Why Are Police Officers Called “Cops”?

No slang term for an occupation has supplanted the original job title more than cop. While the media and official documents may stick to the multi-syllable “police officer,” the majority of people fall back on having “called the cops,” describe being “pulled over by a cop,” or, if their day was really eventful, “running from the cops.”

So how did we come to call law enforcement officers “cops”?

1. The Origin of Cop
2. Cops as 5-0 and the 12
3. Slang Terms for Police

The Origin of Cop

There are a few fanciful origins for cop that circulate from time to time, and it’s a shame none of them is true. But no, cop is not an acronym for Constable on Patrol (constable being the British word for police officer). Nor is cop short for copper, a reference to the material once used for police badges or for the buttons on uniforms.

The likely explanation is that cop is derived from the verb cop or copping, meaning seize or catch. To cop, or to take, first appeared in print in the 18th century. Cop as slang for police officer began circulating in the second half of the 19th century, though copper actually predates it by about 20 years. Because cops were often in pursuit of criminals in the hopes of catching (copping) them, cop became synonymous with law enforcement.

Cop became the predominant slang in the U.S., while copper persisted in the UK and Australia. While largely perceived as a neutral word—as opposed to pig, which has negative connotations—cop nonetheless annoyed some. According to Snopes, J. Edgar Hoover bristled at being known as a “top cop” while he was head of the FBI.

Cops as 5-0 and the 12

Slang terms for police are endless, but only a few have had any real staying power. One exception is 5-0, or Five-0, which appears to stem from the 1968 to 1980 television cop drama Hawaii Five-0. In the context of the show, “Five-0” referred to Hawaii being the 50th state. (The show actually influenced two major bits of slang: “Book ‘em, Danno,” a phrase used by star Jack Lord in reference to processing perps, also entered the lexicon.)

Trying to identify the etymology of 12 isn’t as easy. The number, which has been used in hip-hop as a slang word (or slang number) for cops, may refer to a police radio code, 10-12, which is used to alert responding officers that civilians are present or to stand by for further instructions. In time, communities may have shortened this to “12” to alert one another to the presence of police.

Another theory is that one Atlanta narcotics squad had unit numbers starting with 12, making it easy for people to connect the number to law enforcement.

Slang Terms for Police

• Cop
  
• Copper
  
• Pig
  
• 5-0
  
• 12
  
• Fuzz
  
• Boys in blue
  
• Po-po

While cop, pig, and 5-0 have endured over time, other terms have not. You’re probably not going to hear someone refer to a police officer as a rat bag, scorcher, or beak runner.

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