Talk:Police ranks of the United Kingdom

Assessment

While an article of this size, with only one reference, would not fare a B class normally I feel, in this case the article provides exactly what it says on the tin, and the one reference is all that is needed and is from the best source you can get the topic being what it is.

Pictures

are you sure that the badges of rank for commisioner and deputy c. are the right way around? looks pretty counter-intuitive compared to the British Army, for example 195.93.21.2 20:39, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

Yes, they are the right way round. The reason for the rather odd appearance is that until 2001 the Deputy Commissioner did not have his own rank badge and wore the same insignia as the Assistant Commissioners. When it was decided to introduce a separate badge (Sir Ian Blair, now Commissioner, was the first to wear it) it became necessary to invent a new badge, hence the two small pips. -- Necrothesp 23:28, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

The problem is that the star on a commissioner's epaulettes seems to be almost twice the size as the two stars on a deputy commissioner's (see here) - this difference is not clearly illustrated in this article's pictures. If someone could find a fair-use image showing the enhanced star then I think this would clear things up. AulaTPN 21:42, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Done! I've replaced the Deputy Commissioner image with one that shows the correct 'pip' size. Timothy Titus ^{Talk To TT} 19:11, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

I think there are a number of errors in the pictures. If you look at the badges on the Met Police website you see that the Deputy Commisioners badge has a silver crown (no clour) and that the pips are smaller. I think the Sergeant badge is also incorrect as it has three stipe not two (for acting sergant see met police ranks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.183.134.210 (talk) 21:38, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

The Deputy Commisioner insignia shown on the Met site is a photograph, unlike the others, which accounts for the lack of colour. Nevertheless I agree that there are several errors:

• the Sergeant badge should have three stripes, not two.
• the pip on the Commissioner's badge should be a large one like those of DAC and CS.
• the angle of the tipstaves is wrong.

Moreover, the source of these images is given as www.rankinsignia.net, but that seems to be a link aggregation site, and I could not find these images there. Kanguole 13:10, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

The images bear some similarity to those on www.uniforminsignia.net, which bear the notice "Copyright © 2000-2006 WORLD INSIGNIA COLLECTORS UNION. The information on this page may not be reproduced, republished or mirrored on another webpage or website without written permission from the editors." Incidentally that site also suggests that in Scottish forces the red is replaced by blue. Kanguole 13:51, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

The Sergeant badge, as illustrated, DOES have three stripes. The metal forms the three stripes - if you are seeing only two, then you are looking at the blank space between the metal stripes! This is a common confusion. However, if you go and find a real UK Police Sergeant and have a look at his shoulder, you'll find that this is absolutely right! Timothy Titus ^{Talk To TT} 17:19, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

I've replaced the Deputy Commissioner badge with a new one showing the correct size for the two 'pips'. The previous image was incorrect. Timothy Titus ^{Talk To TT} 19:11, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

From the linked images, the Commissioner's and Chief Inspector's pips should also be the same size as a DAC's, a little larger than an Inspector's. Kanguole (talk) 13:23, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Rank

Is there a contradiction here perhaps?

Para 1: Every officer still only has the powers of constable, no matter what their rank. Para 2: Higher ranking officers have certain extra powers ... Satyricon uk 22:43, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

Not really. Their powers when dealing with the public are the same (e.g. making arrests). What differs is their administrative powers (e.g. authorising longer detention, authorising entries). -- Necrothesp 16:26, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

for howmany years of service one get promotion

You can apply for promotion to sergeant after completing probation (two years). Potential sergeants and inspectors have to pass exams to qualify for promotion to those ranks. Apart from that, there are no hard and fast rules for promotion. Some people are promoted to sergeant pretty much as soon as they complete their probation and climb the ladder quickly; many constables never even apply for promotion and prefer to stay at the lowest level and not end up spending most of their time behind a desk. -- Necrothesp 18:01, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Feroshki 23:51, 9 January 2007 (UTC) Can anyone explain why there is no "corporal" [ two stripes] or "lieutenant" [ one pip] , as would be suggested by analogy with Army ?

