60 Fun Facts About Police

Which British Home Secretary founded London's Metropolitan Police in 1829?

Its first constables walked out on 29 September 1829, and officers are still nicknamed 'bobbies' and 'peelers' after him.

How did the Metropolitan Police headquarters get its famous nickname?

The original HQ was at 4 Whitehall Place; over time the name became shorthand for the whole force and its detectives.

Which magistrate and novelist founded the Bow Street Runners, London's first professional police, in 1749?

The author of Tom Jones started with just six men.

Which of Peel's principles is the most often quoted?

Charles Reith distilled the force's General Instructions into nine principles in his 1948 history.

The British police custodian helmet was adopted in 1863 to replace what?

Some sources say it was modelled on the spiked Prussian pickelhaube.

Interpol is headquartered in which French city?

It has 196 member states, each with a National Central Bureau, and seven regional bureaus.

What was the FBI called when it was established in 1908?

It kept the shorter name until 1935.

For how many years in total did J. Edgar Hoover lead the FBI and its predecessor?

He served under eight presidents, from his 1924 appointment by Coolidge to his death in 1972.

Which is the oldest US federal law enforcement agency, created by the Judiciary Act of 1789?

George Washington was president when the office was created under the district courts.

The Texas Rangers trace their founding to a 1823 call to arms by whom?

Their museum and Hall of Fame is in Waco.

Which US municipal police department, founded in 1845, is the country's largest?

Chicago is second and Los Angeles third.

The Miranda warning stems from a Supreme Court decision in which year?

Miranda v. Arizona is the case; the warning also promises a court-appointed attorney to those who cannot afford one.

Canada's Mounties were formed in 1920 by merging the Dominion Police with which older force?

The famous red serge, Stetson and boots are now worn only for ceremonial duties.

Ireland's police, the Garda Síochána, translate their name as what?

Since 1923 it has been predominantly unarmed; more than three-quarters of officers do not routinely carry firearms.

A kōban is a small neighbourhood police station found in which country?

One in Kameari, Tokyo, was the model for the police box in a long-running manga.

The Carabinieri, instituted in 1814, are the national gendarmerie of which country?

A gendarmerie is a military or paramilitary force with civilian policing duties.

Which US state has the country's second-largest municipal police department, behind New York?

Chicago's is second; the LAPD, with about 8,800 officers, is third.

The first police car, used in 1899 by the Akron, Ohio, police, was powered by what?

The $2,400 wagon carried electric lights, gongs and a stretcher.

The world's first traffic lights, installed in December 1868, stood outside which building?

They stood on Parliament Square outside the Houses of Parliament.

Which colour were Glasgow's police boxes, unlike the blue ones everywhere else in Britain?

The blue version is now best known as the TARDIS in Doctor Who.

The UK's 999 number, launched on 30 June 1937, holds what distinction?

It began in the London area only.

The first US 911 call was made in 1968 in Haleyville, in which state?

It was placed by the state's Speaker of the House, Rankin Fite.

The radio code '10-4' reached the public in the 1950s through which TV series?

The APCO ten-codes were developed from 1937 to save airtime on crowded police channels.

The Taser is named after a 1911 novel about which boy inventor?

NASA researcher Jack Cover began work on it in 1969 and named it after 'Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle'.

Robert Borkenstein, who invented the Breathalyzer in 1954, was a captain in which state's force?

An earlier 1927 device by a Chicago chemist changed colour as breath passed through chemicals in water.

The polygraph's 1921 inventor, John Larson, was also an officer of which police department?

Its chief August Vollmer was famous for modernising American policing.

Who developed Kevlar, the fibre in modern body armour, at DuPont in 1965?

Its first commercial use was replacing steel in racing tyres.

Besides his body-measurement ID system, what is French police officer Alphonse Bertillon credited with inventing?

His anthropometry was later displaced by fingerprints.

The Vucetich fingerprint classification system was developed in which country?

It spread across South America, while the Henry system, developed in India, took over the English-speaking world.

DNA profiling was discovered in 1984 by Alec Jeffreys at which university?

Its first forensic use caught Colin Pitchfork, convicted in 1988 of murdering two teenagers in Leicestershire.

Which dog breed is famed for following human scent days later and is widely used by police?

German Shepherds, Belgian Malinois, Dutch Shepherds and Labradors are the other common K-9 breeds.

