The Cities Police was a Greek

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 police

Police

The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...

 force extant from 1921 to 1984, responsible for policing urban areas. It complemented the Greek Gendarmerie

Greek Gendarmerie

The Hellenic Gendarmerie was the national gendarmerie and military police force of Greece.-19th Century:The Greek Gendarmerie was established after the enthronement of King Otto in 1833 as the Royal Gendarmerie and modeled after the French Gendarmerie. It was at that time formally part of the...

, which was responsible for rural and suburban areas.

History

Its creation was decreed in 1918 (Law 1370/1918) and confirmed in 1920 (Law 2461/1920). The force became operational in the city of Corfu

Corfu

Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the edge of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered as a single municipality. The...

 in 1920, followed by Patras

Patras

Patras , ) is Greece's third largest urban area and the regional capital of West Greece, located in northern Peloponnese, 215 kilometers west of Athens...

 (1921), Piraeus

Piraeus

Piraeus is a city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens Urban Area, 12 km southwest from its city center , and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf....

 (1923) and Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

 (1929). Remarkably, in Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...

, Greece's second city, the force was not established due to the Gendarmerie's opposition, despite the law's provisions.

Unlike the paramilitary Gendarmerie, which had close ties to the Hellenic Army

Hellenic Army

The Hellenic Army , formed in 1828, is the land force of Greece.The motto of the Hellenic Army is , "Freedom Stems from Valor", from Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War...

 and was commanded by Army generals, the Cities Police was a purely civilian force, modelled after the London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 Metropolitan Police

Metropolitan police

Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...

 and with training provided by a British mission under Sir Frederick Loch Halliday.

From the late 1920s, the Cities Police, and especially its feared General Security office, initiated the state persecution of the nascent Communist Party of Greece

Communist Party of Greece

Founded in 1918, the Communist Party of Greece , better known by its acronym, ΚΚΕ , is the oldest party on the Greek political scene.- Foundation :...

, whose popularity was growing among the urban poor, the working classes and the destitute refugees from Asia Minor

Greek refugees

Greek refugees is a collective term used to refer to the Greeks from Asia Minor who were evacuated or relocated in Greece following the Treaty of Lausanne and the Population exchange between Greece and Turkey...

. In the aftermath of the Greek Civil War

Greek Civil War

The Greek Civil War was fought from 1946 to 1949 between the Greek governmental army, backed by the United Kingdom and United States, and the Democratic Army of Greece , the military branch of the Greek Communist Party , backed by Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Albania...

, the Gendarmerie and the Cities Police became bastions of the conservative and vehemently anti-Communist establishment, a role they would retain throughout the Regime of the Colonels from 1967 to 1974. After the fall of the Colonels, emphasis was placed on civilian policing. Despite strong opposition from the Gendarmerie, the Cities Police and the Gendarmerie were amalgamated on 1 November 1984 (Law 1481/1-10-1984) into the unified Hellenic Police.

Ranks

Cities Police Officer Ranks & Insignia
Chief Αρχηγός	Deputy Chief Υπαρχηγός	Brigadier Ταξίαρχος	Police Commissioner Αστυνομικός Διευθυντής	Deputy Commissioner Αστυνομικός Υποδιευθυντής	Police Captain I Αστυνόμος Α'	Police Captain II Αστυνόμος Β'	Police Lieutenant I Υπαστυνόμος Α'	Police Lieutenant II Υπαστυνόμος B'

Cities Police NCO Ranks & Insignia
Police Warrant Officer Ανθυπαστυνόμος	Chief Warden w. 20 years service Αρχιφύλακας με 20 έτη υπηρεσίας	Chief Warden Αρχιφύλακας