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police squad

police squad

1 3.0
A small group of police officers who deal with a special kind of crime
  • noun
  • /pəˈliːs skwɒd/
translation icon : unidad policial
  • Incredibly, it demands that universities supply these steel fences as well as pay for the extraordinary cost of a campus police squad to stand guard.
  • a police squad car

Examples

  • A special police squad rushing to the scene was met with shots in the first-floor reception area and returned fire.

    Academic text (2001)
  • A fire bomb explodes behind a riot police squad on September 26 in Athens, Greece, during clashes with demonstrators.

    Blog text (9)
  • You almost made it to the police squad?

  • Police Squad is shut down effective immediately.

  • A typical police squad room is smoke-filled, cluttered, and busy.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • He pulled around the back, drove through the big yard gate, and jerked to a stop beside two police squad cars.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • In some specialist Australian police squads, for example, team leaders describe their roles as protecting workers not only from the stress of the work but also from the stress imposed by management.

    Academic text (2011)
  • If he hadn't left then, when could he have left—and been at home when the police squad car picked him up?" Davis was frowning.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • These racialized elements manifest in aesthetic form when Thomas addresses the almost exclusively white male NYC police squad, wherein both he and the group of officers don professional paraphernalia and gear that command authority as well as respect.

    Academic text (2014)
  • The police squad was deployed to handle the recent spate of burglaries in the neighborhood.

Synonyms

squad
vspolice squad
702 2.4

A small group of people organized to do one job, like in the army or sports

is used for groups of officers assigned to particular crimes or duties
patrol
vspolice squad
230 2.7

A group of people like police who move through an area to keep it safe

is assigned to specific crimes or duties rather than routine area monitoring
SWAT team
vspolice squad
  • US
49 3.9

A group of police trained to handle dangerous incidents like hostage situations

is more general, covering small officer groups for any specific crime or duty
vice squad
vspolice squad
  • NSFW
3 5.6

A police group that investigates and stops crimes like gambling and prostitution

is broader, applying to officers assigned to any particular crime type
flying squad
vspolice squad
  • UK
1 5.6

A police team that moves quickly to deal with emergencies

is focused on particular crime types or duties rather than rapid area response
SWAT squad
vspolice squad
  • US
5.8

A police team trained to handle violent, dangerous events like armed standoffs or hostage crises

is more general, applying to any small officer group with a particular duty
3.7

A group of police officers with special training and weapons who handle very dangerous situations like armed suspects or hostages

is a general term for small officer groups assigned to specific duties
4.6

A police unit trained to handle violent situations like hostage crises and armed standoffs

is used more broadly for officer groups assigned to various special duties

How Specialized

Special Forces
  • US
59 3.4
SWAT team
  • US
49 3.9
task force
153 3.3
police squad
1 3.0
patrol
230 2.7

Surface Forms

police squad singular
police squads plural

Morphology

police + squad

The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'police' (law-enforcement organization) with 'squad' (a small, purpose-driven team); a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer it refers to a small unit of police officers assigned to a task. This noun–noun compounding follows common patterns in English and many other languages, so the relation is immediately comprehensible.

Etymology

Police squad gives a picture of a small squad — a tight team of police officers — sent together to deal with one kind of problem. That's why it means 'a small group of officers assigned to a particular job'.