Glossary:Police officer

Police officers are employees in public agencies, who do police work such as:

• Preventive police personnel (example constable): prevention of criminal offences and protection of public safety. Duties may include community-policing, patrol in assigned areas, responding to emergencies, making arrests, or issuing citations, traffic control, etc.
• Investigative police personnel (example detective): tasks related to the investigation of criminal offences after they have occurred.
• Forensic technical staff, investigating crime scenes, etc.

Police statistics usually include: criminal police, traffic police, border police, gendarmerie, uniformed police, city guard and municipal police, and exclude: clerks and other "civilian" staff, customs personnel, tax personnel, military personnel, secret service and special units, police reserves, cadets, and court guards.

Further information

Persons in the criminal justice system (crim_just) metadata

Statistical data

• Crime statistics
• Police, court and prison personnel statistics
• Prison occupancy statistics
• Prison statistics

Source

• The United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems
• The International Standard Classification of Occupations