• A civil, non-paramilitary (police) force consisting of police officers called constables. This is the usual definition in Britain
  United Kingdom
  The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
  
  , in which all county
  County
  A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain modern nations. Historically in mainland Europe, the original French term, comté, and its equivalents in other languages denoted a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain...
  
   police forces once bore the title (and some still do). See: Law enforcement in the United Kingdom.

• A large civil police force organized and trained along military lines, which may contain paramilitary
  Paramilitary
  A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
  
   elements. This is the usual definition in places outside of Great Britain
  Great Britain
  Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
  
   (e.g., Royal Irish Constabulary
  Royal Irish Constabulary
  The armed Royal Irish Constabulary was Ireland's major police force for most of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. A separate civic police force, the unarmed Dublin Metropolitan Police controlled the capital, and the cities of Derry and Belfast, originally with their own police...
  
  , Royal Ulster Constabulary
  Royal Ulster Constabulary
  The Royal Ulster Constabulary was the name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2000. Following the awarding of the George Cross in 2000, it was subsequently known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC. It was founded on 1 June 1922 out of the Royal Irish Constabulary...
  
  , Royal Newfoundland Constabulary
  Royal Newfoundland Constabulary
  The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary is a police force in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It provides policing to the communities of St. John's and the Northeast Avalon Peninsula, Corner Brook, Churchill Falls, and Labrador City....
  
  , Royal Canadian Mounted Police
  Royal Canadian Mounted Police
  The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
  
  , Pennsylvania Constabulary
  Pennsylvania State Police
  The Pennsylvania State Police is the state police force of Pennsylvania, responsible for statewide law enforcement. It was founded in 1905 by order of Governor Samuel Pennypacker, in response to the private police forces used by mine and mill owners to stop worker strikes and the inability or...
  
  , Jamaica Constabulary Force
  Jamaica Constabulary Force
  The Jamaica Constabulary Force is the police force of the island nation of Jamaica. The official JCF staff numbers 9,930 plus 55 auxiliary positions, making a total of 9,985; its current strength is 8,441. Its commissioner is Owen Ellington, M.Sc, B.Sc, CD...
  
   etc.). These were organizationally based on the French Gendarmerie, originally consisting of military
  Military
  A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
  
   personnel seconded to or military veterans recruited directly to the constabulary and later became all civilian forces after they were well established.

• The title of a military or para-military type force consisting of soldiers trained for police duties Mostly established by the United States
  United States
  The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
  
   in the several countries over which it had protective status (e.g., Philippine Constabulary
  Philippine Constabulary
  The Philippine Constabulary ' was the oldest of four service commands of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. It was a gendarmerie type para-military police force of the Philippines established in 1901 by the United States-appointed administrative authority replacing the Guardia Civil...
  
  , United States Constabulary
  United States Constabulary
  The United States Constabulary was a United States Army military Constabulary force. From 1946 to 1952, in the aftermath of World War II, it acted as an occupation and security force in the U.S...
  
   in West Germany
  West Germany
  West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
  
   after World War II
  World War II
  World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
  
  , Nicaraguan National Guard, Panama National Guard). These forces also performed military functions by maintaining "mobile forces" of organised units. In Europe such forces are called Gendarmerie
  Gendarmerie
  A gendarmerie or gendarmery is a military force charged with police duties among civilian populations. Members of such a force are typically called "gendarmes". The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary describes a gendarme as "a soldier who is employed on police duties" and a "gendarmery, -erie" as...
  
  s, Carabinieri
  Carabinieri
  The Carabinieri is the national gendarmerie of Italy, policing both military and civilian populations, and is a branch of the armed forces.-Early history:...
  
   (in Italy
  Italy
  Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
  
  ) or Guardia Civil (in Spain
  Spain
  Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
  
  ).

Listing

• Royal Gibraltar Police
  Royal Gibraltar Police
  The Royal Gibraltar Police is, along with the Gibraltar Customs, the principal civilian law enforcement agency in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. It is the oldest Police force in the Commonwealth of Nations outside the United Kingdom....
  
  
• Isle of Man Constabulary
  Isle of Man Constabulary
  The Isle of Man Constabulary is the organisation responsible for policing the Isle of Man, an island of 80,000 inhabitants situated equidistant from Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England.-Structures and Deployment:...
  
  
• Civil Nuclear Constabulary
  Civil Nuclear Constabulary
  The Civil Nuclear Constabulary is a special police force responsible for providing law enforcement and security at civil nuclear installations, and for nuclear materials in transit, throughout the United Kingdom....
  
