Police rank


Lists of the ranks of various police agencies and forces all around the world:

Albania

Andorra

Functions

Grades

Argentina

[Argentine Federal Police]

[Buenos Aires Provincial Police]

Armenia

Officers

Enlisted

Australia

Generally, all police forces of Australia follow this rank structure with some individual state police forces have ranks differing slightly.
Insignia of rank displayed on epaulette in italics and brackets
For an overview of all distinct state and federal rank structures,

Commissioners

Leading officers

NCOs

Bangladesh

Rapid action battalions

Belarus

Officers

Enlisted

Belgium

Bolivia

Officers

Enlisted

Brazil

Brazil has several different police forces, each with its own ranks. At a federal level, there are the Federal Police, the Federal Highway Police and the Federal Railway Police. At a state level, there are the Military Police and the Civil Police. At a city level, there is the Municipal Guard. In terms of staff, the Military Police and the Civil Police are the most important, although in terms of headlines and prestige, the Federal Police concentrates most of the media attention.
The Civil Police are responsible for investigating crimes while the Military Police are responsible for preventing them.
The Civil Police are organized accordingly to functions. Scrivener is the lower rank position responsible for the internal work inside the police premises. Detective or investigator is the position responsible for actions outside the premises. Delegate is the senior official responsible for the lower ranks and for coordinating the whole work of the Civil Police. The Civil Police also have the assistance of experts, which are the technical body. The Federal Police follows a very similar structure to the Civil Police, the Federal Highway and Railway police.
The ranks listed below are valid for the state military police agencies and are listed, respectively, from higher to lower ranks:
The 2nd class private and the cadet are considered to be students in the formation courses and have no street policing duties. Despite closely resembling the rank structure within the Brazilian army, there is no rank of general in the military police forces, as the Military Police is slotted under the army control in case of war, with its colonels reporting to general officers in the service branch.
Military police also consists of SWAT units, like, BOPE, Rio de Janeiro's Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais, and COE, Comandos e Operações Especiais from São Paulo. Also there is an anti-riot unit called Batalhão de Choque and São Paulo's specialized police, ROTA, Rondas Ostensivas Tobias de Aguiar, and a motorcycles battalion, A Ronda Ostensiva Com Apoio de Motocicletas. Police in São Paulo also use Helicopteros Aguia. As a general rule every state's Military Police is called Policia Militar, except Rio Grande do Sul's police, which are called as the Brigada Militar. The Military Police have a drug abuse resistance education program, PROERD, or Programa Educacional de Resistência às Drogas e à Violência that teaches youth about not using drugs and alcohol. Also, some police cars are designed to patrol schools, and those cars are painted to say "Patrulha Escolar". There are also the Policia Ambiental, or Policia Florestal, the canine units, and water police formations like maritime, fluvial and coastal police units under either the military police or the civil police.

Brunei

Royal Brunei Police Force

Source:

Bulgaria

Officers

Enlisted

Canada

While some smaller or area specific police forces may use variations on, or fewer of, these ranks, most territorial police forces and special police forces have a standard set of operational ranks based on either of the two systems shown here:

Ranks of the [Royal Canadian Mounted Police]

Source:

Ranks of the [Sûreté du Québec]

Source:

Ranks of the [Royal Newfoundland Constabulary]

Chile

These are the ranks used by Chilean police services.
Investigations Police of Chile
Officers
Carabineros de Chile

Officers

Non-commissioned officers and enlisted

China

People's Police

Chinese police officers under the Ministry of Public Security use rank insignia on both side of shoulders on the duty uniform. Senior officers ranking at commissioner and superintendent levels wear these on the white collar uniforms, and for inspector level and below, officers wear them on the sky blue collar uniforms.

Senior officers

Administrative positions do not exactly tally with ranks among inspector level and junior officers, admin positions, are various and flexible, it depends on each individual's qualifications and multiple skills, performance efficiency and effectiveness, years of service, personality and communication ability, potential leadership. Loyal and qualified officers with no misconduct record, are eligible to get rank promotion every four years. For example, a normal PC holding a non-commissioned position during his or her entire police career, with the increasing years of service, the highest rank he or she may attain is either Insp 3rd class, or Insp 1st class. Alternatively, young officers who are holding university degree, usually after three years of service, once his or her overall performance and ability meet operation needs, recommended by his or her team leader or a higher commanding officer, may have chance to get promoted.
Officers at this mid-rank level play very important roles as the "cornerstone" of the national police force. As most of them have already served quite long years, with accumulated work experiences, no matter standing at commanding or non-commanding position, they are either undertaking major responsibilities in public security or nurturing young officers with self model behaviours and proper instructions.