When the Metropolitan Police was formed it was very deliberately decided not to use military ranks to discourage the idea that the new force was at all for the repression of the people. The only exception was sergeant. There was no real need for corporals in the command structure in any case, as sergeants were in charge of sections and there was no unit below that. British Army lieutenants wear two pips, incidentally. One pip is carried by a second lieutenant. But remember that in the army, officers join directly as second lieutenants, whereas in the police all inspectors have been constables and sergeants first, so it makes sense not to have an "apprentice" rank as in the army. Incidentally, some Scottish police forces did use the rank of Lieutenant, between sergeant and inspector, until the early 20th century. -- Necrothesp 17:47, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Police Service of Northern Ireland, not RUC

Isn't the mention of the RUC anachronistic? At the very least a sentence should be added that the RUC no longer exists.

Well, it's not anachronistic. Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia and thus includes historical information as well as current information. The fact the RUC no longer exists doesn't mean info about it shouldn't be here. That section merely pointed out that the RUC used a different rank structure at one time. The PSNI is mentioned elsewhere. -- Necrothesp 12:28, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Career progression

It would perhaps improve the article if the procedure of career progression is added. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.155.102.122 (talk) 12:24, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

OSPRE is worth a mention- it's the name for the exams officers sit for promotion to sergeant/ inspector HJ Mitchell (talk) 00:02, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Traffic Wardens

Am I right in thinking that Traffic Wardens no longer exist, having been replaced by "Civil Enforcement Officers"? Incidentally, traffic wardens are (or were) not constables and "traffic warden" is not a rank, should they, therefore, be included in the article at all? HJ Mitchell (talk) 00:02, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Traffic wardens still exist. Gosport in Hampshire has not decriminalised parking issues and Hampshire Constabulary still employs a traffic warden. ChrisSBurns (talk) 10:34, 03 January 2019(UTC)

Actually police traffic wardens no longer exits legally. They were abolished by the Policing and Crime Act 2017 as per the article. Not sure what Hampshire may or may not be doing but, in law, the person cannot be a traffic warden Bowchaser (talk) 12:16, 3 January 2019 (UTC)

Junior inspector

When Trenchard introduced the rank of junior inspector, did holders of the rank wear only a single pip? Greenshed (talk) 01:28, 25 October 2009 (UTC)

Yes, over a bar. Inspectors (who had previously worn one pip) wore a pip over two bars. -- Necrothesp (talk) 13:42, 4 September 2013 (UTC)

Senior rank possible misinterpretation & Special Constable grades

I note that the way ranks are outlined in the rank insignia table possibly gives the false impression that a Chief Constable is of lesser rank than other senior officers of the Met & City Police. I think this table needs to be altered accordingly or the London forces separated from others to prevent giving a false impression. See [[1]] for reasons.

Also this article seems to be growing a list of Special Constable grades which frankly the average reader is not going to be interested in. I suggest the general description is enough and each forces special constabulary page can detail the grades in detail if required. Also technically there is only one rank of Special Constable (i.e. no legal definition of the different grades - merely a method of Specials organising themselves) Any thoughts? Dibble999 (talk) 18:42, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

True it is merely an organisational tool to have Special ranks, but important nonetheless. But I very much agree that the list of variations between forces is getting longer and longer and longer. --aliw136 23:21, 10 August 2013 (UTC)

But what's a "DI"?

