In the United States, the most common name for police officers is the word "cop", which is considered an abbreviation for "patrol policeman" (Constable on Patrol). It is also associated with the word copper ("copper") - the first American wore eight-pointed stars made of copper. In Britain, the police are called "bobby" - a derivative of the name of Robert Peel, the founder of the British and famous Scotland Yard. In Russia and Ukraine they are habitually called "cops".

Today, in many countries (including Britain), the usual names of police officers are gradually being replaced American word"cop".

In France, the most common nickname for police officers is the word "flick", which appeared in the middle of the 19th century. Given as a "fly", however, the witty French gave it another decoding - Federation Legale des Idiots Casques (Legal idiots in helmets). In addition to flicks, in France, policemen are often called "azhan" from the word "agent" or poule (chickens). In Germany, police officers are addressed in absentia as Bulle (bull), in Spain - poli, and in Italy - "sbirro" (derived from the red color of the uniform).

Official names

Most European countries Police officers are called police officers. In Russia, they are simply referred to as a policeman. On the territory of Ukraine they are called "militiamen" or "militiamen". The French respectfully refer to - "gendarme", and the Italians - "carabinieri". German policemen are called "polizei", Spanish ones are called policiaco (I). AT South America police officers are simply called agente or comisario.

The word "police" is the same sound in all countries of the world and from Greek is translated as " political system' or 'state'.

In Poland, police officers are called "policeman", and in Norway - "constable". The Portuguese call the police - policial, and the Finns - poliisi. Due to such a diverse “assortment” of police job titles, government researchers often find it difficult to single out police bodies in a specific classification, remaining within the framework of state mechanisms. However, to clearly classify the police and special bodies state security it is not always possible even in the presence of generalized and understandable names of these professions.

Advice 2: Why the English police are called Scotland Yard

The history of England has several centuries. This is a fairly conservative country. Here they honor their traditions, preserve them for centuries and rarely change them. This happened with the name of the English police, Scotland Yard, which appeared in the early 19th century and has remained unchanged since then.

Some facts from the history of England

In translation from English "Scotland Yard" is "Scottish yard". To understand where this came from, you need to delve into the history of centuries, in the Middle Ages.

King of England Edgar I the Peaceful gave the Scottish ruler Kenneth II a piece of land in the center of London, next to the Palace of Westminster, on the condition that he build his residence here, which would be considered the territory of Scotland. This was done so that this ruler, visiting the residence every year, showed respect to the English crown.

This continued until 1603, when Queen Elizabeth I died. Her place was taken by the Scottish ruler James VI, who became king of England and Scotland. The residence where the kings stayed when they came to England has lost its original purpose. The building began to be used for the needs of the government of England and was divided into two parts, "Large Scotland Yard" and "Middle Scotland Yard".

1829 - Founding of Scotland Yard

In the 19th century London was quite high. In 1829, the first police department was created by Robert Peel of the Interior of England. It is located in the former residence Scottish kings, which is why it became known as Scotland Yard.

The first years of work were very difficult, as there were no specially trained employees. Every resident of the city could search for criminals. In the event that the guilt of the person caught was proved, the person who captured him or reported the criminal received a monetary reward. As a result, many have declared someone a criminal for profit, revenge, or even a thirst for adventure.

One of the first Scotland Yard professionals, Inspector Charles Frederick Field, was a friend of the writer Charles Dickens. In the novel "Bleak House" Dickens created the image of detective Bucket, the prototype of which was his friend Field, and the word "detective" was firmly entrenched and soon became an international term.

In 1887, the English occupied more than 10 buildings located close to each other, so it was decided to allocate a special room for her on the Victoria Embankment. The building was named New Scotland Yard. By 1890, the number of police officers had already increased to 13,000.

Recent History of Scotland Yard

Number of divisions police service grew, the functions and responsibilities of its employees were increasingly expanding, so the premises occupied ceased to meet the needs of Scotland Yard. In 1967, the English police received a new building at 10 Broadway. The former premises on the Victoria Embankment became one of its divisions. And the very first building, formerly occupied by the police, was transferred to the British Army.

Scotland Yard has become world famous, including thanks to the authors of famous detective novels. First of all, Arthur Conan Doyle, who created the image of the great detective Sherlock Holmes, who conducted his investigations in parallel with the English police.

Why does the name "Scotland Yard" exist and? This shows respect for their traditions, historical memory, their gratitude to those people who created one of the best police in the world. Today, Scotland Yard employs more than 30,000 people who successfully protect the safety and peace of the people of London and its suburbs.