  
• Belfast International Airport Constabulary
  Belfast International Airport Constabulary
  The Belfast International Airport Constabulary is a small, specialised police force responsible for policing Belfast International Airport, Northern Ireland....
  
  
• Hampshire Constabulary
  Hampshire Constabulary
  Hampshire Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in southern England.The force area includes the cities of Winchester, Southampton and Portsmouth...
  
  
• Devon and Cornwall Constabulary
  Devon and Cornwall Constabulary
  Devon and Cornwall Police, formerly Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, is the territorial police force responsible for policing the counties of Devon and Cornwall in England and the unitary authorities of Plymouth, Torbay and the Isles of Scilly....
  
  
• Northern Constabulary
  Northern Constabulary
  The Northern Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for Northern Scotland, covering the Highland council area along with the Western Isles, the Orkney Isles and the Shetland Isles, which comprise most of the Highlands and Islands area...
  
  
• (Wandsworth Police)http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/Home/EnvironmentandTransport/Parkspolice/default.htm
• Mexican Rurales
  Rurales
  Rurales was the name commonly used to designate the Mexican Guardia Rural : a force of mounted police or gendarmerie that existed between 1861 and 1914...
  
   during the administration of president Porfirio Díaz
  Porfirio Díaz
  José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori was a Mexican-American War volunteer and French intervention hero, an accomplished general and the President of Mexico continuously from 1876 to 1911, with the exception of a brief term in 1876 when he left Juan N...
  
   (1876–1911).
• (Pakistani Frontier Constabulary
  Frontier Constabulary
  The Frontier Constabulary, FC, is a paramilitary force responsible for maintaining law and order in the country.- Introduction :The Frontier Constabulary is a Federal Paramilitary Force of Pakistan which is largely drawn from the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, but operates in all the provinces of...
  
   forces)http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_pakistae
• Texas Constable
  Texas Constable
  The Texas constable is enshrined in the Texas Constitution of 1876 , which provides for the election of a constable in each precinct of a county, and counties may have between one and eight precincts each depending on their population. The term of office for Texas constables is four years...
  
  

Historic

• Royal Irish Constabulary
  Royal Irish Constabulary
  The armed Royal Irish Constabulary was Ireland's major police force for most of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. A separate civic police force, the unarmed Dublin Metropolitan Police controlled the capital, and the cities of Derry and Belfast, originally with their own police...
  
   - Britain's paramilitary police force in Ireland
  Ireland
  Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
  
   from 1822 - 1922.

• Royal Ulster Constabulary
  Royal Ulster Constabulary
  The Royal Ulster Constabulary was the name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2000. Following the awarding of the George Cross in 2000, it was subsequently known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC. It was founded on 1 June 1922 out of the Royal Irish Constabulary...
  
   - Britain's paramilitary police force in Northern Ireland
  Northern Ireland
  Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
  
   from 1922 - 2001 when it was reformed as the Police Service of Northern Ireland
  Police Service of Northern Ireland
  The Police Service of Northern Ireland is the police force that serves Northern Ireland. It is the successor to the Royal Ulster Constabulary which, in turn, was the successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary in Northern Ireland....
  
  .
• Ulster Special Constabulary
  Ulster Special Constabulary
  The Ulster Special Constabulary was a reserve police force in Northern Ireland. It was set up in October 1920, shortly before the founding of Northern Ireland. It was an armed corps, organised partially on military lines and called out in times of emergency, such as war or insurgency...
  
   - a reserve police force from 1920 until it was disbanded in 1970.

• United States Constabulary
  United States Constabulary
  The United States Constabulary was a United States Army military Constabulary force. From 1946 to 1952, in the aftermath of World War II, it acted as an occupation and security force in the U.S...
  
   - United States Army
  United States Army
  The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
  
   military gendarmerie
  Gendarmerie
  A gendarmerie or gendarmery is a military force charged with police duties among civilian populations. Members of such a force are typically called "gendarmes". The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary describes a gendarme as "a soldier who is employed on police duties" and a "gendarmery, -erie" as...
  
   force. From 1946 to 1952, in the aftermath of World War II, it acted as an occupation and security force in the U.S. Occupation Zone of West Germany
  West Germany
  West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
  
   and Austria
  Austria
  Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
  
  .
• Arizona Rangers
  Arizona Rangers
  The Arizona Rangers is an Arizona law enforcement agency modeled on the Texas Rangers. The Arizona Rangers were created by the Arizona Territorial Legislature in 1901, disbanded in 1909, and subsequently reformed in 1957. They were created to deal with the infestations of outlaws in the sparsely...
  