You see it on tv, "Hello I'm DI Jones" or something like that. --IceHunter (talk) 02:04, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

Stands for 'Detective Inspector'. The prefix 'Detective' can be placed in front of every rank up to Chief Superintendent in the UK police. It generally designates that the officer has had specialist investigator training. However it does not designate a higher rank. So a Detective Inspector is the same rank as an Inspector, Detective Constable the same as a Constable etc etc.Dibble999 (talk) 18:19, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

---

What are all of the other abbreviations? Does "DS Jones" mean Detective Superintendant, Detective Sergeant, District Superintentant, or Divsional Superintendant? Can all of the abbreviations be addeded to the colored chart? What do each of the colors on the chart denote? Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.56.237.33 (talk) 18:42, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

DS is Detective Sergeant. DSI is often used for Detective Superintendent. -- Necrothesp (talk) 15:10, 3 November 2015 (UTC)

WRC

No mention of War Reserve Constables on this page? It was a grade of Constable during the war. Even got the rank slider: File:WarReserveConstableEpaulette.png

City Police insignia

I've reverted insertion of the City Police insignia, as unfortunately they're full of errors. At a glance:

• unlike, say, the Met, the force uses rectangular slider epaulettes without buttons on the top;
• 2### collar numbers are used only by PCSOs (and none are as high as 2312); constables (and acting sergeants) have 3-digit numbers and uniformed substantive sergeants either 1- or 2- digit numbers or 3-digit numbers up to 150; special constables have 11## or 12## numbers and special sergeants 10## numbers;
• sergeants continue to wear "CP" divisional letters;
• acting inspectors continue to have their chevrons at the bottom of their epaulettes, like substantive sergeants;
• the acting inspector crown is different to the superintendent crown - in particular it is plain gold;
• the assistant commissioner now has tipstaves and a pip, not tipstaves and a crown;
• the pips, crowns and tipstaves are all too small in relation to the epaulettes;
• the tipstaves also just look wrong - the actual ones are much more ornate and have colour in them (see this picture of the current commissioner, for instance);
• the colour is wrong - apart from the text, the pictures look far more like bronze than gold (although I accept that's rather pedantic!);
• the "SC" insignia is a consistent size - the pictures make it look like special inspectors and above have a larger version; and
• the "HAC" insignia isn't nearly that big, and isn't worn on operational uniform any more in any event.

So while I like the idea (images are a far more user-friendly way of displaying insignia than lines and lines of text referring to pips, crowns and chevrons), unless they're fixed they're simply misleading and therefore not as helpful as the plain text. Proteus (Talk) 13:53, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

---

• Many thanks Proteus, I shall try my best to get that in a picture, I tried designing them based on the details in the article, but this is much more specific.--aliw136 12:40, 13 August 2013 (UTC)
• Have just replaced images with 2nd draft:
  • rectangular sliders
  • PCSO, PC, A/Sgt and Sgt collar numbers corrected
  • Chevrons and gold crown for A/Insp
  • Assistant Commssioner has tipstaves and pip
  • Generally pips, crowns and tipstaves larger
  • Can't change the tipstaves, hard to accurately depict, other forces use the same symbol and complain but put up with it, so we can do the same.
  • I agree the colour is not right or consistent across details and symbols but can't help that either.
  • Will do SPC and HAC ranks later.
• Hope this is an improvement, but anymore corrections, just right here........ --aliw136 16:25, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

---

• Corrected CofLP SPC ranks, again let me know for any corrections. --aliw136 18:29, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

They look a lot better - thank you for taking the time to do them. The only two things I'd say are that 129 is a sergeant's collar number, so I'd change the PC's to something over 150 (229 is presumably easiest), and the highest and lowest rank titles in the Special Constabulary are "Special Constable" and "Special Commandant". Proteus (Talk) 14:05, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

