Police are agents or agencies empowered to enforce the law and to effect public and social order through the legitimate use of force. The term is most commonly associated with police departments of a state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a defined legal or territorial area of responsibility. The word comes via French from the Latin politia (“civil administration”), which itself derives from the Ancient Greek πόλις, for polis ("city").[1]

The first police force comparable to present-day police was established in 1667 under King Louis XIV in France, although modern police usually trace their origins to the 1800 establishment of the Marine Police in London, the Glasgow Police, and the Napoleonic police of Paris.[2][3][4]

The first modern police force is also commonly said to be the London Metropolitan Police, established in 1829, which promoted the preventive role of police as a deterrent to urban crime and disorder.[5] The notion that police are primarily concerned with enforcing criminal law was popularized in the 1930s with the rise of the Federal Bureau of Investigation as the pre-eminent law enforcement agency in the United States; law enforcement however has only ever constituted a small portion of policing activity.[6] Policing has included an array of activities in different contexts, but the predominant ones are concerned with order maintenance and the provision of services.[7] Alternative names for police force include constabulary, gendarmerie, police department, police service, or law enforcement agency, and members can be police officers, troopers, sheriffs, constables, rangers, or peace officers. Russian police and police of the Soviet-era Eastern Europe are (or were) called militsiya.

In England and Wales, each police force or service is overseen by a police authority.