Which of these is NOT another name for a police baton?

'Cosh' and the Indian 'lathi' are two more.

The Pinkerton detective agency was founded around 1850 in which city?

Founder Allan Pinkerton claimed to have foiled the 1861 Baltimore Plot against Lincoln.

The world's first private detective agency was founded in Paris in 1833 by which former criminal?

He had also headed a police agency, and inspired characters by Hugo and Balzac.

Prohibition agent Eliot Ness led a team nicknamed what while pursuing Al Capone?

They were handpicked for their incorruptibility.

What was Joe Friday's badge number in Dragnet?

The syndicated version of the show was even titled Badge 714.

Which sergeant on Hill Street Blues ended every roll call with 'Let's be careful out there'?

Sergeant Lucy Bates kept the line going as a tribute after actor Michael Conrad died in season four.

Peter Falk's Lieutenant Columbo drove which battered French car?

His other trademarks were the rumpled raincoat, a cigar and a wife who is often mentioned but never seen.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine is set in a fictional 99th Precinct of which city's police?

Andy Samberg's squad answers to Captain Raymond Holt, who arrives in the pilot.

HBO's The Wire, created by former police reporter David Simon, is set in which city?

Each season looks at a different institution of the city and its relationship with law enforcement.

CHiPs followed two motorcycle officers of which force?

Erik Estrada played 'Ponch' Poncherello alongside Larry Wilcox as Jon Baker.

Which actresses played the title detectives for most of Cagney & Lacey's run?

Loretta Swit played Cagney in the pilot movie and Meg Foster in the first six episodes.

Dick Wolf's Law & Order premiered on NBC in 1990 and completed how many seasons in its original run?

Its last original-run episode aired on May 24, 2010.

The BBC's Dixon of Dock Green, which ran from 1955 to 1976, was spun off from which 1950 film?

George Dixon was an experienced Paddington Green bobby nearing retirement in the film.

In the Police Academy films, Steve Guttenberg's Carey Mahoney joins the academy why?

Michael Winslow's sound-effects man Larvell Jones appears in all seven films.

Sting, frontman of the Police, got his nickname from what?

Bandleader Gordon Solomon said the jumper made him look like a wasp.

Which consulting detective of 221B Baker Street regularly showed up Inspector Lestrade?

M. J. Trow later wrote seventeen novels with Lestrade as the hero.

Australia's largest police force, established in 1862 with over 17,000 officers, serves which state?

It is one of the biggest police organisations in the English-speaking world.

The UK's National Crime Agency, sometimes called Britain's FBI, was set up in which year?

It replaced the Serious Organised Crime Agency and absorbed the child-protection body CEOP.

The LAPD's motto, made famous by Dragnet-era TV, is what?

Its black-and-white patrol cars became just as recognisable.

Which post-French Revolution leader reorganised the police of Paris into a Prefecture of Police in 1800?

The reform applied to every French city with more than 5,000 inhabitants.

Before Peel's force, London's Marine Police was founded in 1798 to patrol which river?

It was funded by shipping merchants tired of cargo theft on the docks.

The Metropolitan Police's first commissioners in 1829 were Sir Charles Rowan and which lawyer?

They held the post jointly; a single commissioner has run the force since.

The Peelian principles were distilled into nine points in a 1948 book by which historian?

They came from the General Instructions handed to every new Metropolitan officer.

The word 'police' ultimately derives from politeia, a term from which ancient language?

It reached English via Middle French around the early 15th century, at first meaning public policy or civil order.

Which king's government set up the first centrally organised uniformed police, in Paris in 1667?

The edict created the lieutenant général de police, an office first held by Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie.

Which city's High Constables of 1611 were probably the world's first statutory police force?

Half merchants and half craftsmen, they enforced 16 regulations on curfews, weapons and theft.

Why was the Metropolitan Police uniform deliberately made blue in 1829?

Officers carried only a wooden truncheon and a rattle, and ranks avoided military titles except Sergeant.

Old Kingdom Egyptian law enforcers used which unusual animals on guard duty?

Fifth-dynasty warriors armed with wooden sticks guarded markets, temples and parks, aided by trained animals including dogs.

Which was the first policing service founded in Canada, in 1729?

Modern Canadian forces arrived in the 1830s, modelled on the London Metropolitan Police.