Headgear and Tunic insignia

• Have added two large tables depicting headgear and tunics to denote ranks, I'm sure they will be removed or complained about because of their size or inaccuracy. But please write here if you do and I will accomdodate your every request.--aliw136 19:21, 1 September 2013 (UTC)
  • Inspectors and chief inspectors wear a raised black band around their peaks. Difficult to portray, I know. ACCs, DCCs, Commanders, DACs and Specials Chief Officers wear a single row of oak leaves. Chief Constables, ACs and above wear two rows. I believe Thames Valley has got rid of helmets and no Scottish force or the PSNI use them. On the other hand, some forces (e.g. West Midlands) don't usually use peaked caps for constables and sergeants even on mobile patrol. -- Necrothesp (talk) 09:37, 2 September 2013 (UTC)
    • Yes I'm in two minds on the black rim, I can add it, but its gonna look no different. But I will add a graphic for the double scrambled egg hat soon. Not really much I can do for the exceptions, except write a note saying Scot/TVP/PSNI don't use them, and for not wearing peaked caps? Is that officer preference and being lazy, (which is true in Wiltshire) or is it official policy that no one wears a peaked cap? --aliw136 21:28, 2 September 2013 (UTC)
      • As far as I know, traffic officers are the only constables and sergeants actually issued with peaked caps in West Mids. Can't understand why anyone would prefer to wear a helmet or do it out of laziness! I'd be sad to see the helmets go, as they're so iconic, but I still prefer my cap. Luckily, I'm not West Mids! -- Necrothesp (talk) 13:35, 4 September 2013 (UTC)
  • Me again, sorry! I don't know how many of these are specific to the City of London Police, but in that:
    • tunics:
      • the constable and sergeant tunics don't have the lower pockets (I have no idea why);
      • sergeants don't wear chevrons on their tunic epaulettes, just on their sleeves;
      • male constables and sergeants have red-and-white duty bands - constables on the left arm and sergeants on the right (I think the City is the only force that still has these);
      • all the silver bits of the tunic are gold, obviously;
      • inspectors and above have a built-in belt on the tunic jacket;
      • inspectors to chief superintendents have City coats of arms on the tunic lapels (difficult to represent at this scale, alas);
      • only commanders and above have the gold line on their lapels, and only the commissioner has oak leaves;
    • headgear:
      • the Sillitoe Tartan is red and white;
      • again, all silver bits are gold;
      • inspectors and above have a different cap badge: the constable and sergeant badge is like the ones you've used, but that for inspectors and above is bigger and solid (it's hard to describe, but a Google image search should find an example);
      • female constables and sergeants have the cap badge directly on the tartan - only inspectors and above have it mounted on a black backing;
      • the oak leaves go all the way round the peak - as far as I'm aware this is how all British caps do things, the "not meeting in the middle" thing being an American design (that's what Scrambled egg (uniform) seems to show, anyway);
      • there aren't any superintendent/chief superintendent traffic officers (this is probably a City thing, because it's so small).
  • I think it's important to note somehow the inspector/chief inspector black cap band, as it's the most obvious distinguishing feature of such officers. And it's probably going into too much detail, but some forces have a different helmet for inspectors and above (although it's hardly ever worn); in most forces that do this it's got some kind of additional feature (like silver bands round the bottom), but in the City it has an all-black helmet plate (the normal plate being part black and part gold). Proteus (Talk) 09:53, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

• Hello Proteus, I knew you'd be along soon. Are these points all for CoL or a mixture of comments? --aliw136 16:46, 3 September 2013 (UTC)
  • PC/Sgt lower tunic pockets depends on force
  • Sgt tunic sleeve chevrons, not epaulette, has been corrected.
  • Wrist check stripe and gold is CoL only
  • Inspector and above having built in belt depends on force
  • Backing for cap badge for PC/Sgt has been corrected.

But correct me if I'm wrong. The suggestions for CoL uniforms... I will look at later.--aliw136 17:02, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

Yes, clearly the colours are City-only points. I'm not sure about the others, although I'm pretty sure the cap oak leaves patterns are universal. Proteus (Talk) 08:03, 4 September 2013 (UTC)

Yes, the oak leaves meeting in the middle is universal. The current design is indeed an American thing. As far as I'm aware you are also correct about only chief constables (and ACs and up) having oak leaves on the gorget patches. ACCs and DCCs and London equivalents just have silver (or gold) stripes. Superintendents and chief superintendents don't wear gorget patches. Oh, and yes, many forces do have superintendents in traffic. -- Necrothesp (talk) 13:35, 4 September 2013 (UTC)