• Bobby is what they call a police officer in England. This word appeared on behalf of one of the country's prime ministers - Robert Peel. Robert is Bob, or Bobby for short. The merit of this prime minister is that at the end of the 19th century he transformed the institution of the police, making this public institution much more efficient and successful.
• “Cop (cop) is almost the most famous nickname policemen in the world. And besides, it's not that old. According to the compilers of Webster's Dictionary, the most authoritative explanatory dictionary in English in the USA, this word in the meaning of "police officer" appeared in 1859. The dictionary does not explain the etymology. There are several versions of how this word appeared. The most common is that cop is short for copper (copper), and the first American policemen had eight-pointed copper stars. Another version: cop is just an abbreviation of the expression "patrol policeman" (Constable on Patrol).
• The most common police nickname in France is flic. The French are still arguing about the origin of the word. It appeared in the middle of the 19th century. Initially, the police were called flies (mouche). Then, experts say, the French “fly” was replaced by the Dutch fliege, which then turned into flic. Much later, the French came up with the idea of ​​deciphering the word flic as Federation Legale des Idiots Casques (in literal translation"Legal federation of idiots in helmets").
• The French policemen are also called poules - chickens (the Parisian police department on the Orfevre embankment occupies a place where poultry used to be traded). Finally, the world-famous name for French police officers is “azhan” (agent), that is, simply “agent”.
• In Germany, police officers are called bulls (Bulle), in Spain, perhaps the most decent nickname for police officers is poly (poli), in Italy, sbirro (Latin birrum - “red cloak”), according to the original color of the police uniform.
• In the Netherlands, the most popular police nicknames are Jewish. They are called smeris (perhaps from the Hebrew for “watch”) and klabak (from Yiddish for “dog”).” It is assumed that the word "dog" was used in the meaning of "hound".
• “In Australia, police officers have long been called jacks. Unlike the story with the British bobbies, this has nothing to do with the founder of the Australian law enforcement forces. At first, the Australians called their policemen gendarmes, and the average policeman was called, respectively, John Darme. At some point, John's last name disappeared and he was renamed Jack."

Who is this "policeman"?

The word "police" means local resident occupied territories, serving in the fascist auxiliary police. And it is associated with the words "punisher", "traitor", "traitor", "fascist". In a country that survived the Great Patriotic War, such a name, used not only for a police officer, but for anyone, is clearly an insult.

On July 15, 1988, the legendary film Die Hard starring Bruce Willis as a New York police officer was released. We have collected the most famous police officers from Hollywood films. By the way, many of them have real prototypes.

(Total 15 photos)

Post sponsor: Technical and bimetallic tanometers. Details

1. Clint Eastwood's cop from Dirty Harry has become iconic. Dirty Harry Callahan was nicknamed for his sense of justice, which does not always correspond to the letter of the law.

2. Police characters performed by Jake Gyllenhaal (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Michael Pena (Michael Pena) in the movie "Patrol" will surely become as popular as "Harry".

3. "Die Hard" John MacLaine, played by Bruce Willis, has become almost a movie legend.

4. Bad Cop Alonso Harris in Training Day was so well performed that Denzel Washington was awarded an Oscar.

5. Mel Gibson played another funny and psychotic police officer named Martin Rigg, the film "Lethal Weapon"

6. Robocop is without a doubt the most enduring film cop.

7. The character of Johnny Utah in the movie "Point Break" brought fame to Keanu Reeves (Keanu Reeves). After all, he had to surf only in order to infiltrate a gang of criminals.

8. Golden fever brought crowds of criminals to the city with which the good cop Wyatt Earl, who was successfully played by Kurt Russell in the movie Tombstone, had to fight

9. Al Pacino (Al Pacino) played Frank Serpico in the tape "Serpico" - the first police officer in the city of New York, openly began the fight against corruption.

10. Judge Joseph Dredd was a cop despite his title. And although this year a remake of the cult film is released, we will forever remember the judge performed by Sylvester Stallone (Sylvester Stallone)

11. Cop from Quentin Tarantino's movie mad Dogs' name was Mr. Orange. He worked undercover, and performed it Tim Roth (Tim Roth)

12. Bud White from the movie "Secrets of Los Angeles" is one of the few characters in the picture who is true to his ideals of justice. Russell Crowe played that proper cop

13. Thanks to the brilliantly performed role of detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, film actor Gene Hackman received a Golden Globe, an Oscar and several other film awards. The policeman from the movie "The French Connection" was hunting for drug smugglers.