Junior officers

Loyal and qualified officers with no misconduct record, are eligible to attain rank promotion at every three-year of service.
Rank does not have any connection with position, it can only shows how many years you have been work for police unit.

People's Armed Police

The People's Armed Police, as part of the People's Liberation Army, uses the same ranks and uniform as the PLA itself, save for the China Coast Guard which uses navy-style ranks and uniform plus the China Maritime Safety Administration.

Officers

Non-commissioned officers and men

Colombia

Officers

Non-commissioned officers and enlisted

Croatia

Regular police ranks

Special intervention police ranks

Czech Republic

Officers

Others

Denmark

Estonia

Estonian Police and Border Guard Service">Police and Border Guard Board">Estonian Police and Border Guard Service

Source:

[Estonian Internal Security Service]

Source:

Egypt

Officers

Other ranks

The Police of Finland has the following ranks and rank insignia:

Police Authority of Åland">Law enforcement in Åland">Police Authority of Åland

The rank insignia are the same as for the equivalent rank in the national police, except that the Finnish Lion is replaced by the Stag of Åland.

France

''Police Nationale''

''Gendarmerie''

Officiers
Sous-officers
Hommes du rang > volontaires + réservistes
Grade
Insignia rank
Départementale & mobile
Aspirant de gendarmerie issu du volontariat
Gendarme adjoint maréchal-des-logis

Gendarme adjoint brigadier chef

Gendarme adjoint brigadier

Gendarme adjoint volontaire 1ère classe
Gendarme adjoint volontaire

''Police Municipale''

''[Garde champêtre]''

Environmental police

Office français de la biodiversité">French Office for Biodiversity">Office français de la biodiversité

Germany

The following ranks are in use by state police forces. Detective ranks follow the same scheme, replacing the word Polizei with Kriminal, for example a plainclothed detective lieutenant is called Kriminalkommissar. The Federal Police of Germany basically follow the scheme, but deviates in the flag ranks.

Senior Command Ranks

These are comparable to military flag officers, and are appointed by the state minister of interior. For federal agencies the federal minister of interior is responsible. They are usually specialists in public administration and have a master-level law degree. Since they are outside of the career system, they receive payment according to the B-scale of public officer payment grades.
Comparable to military staff officers, major and above. The ranks are available for applicants who completed master level university studies, usually in law. It is possible for officers from the elevated echelon to obtain a master's degree from the Deutsche Hochschule der Polizei, so they can enter higher ranks.
Comparable to military officers, lieutenant and above. The ranks are obtained after receiving a bachelor level degree of a state college of public administration. In several states of Germany this is the lowest echelon for service entry, the medium service echelon is being abolished.
Comparable to military non-commissioned officers
Those ranks are usually obtained during or after two years service in training companies of the Bereitschaftspolizei.
The ranks are indicated by light blue or light green stars.
Lower ranks have been in use in the past, but with the abolishment of the basic echelon, they have been out of use since the 1980s. The most well-known of these is Wachtmeister which still is considered the standard address for a policeman of unknown rank, even though it may now be considered condescending, given the policeman has a higher rank than Wachtmeister.

Pre-commission

Officers

NCO and enlisted

Guatemala

Poicía Nacional Civil

Hong Kong

Gazetted">Hong Kong Government Gazette">Gazetted

Non-commissioned officers
Rank and file

Officers

Other

Iceland

Source:

India

Gazetted officers

Gazetted officers include all the Indian Police Service officers and all State Police Services officers of and above the rank of assistant superintendent of police or deputy superintendent of police in the Indian Police Service and State Police Service forces respectively.

Non-gazetted officers

Indonesia

These are the ranking system currently used by the Indonesian National Police, having been used since 1 January 2001:

Commissioned officers

Enlisted

Iran

Officers

Enlisted

Iraq

The Iraqi Police is made up of three branches, under the command of the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, these being the Iraqi Police Service which tasked with general patrol of Iraq's cities, the Federal Police which are a paramilitary organisation which deals with incidents that are beyond the control of the Iraqi Police, but are not so serious the Iraqi Army are involved, and the supporting force that is made up of the Department of Border Enforcement.
Iraqi Police officers ranks are the same that of Iraqi army ordered lowest to highest with symbol on epaulette:

Officers

Enlisted

Republic of Ireland

Ranks of the Garda Síochána the Police service of the Republic of Ireland.
A Garda allocated to detective duties, up to and including the rank of Chief Superintendent, is a detective and the word Detective is prefixed to their rank.