• Righto - Tunic uniforms against ranks corrected. Traffic ranks are staying the same. And caps will be changed soon.--aliw136 21:37, 4 September 2013 (UTC)

Special Constabulary Ranks

• Did anyone have anymore thoughts, (it is mentioned earlier) on the extensive list of SC ranks? Do you think its good or bad? Should it be got rid of all together, left well alone or something done about it, (and if so, what)?--aliw136 21:49, 4 September 2013 (UTC)
  • Would it be possible to put it into tables with images? You could have the possible ranks along the top (those that use regular ranks mainly seem to be a selection from SC, SSgt, SInsp, SChInsp, SSupt, ACO, DCO and CO, with some wording differences for the Chief Officer ranks that could be noted in footnotes) and the forces along the left-hand side, with images showing the insignia for a particular rank in each force, and with gaps left in the table where a force does not use a rank. Something like this: Ranks and insignia of NATO armies officers. One table for those that use regular ranks and one for those that don't? Would probably be a lot of work though. Proteus (Talk) 10:08, 5 September 2013 (UTC)
    • That is along the lines of my thoughts yes. However each forces seem to have a different starting number for collars, so a lot of images may have to be produced to be totally accurate. There was an earlier version I made: Template:SC Police rank insignia overview --aliw136 16:20, 5 September 2013 (UTC)
      • Check out the first draft of the easier section Template:SC police NPIA ranks used --aliw136 16:46, 5 September 2013 (UTC)
        • And check out the initial work on the harder section, you can see the problems arising, as the first three forces I've done all have different requirements on their eppaulettes. Template:SC police bars ranks used --aliw136 17:08, 5 September 2013 (UTC)
  • Personally I'm fine with it being kept as is. -- Necrothesp (talk) 13:51, 6 September 2013 (UTC)
• Slow progress has been made on Template:SC police bars ranks used. In my mind looks a lot neater and more visually appealing. --aliw136 15:41, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

SC insignia tables

• As discussed above and much further above, I was looking at ways to make the specials force-by-force look appealing instead of a giant list. Any feedback and further thoughts people have now they can see the before and after?
  • I think it looks a lot more professional than the huge list that was there before. Might need some research on bar location, though. I'm pretty sure Met Special Sergeants have their bars below their numbers, not above them, for instance.
    • Yes I agree. They are all based on my interpretation of whatever was written there before, so may need tweaking.(You are right about the MET: File:Rank insignia for London's Metropolitan Special Constabulary.jpg)--aliw136 16:57, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Chief Superintendent - not defunct any more?

Chief Superintendent is included in the list of defunct rank insignia. It seems that the rank has been reintroduced; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_superintendent — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:14BA:2FA:A800:D044:7BA5:3210:8C25 (talk) 16:33, 15 July 2016 (UTC)

The rank of Chief Superintendent never really disappeared, despite attempts to abolish it. What is defunct is the insignia shown, with the two pips horizontally (although I'm honestly not sure whether that was ever commonly used). The current insignia is shown on the main tables. -- Necrothesp (talk) 13:06, 18 July 2016 (UTC)

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Topic and focus

I came to this article hoping for a summary of police ranks and what they mean. What I found was an extremely detailed description of police insignia. The topic of the article seems to be insignia, not ranks. It's a bit like going to an article called "Chocolate Bars of the United Kingdom" only to discover almost no information about them except a very detailed description of the bar codes on the wrappers. The information here *is* no doubt interesting and well curated, but it doesn't seem to me to match the article title or help people who follow links from other articles to learn about police ranks. To clarify, I am hoping to find information about the *meaning* and *function* of police ranks. What does it mean if I meet an "inspector"? What is different about being a "sergeant" to being a "constable"? How does one obtain rank? I feel a lot of the text here belongs in an article specifically about insignia and uniforms. Thanks! 88.145.16.112 (talk) 08:54, 21 April 2022 (UTC)

What a great / insightful comment - and I fully agree with you. So.. how do we change it? 10mmsocket (talk) 09:15, 21 April 2022 (UTC)