14. Harvey Keitel played the perfect bad cop in Bad Cop.

15. The funniest cop on our list is Axel Foley, the character in Beverly Hills Cop, played by comedian Eddie Murphy.

Once upon a time, detective workers introduced themselves as “Garbage such and such” - and there was nothing offensive in this

In a country where, as they say, half was sitting, and half was guarding, a kind of prison slang could not help but arise. He firmly entered the life of society. In Russia, the interlocutor can slide into prison jargon quite suddenly, whoever he was, an academician or a simple hard worker.

Two versions of a bad word

The jargon of "garbage", which is now called police officers, arose even when they were militia. There are two versions of the origin of the word "garbage" as a designation for law enforcement officers.

AT tsarist Russia this word was devoid of offensive meaning. In those days, the detective department of the Moscow police was called the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department (MCC). Until the revolution, the police capitals were presented like this: such and such rubbish. It was meant: M oskovskoe At governing body With detective O divisions R Russia or M Moscow At head With search O perative R worker.

Since 1917, the ICC has received a more euphonious name, but the word has already been fixed in folk speech. It denoted not only an employee of the law enforcement agency, but also became synonymous with a scoundrel, a careerist and an unprincipled person.

According to the second version, the word "garbage", like other thieves' vocabulary, comes from Odessa. The port city is known for its ancient and rich criminal tradition, as well as its influential Jewish community. Great amount jargon was formed precisely in the Odessa Jewish criminal circles.

The well-known concepts of "fraer", "bump", "nishtyak" have roots in Hebrew. From there, the word “garbage” leads its genealogy. It is derived from the Hebrew word "moser", meaning a person who communicates something.

This word also denotes a scammer, one who “knocks” law enforcement agencies on his acquaintances and close people. Both in the Russian gendarmerie and in the Soviet police, the services of secret agents were in demand. The word "garbage" as a designation of a police representative was also transferred to them.

Hungarian cops

The slang expression "cop" has become another offending name for law enforcement officers of their profession. On Wednesday Russian criminals the word “ment”, as well as “garbage”, entered even before the revolution. This word is mentioned in a secret manual on thieves' jargon, released by the MUR back in the late 1920s. According to the reference book, the word "cop" for "thieves" means a prison guard or a police officer.

Philologists believe that the "ment" penetrated into the language of Russian criminals from the Polish criminal "fenya". It is a synonym for the word "garbage". AT Polish language"ment" came, in turn, from Hungary. The Hungarian language has the word “mente”, which means a cape worn by the Hungarian gendarmes.

Russian writer Vladimir Dal in his famous explanatory dictionary” indicated that the word “mentik” is the outer jacket of the hussars. Together with the Polish convicts, the nickname "cop" came to our country. They began to be called guards, police officers or police officers.

• Police (fr. Police, from other Greek ἡ πολιτεία - state, city) - system public services and protection authorities public order. Implements wide range functions, the set of which in different countries differs. The most characteristic function is the prevention (prevention), suppression, detection and disclosure of crimes and other offenses. The police may also be entrusted with the tasks of protecting various objects, directly maintaining order in in public places, regulation traffic, accident prevention, administrative control and supervision in various fields activities, execution of decisions of other government agencies etc. In many countries, the police are responsible for fire protection and rescue operations. To solve these problems, the authorities and officials The police have powers, among which are the powers to use methods of coercion (which does not exclude the use of methods of persuasion and other ways to ensure the impact of legal norms in its work).

  Police systems various countries can be centralized (Austria, France, Russia after the reform, etc.) or decentralized (USA, Great Britain, Germany, etc.). Police services can also be combined in one department (Finland) or scattered across different departments (Italy - the "country of five police", France - the national police, the gendarmerie). In some former socialist countries (Belarus), the main body of law and order retains the name "militia"; in many non-European countries, law enforcement agencies are called in their own way (the name is most often literally translated as “guard”, “protection”).

  In states with separation of powers, the police are part of the executive branch of government, but the authorities and officials involved in investigating crimes and deciding on minor offenses remain connected to the judicial branch of government (for example, the judicial police and police tribunals in France).

  In most countries, the police are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior or are directly part of it. There is also the subordination of the police to the Ministry of Justice, security, or the presence of a specialized ministry or department.

  In most countries, the police are a civilian structure, but in a number of countries, for example, in France, Turkey and Chile, along with the police proper, there is a gendarmerie, which was originally part of armed forces, and sometimes it is at the present time (for example, the Carabinieri in Italy). In many countries, the police have distinctly military characteristics: police officers have military-like ranks (such as police general), sometimes live in barracks, and the like.

  A clear distinction between the police and state security agencies (special services) is not always possible. In some countries, the intelligence services are completely separate from the police, in others, such as Malaysia and Ireland, the state security agencies are part of the police. In a number of countries, the activities of the security agencies are regulated by laws different from those that regulate the work of the police.