Israel

Officers

Enlisted

Italy

Officers

Enlisted

Japan

Kenya

The Kenya Police wear badges of rank on the shoulders and sleeve of their uniform to denote their rank. In line with the ongoing reforms, the uniforms committee is also working on new insignia for the revised rank structure, which will have to be approved by the National Police Service Commission. The order of Kenya Police ranks is as follows:
Former Kenya Police ranks and insignia can be found at this reference.

South Korea

Ranks:
Ranks of Latvian State police

Officers

Enlisted

Lithuania

Officers

Other

Source:

Luxembourg

The Grand Ducal Police of Luxembourg has the following ranks :
Source:

Macau

The Public Security Police Force of Macau includes the following categories, ranks and respective main functions :
Below shown are the rank structure of the Royal Malaysian Police.

Malta

Mexico

According to the General Law for the National System for Public Security, the Federal, State and Municipal Police Forces are mandated to have the same hierarchical organization. In addition, the National Guard uses its own rank system.

National Guard">National Guard (Mexico)">National Guard

Officers

Commissioned officers

Basic Scale Ladder

[Yucatán State Police]

Source:

Montenegro

uses following rank structure:

Netherlands

National Police Corps">Law enforcement in the Netherlands">National Police Corps

Royal Marechaussee

Officers

Other

Nicaragua

Officers

Others

Norway

Pakistan

The following ranks are observed in the various police organisations across Pakistan

Officers

NCOs

Philippines

The following ranks are currently in force in the PNP:

Officers

There is no 2nd Lieutenant rank-equivalent in the PNP.

Enlisted

Poland

Officers

Other

Portugal

The Public Security Police of Portugal includes the following categories, ranks, insignia and respective main functions:

''Corpul ofiţerilor de poliţie'' (Police Officers' Corps)

''Corpul agenţilor de poliţie'' (Police Agents' Corps)

Russia

Officers

Enlisted

San Marino

Gendarmeria

Serbia

Below shown are the rank structure of the Singapore Police Force.
Latest changes made to the ranks of the SPF were made in 2016. Officers with ranks that were made obsolete would continue to carry their ranks until their next promotion.

[Slovenian National Police Force]

South Africa

Officers

Non-commissioned officers

Spain

Cuerpo Nacional de Policía">National Police Corps">Cuerpo Nacional de Policía

Guardia Civil - Civil Guard">Civil Guard (Spain)">Guardia Civil - Civil Guard

[Ertzaintza]

[Mossos d'Esquadra]

[Policía Foral]

Sri Lanka

Gazetted Officers

Switzerland

Municipal police corps in the [Canton of Zürich]

Taiwan

Tanzania

Source:

Thailand

Commissioned officers

Non-commissioned officers

Turkey

Emniyet Genel Müdürlüğü - Turkish Police
Ranks used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces are in force in the National Guard of Ukraine.
The National Police of Ukraine uses the following rank system starting 2015:

Officers

Junior officers

United Arab Emirates

Abu Dhabi

United Kingdom

While some smaller or area specific police forces may use variations on, or fewer of, these ranks, most territorial police forces and special police forces have a standard set of operational ranks:
The standard Chief Officer ranks outside London are:
Within London's Metropolitan Police Service the Chief Officer ranks are:
The City of London Police use similar Chief Officer ranks to the Metropolitan Police Service but with fewer ranks:
A police officer with investigative duties, up to and including the rank of Chief Superintendent, is a detective and the word Detective is prefixed to their rank, except for the rank of Police Constable where the word Police is omitted, making them a Detective Constable.

United States

The United States law enforcement ranking model is generally quasi-military in structure. Each level of law enforcement has different ranks and vary considerably from agency to agency. There is no nationally set law enforcement rank structure, but they tend to follow similar patterns.

Federal

The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security contain multiple law enforcement agencies and are the largest federal departments responsible for law enforcement; however, other governmental departments and agencies have law enforcement bodies. Each federal law enforcement agency has a unique rank structure. Many federal law enforcement agencies rank structures resemble Military rank structure but have different cogitations regarding responsibilities and duties. In general, all law enforcement groups in United States follow a similar pattern shown below:
Note: Ranks can be skipped or omitted and structure is often determined by individual states. Structure is usually pseudo-military.

County

Note: Ranks can be skipped or omitted and structure is often determined by individual counties. The structure is usually pseudo-military.

Municipal/City

Chief officers

Note: Ranks can be omitted or added as needed and the structure is often determined by individual municipalities. The structure is usually pseudo-military.

Uruguay

[National Police of Uruguay]

Vatican City State

[Corps of Gendarmerie of Vatican City]

Venezuela

Vietnam

Officers

NCOs and enlisted

Zimbabwe

Commissioned Officers