As a first observation (and proposal) I would suggest that all of the insignia-related information be moved to Police uniforms and equipment in the United Kingdom as insignia is worn on police uniforms (hats, coats, shirts, etc). Thoughts? 10mmsocket (talk) 09:19, 21 April 2022 (UTC)

Thank you for this idea @10mmsocket. While I agree with the initial comment by 88.145.16.112, I would still expect the insignia section to be found in this very article and would miss it if it were to be removed. Not least, the insignia tables are a good way to quickly understand how a rank relates to another, and a support for those users that that are more graphically oriented or do not have English as their first language. It is also in line with other such articles of the same genre.

Instead, I think we should be looking for a larger rewrite of the article! I’ve started out by

• revamping the introduction, trying to follow Wikipedia standards.
• adding text and references from the articles Law enforcement in the United Kingdom and List of police ranks.
• rearranging the order of the sections, in order to better explain the meaning of ranks, by
  • moving up the (severely substandard) History section,
  • moving up the Powers section,
  • gathering several sections under a new Ranks of Detectives, Reservists, Training and Temporary Officers section (please rename!!)
  • gathering several sections under a new Ranks of unwarranted related services section
• Renaming the Identification Numbers section
• Moving all rank insignia related sections to the end of the article
• Expanding slightly on the history of PSNI ranks

This, I fear, is however merely a start, as the article also need major revisions in order to be something more than a collection of insignia. For example, I would love to see

• an expanded history section
• information on training as well as requirements for promotions
• pay structure
• retirement terms and benefits, divided by rank
• WPC and women police officer ranks (at least history, possibly currently)

You will surely be able to add more to that wish list.

I would also like to thank @10mmsocket for the minor revisions re British English for consistency. It is much appreciated by this non-native speaker of English. OJH (talk) 12:24, 20 December 2022 (UTC)

Note that each of the ranks has its own article, bluelinked from here. Those are the articles you need to look at for any detail. -- Necrothesp (talk) 15:42, 20 December 2022 (UTC)

Collar numbers Vs divisional call numbers

I'm a bit confused as to the distinction between the two types of number. In the rank insignia section it says "constables and sergeants did not wear epaulettes but had their divisional call number on their collar (hence they are still often referred to as collar numbers)." This suggests that "collar numbers" are another name for "divisional call numbers". However, the same paragraph later says "Most forces no longer use divisional call numbers, and retain only the collar number and rank insignia." This seems contradictory as the earlier parts suggest the two terms are different names for the same thing and that strictly the term "collar number" might no longer be relevant as the numbers aren't worn on collars any more - thus there would now be divisional call numbers but not collar numbers rather than vice versa! Can anyone shed any light - and perhaps suggest a clarifying edit? Casper Gutman (talk • contributions) 06:11, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

I think what it means is that most forces no longer number officers within each division (preceded by the divisional letter), but just use a running number within the force overall (with no divisional letter). It is poorly phrased. -- Necrothesp (talk) 13:52, 24 April 2023 (UTC)

History of police ranks

The chart in this section consists of coloured horizontal bars.

1. The chart is much wider than my laptop screen, so I can only see the right end by scrolling the row captions out of view.
2. The horizontal bars are apparently coloured to convey some information; but without a key to the colours, they fail.

I propose to delete this chart.

[Edit] I see the chart is the whole section; so I'm proposing to delete the section.

MrDemeanour (talk) 17:55, 4 May 2023 (UTC)

Ordered list of ranks

This is a fairly detailed article, going into things like epaulettes and traffic wardens. But nowhere does it give an ordered list of ranks by seniority. For example, I don't know whether a superintendant outranks an inspector, or the other way round. I imagine that's information that a lot of people would have come here to learn.

As far as I can tell, each rank comes with particular responsibilities, as well as powers: for example, rank [X] administers a team of about n constables and m officers of rank [Y]. A detective <something> leads the investigation into a particular offence or group of offences.

