heard that one for decades

27. Romania

    Copoi – hound / dog

    Curcan – turkey

    Garda – the guard

    Gabor – Stupid / countryman

    Milițian – Uses the communist era term to mean a harsher or more violent police man.

    Hingher – the person that catches stray dogs

    Organ – means the same thing in English, could refer to “organ de poliție” which is just a name for a policeman. Sometimes it is used to refer to the male organ.

28. “The men of the law”

    Literally no other group of ppl are called (by media at least) “the men/ppl of the ……”. Like why don’t they call doctors “men of the health and well being” or chefs “men of the food”, or constriction workers “the men of cement”?

29. I hear Bullen often. The bulls. He’s a bull. That’s a cop.

    Another one I hear specifically in the context of driving is Rennleitung. Race control, roughly. Race leadership? Race management? Race organization?

    Point is they’re in charge of the racing. So race politely when they’re around.

30. Well I know that Aina is one, but is mostly in areas with a lot of immigrants.

    Pling plong taxi = A police car is a when they where black and white , yes Swedish police cars used to be black and white and then we called the Kossor ( cows)

    Farbror Blå = A police man, means Uncle blue

    Gripens Bröderaskap = Griffin brotherhood, the police core , This a play on words Gripen is a Griffin but Grip’en means slang / quick speak for being arrested. So yeah The arresting brotherhood.

    Hotel Gripen = Hotel Griffon / Hotell arrested , Yeah that is the police house, yet again, a play on words.

    When I was little we used to say Polis polis, potatisgris and then giggle, Police Police , potato pig, it didnt make sense then and doesnt make sense now.

31. In Germany the most used nickname for the Polizei is “Bulle” eng. Bull, it actually comes from “bohler” (18th century) which appearently comes from Dutch, meaning bright mind. Today it’s an insult.

    For older Germans there is also “Gendarme” since police was called like that during the German reich

    I However, love to call them “Pozilei”. sounds super cute 😀 Just switched “l” and “z”. That’s not common at all though.

32. Flikken in the Dutch speaking region, flics in the French speaking one.

    Question, how do you add the flag on the username???

33. Bófia. It’s origin is obscure but it came from those involved in crime and then became slang for the police or police agent (it can be used either for the plural or singular).

34. Мент – ment – a cop, no direct translation

    Мусор – músor – directly means ‘garbage’. But the word comes from the acronym МУС(Московский уголовный сыск), it means the Moscow Criminal Investigation Departement. But I doubt lots of people now this.

    Легавый – legáviy – a pointing dog

    Полицай – politsáy – a policeman, this is a borrowed German word ‘Polizei’

    Фараон – faraón – a Pharaoh. Don’t even know why it is so tbh. I heard a version that during the late Tsar age, despite a usual city bustle, policemen stood still and firm like mummies, so people called them Pharaohs

35. Die Bullen (the bulls), a quite derogatory nickname. Derived from that, you can occasionally hear die Bullerei (a contraction from Bullen and Polizei (police).

    Polente, from Polizei.

    Team Grün, the green team, after their old green uniforms. Probably derived from the fact that riot police are the third team that tries to keep the other two separated during sport events (usually football matches). I have occasionally heard Team Blau nowadays, since they switched mostly to blue uniforms. But most people I know still use the old name.

36. My family calls them “Schnittlauchverein” which translates to “chive club” since they used to be (very) green.

37. In Northern Ireland: The Gardaí (literally: guards) in southern Ireland get called the guards or the guardy if not the gardaí from up here, but ime very rarely flat out called the police.

    Up here, our actual police get called plenty. Cops is rising in usage, polis occasionally like the Scottish, and we also notably retain “peelers” which is an old nickname from the formation of an official police force around the time of British PM Robert Peel and named after them.

    For my own area peelers is probably the most common, or just police. I’ve also occasionally heard people call them the RUC deliberately, because they were reformed and are now the PSNI from the early 2000s. The Royal Ulster Constabulary was notorious for being incredibly overwhelmed with unionists, rarely employed nationalists or catholics, and was found complicit in a lot of stuff from the troubles. Lots of discrimination both institutional and to the public, brutality, overreaching of powers etc. They’re not perfect now of course, what force is, but the current organisation is more in line quality wise with something like what the rest of the UK has.

38. In Flanders ‘zwaantjes’ (swans) for police on motorcycles. Actually I had no idea why, this is what Wikipedia says:

    “The motorcyclists of the former Rijkswacht (State Police) rode Harley Davidsons and wore white helmets, black-rimmed glasses, and, in bad weather, long raincoats. When they increased their speed, the wind would catch under their coat, making it move gracefully, reminiscent of a flapping swan. Because of this, they were soon popularly referred to as ‘little swans’.

    Another possible explanation is that they earned their nickname from their old license plates, which started with the number ‘2’.”

39. There’s 3 distinct branches of police in Portugal — PSP (regular police force, Polícia de Segurança Pública, or public security police), GNR (gendermes, Guarda Nacional Republicana or National Republican Guard) and PJ (criminal investigation police, Polícia Judiciária, or judiciary police).

    Regular policemen from PSP have a variety of terms of endearment like “bófia” (origin unknown) or “moina”, which is someone who leads a licentious, dissolute lifestyle, kind of like a “rake” in old timey english.

    GNR personnel can also be known as bófias or moinas, but are often called “géninhos”, which is a diminutive formed from the pronunciation of the first two letters, G and N. “géninho” itself can be humoursly understood to mean “little genius”, owing to the absolute mental prowess many GNR personnel exhibit. The typical image people had of GNR in days gone by was of an overweight middle aged bloke with his gut hanging precariously over his uniform’s belt, a nicely curated mustache and the mental acuity of a lamp post. The acronym GNR is also said to actually mean “Grande Ninhada de Ratos” , which translates as “great nest of mice”.

    PJ is affectionately called “Judite”, which takes on the first two syllables of “judiciária” and turns it into an old fashioned female name that hasn’t been popular for decades. The force as a whole is the “Judite”, and the agents themselves are the “judites”.

40. Ченге (chenge) – It likely comes from the word “ченгел” which is a type of a hook, since policemen are catching people. This word is also used for former State Security agents (the secret service under the People’s Republic of Bulgaria)

    Кука (kuka) – the most common word for a hook.

    Ушев (Ushev) – made to sound like a surname, comes from “ухо” which means ear. Once again it has its roots in the communist regime, since listening/eavesdropping was a main activity of the law enforcement.

    Фуражка (furazhka) – the name of the hat the police usually wears. Can also be used as a slang for military commanders.

    Милиционер (militsioner) – from “милиция” – that’s how the police was called during the communist regime.

41. I find it hilarious how people have no respect for authority nowadays.
    Everyone hates the police until smth happens to them or their property.
    Apparently what Europe needs is an anarchic society so people can value the price of public security.