Ideally, that kind of information would accompany the ordered list of ranks (so it should be a table, maybe).

Like, it's in the nature of ranks that one ranking is higher than another, and yet this article doesn't seem to say what the ranking order is.

MrDemeanour (talk) 18:10, 4 May 2023 (UTC)

Wonderful idea. I suggest you go digging around some College of Policing publications on their website. You should be able to get enough referenceable material to put something together. Good luck and shout if you need help. 10mmsocket (talk) 19:58, 4 May 2023 (UTC)

Good idea but I would stay clear of trying to explain the the particular responsibilities of each rank as the variation is huge in terms of numbers and role between forces and even between different units within the same force. So you can't say "a Superintendent is in command of x officers etc or has command of a division" or whatever. It would just be too vague, too many variations re actual role and not in touch with reality.

Just stick to the ranks. Briefly, in terms of regular police officers the seniority is as follows: constable, sergeant, inspector, chief inspector, superintendent, chief superintendent. Above that is gets slightly complicated depending on if you are the Met/COLP forces or not in London, but there are sources out there which explain it. (Above chief superintendent, the ranks are all classed as "Chief Officers" and would be members of the NPCC (the new ACPO)). For info, detective is technically not a rank but a designation of specialist investigative ability - unlike say, the NYPD where a detective is a higher rank to a police officer. In the UK DC and PC are equivalents in terms of rank alone (at scenes of serious crime, there will be role leadership but this is not the same as rank. In much the same way as a specialist traffic PC would take the lead at a fatal RTC if all present at that point were constables). Bowchaser (talk) 07:51, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

The order of ranks is very clearly enumerated several times in this article! -- Necrothesp (talk) 09:33, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

Actually, having just skim read the article again, I don't think it does simply enumerate the sequence of rank. I know what they are, and can see the the tables with insignia are in the right order to show this but having rapidly checked the article I dont think it does clearly set out the sequence of ranks for those with no knowledge of policing. Perhaps the insignia table could say something like "from most senior to least left to right" or something similar. I may have missed the paragraph that explains this... Bowchaser (talk) 10:37, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

The rank on the far left is "chief constable", and then immediately to its right is "deputy chief constable". That makes it patently obvious in which order they're listed, as does the fact that "chief superintendent" and "chief inspector" are to the left of "superintendent" and "inspector" respectively, and are self-evidently more senior ranks. (And that is ignoring the fact that the insignia gets obviously less fancy the further right in the table you go.) Proteus (Talk) 11:18, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

Fair enough. I know what they all are but it apparently isn't "patently obvious" to those with no knowledge of policing. Hence the initial point by MrDemeanour re Supt outranking Insp. meaning perhaps it isn't "self evident". I'm trying to think as someone who doesn't know this stuff or have any knowledge of policing. But hey ho I'll leave it there. Bowchaser (talk) 11:25, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

Sorry, @Proteus, but in an article titled "Police ranks of the United Kingdom", having the ranking indicated implictly in an illustration (that doesn't fit in the width of a laptop display and so requires horiz scrolling) isn't "patently obvious", particularly when the image caption doesn't state that there is depicted a left-to-right ranking from junior to senior.

Also, in an article with this title, it's not reasonable to expect readers to deduce the ranking from the amount of braid or whatever on the uniforms.

It should be made explicit; I will try to construct a table or list using the source suggested by @10mmsocket. I'm pretty slow at making substantial additions to articles these days, so it might take a couple of days, or a week.

Incidentally, I like your handle; Proteus was the Old Man Of The Sea, and a shapeshifter. I always wanted to make a piece of software that deserved the name "Proteus".

MrDemeanour (talk) 14:30, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

The order of rank can be referenced from National Level of Policing on the College of Policing website. Each of the five organisational levels contains a detailed description for each rank (under "Rank Profiles") including who each rank reports to and is reported to. Worth a quick read. 10mmsocket (talk) 13:10, 5 May 2023 (UTC)