   - existed from 1901–1909 and reformed as the auxiliary branch of the Arizona Highway Patrol in 1957
• California State Rangers
  California State Rangers
  The California Rangers, or the California State Rangers, was California's first state wide law enforcement agency formed in 1853 to deal with the outlaw gangs troubling the Gold Country during the early 1850s. The force was disbanded following the success in suppressing the Five Joaquins gang...
  
   - existed from 1854 - 1887 when it was merged into the California State Police
  California State Police
  The California State Police was a security police agency founded in 1887 which served to protect the State Capitol Building, the Governor and other state agencies located throughout the state. They provided police services to all state agencies that did not have their own police force...
  
   which in turn was merged with the California Highway Patrol
  California Highway Patrol
  The California Highway Patrol is a law enforcement agency of the U.S. state of California. The CHP has patrol jurisdiction over all California highways and also acts as the state police....
  
   in 1995
• New Mexico Mounted Police
  New Mexico Mounted Patrol
  The New Mexico Mounted Patrol is an unfunded, all-volunteer state law enforcement agency. Mounted Patrol Troopers complete an intensive night/weekend academy and must meet the same strict requirements as any peace officer in New Mexico. State statutes dictate that the governor may call the Mounted...
  
   - now called the New Mexico State Police
  New Mexico State Police
  The New Mexico State Police is the state police agency for New Mexico, which has jurisdiction anywhere in the state. It was created to protect the lives, property and constitutional rights of people in New Mexico...
  
  
• Massachusetts State Police
  Massachusetts State Police
  The Massachusetts State Police is an agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Executive Office of Public Safety and Security responsible for criminal law enforcement and traffic vehicle regulation across the state...
  
   - very paramilitary in its early years. Now totally demilitarised outside of the training academy.
• Pennsylvania Constabulary - now called the Pennsylvania State Police
  Pennsylvania State Police
  The Pennsylvania State Police is the state police force of Pennsylvania, responsible for statewide law enforcement. It was founded in 1905 by order of Governor Samuel Pennypacker, in response to the private police forces used by mine and mill owners to stop worker strikes and the inability or...
  
  
• Puerto Rico Police Department - was created as the paramilitary Puerto Rico Insular Police in 1899, and was demilitarised and renamed as the Puerto Rico Police Department in 1956.

• Royal Hong Kong Police Force - Britain's paramilitary police force in Hong Kong from 1844 until the 1997 transfer of sovereignty to the People's Republic of China
  People's Republic of China
  China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
  
  .
• British South Africa Police
  British South Africa Police
  The British South Africa Police was the police force of the British South Africa Company of Cecil Rhodes which became the national police force of Southern Rhodesia and its successor after 1965, Rhodesia...
  
   in Rhodesia
  Rhodesia
  Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
  
  .
• South African Police
  South African Police
  The South African Police was the country's police force until 1994. The SAP traced its origin to the Dutch Watch, a paramilitary organization formed by settlers in the Cape in 1655, initially to protect civilians against attack and later to maintain law and order...
  
   of the Apartheid era.
• Southwest African Police - paramilitary police force of South African occupied Southwest Africa (now called Namibia
  Namibia
  Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
  
  ) from 1915 - 90.

• Philippine Constabulary
  Philippine Constabulary
  The Philippine Constabulary ' was the oldest of four service commands of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. It was a gendarmerie type para-military police force of the Philippines established in 1901 by the United States-appointed administrative authority replacing the Guardia Civil...
  
   - created in 1901 by the American colonial administration. It was demilitarised and merged with the Integrated National Police
  Integrated National Police
  The Integrated National Police was one of two national police forces in the Philippines prior to 1991...
  
   in 1991 to form the Philippine National Police
  Philippine National Police
  The Philippine National Police is the national police force of the Republic of the Philippines. It is both a national and a local police force in that it does provides all law enforcement services throughout the Philippines...
  
  .

For Further Reading

• Segal,David R., Brian J. Reed, and David E. Rohall. “Constabulary Attitudes of National Guard and Regular Soldiers in the U.S. Army.”

• Moskos, Charles C., Jr. “UN Peacekeepers: The Constabulary Ethic and Military Professionalism.” Armed Forces & Society
  Armed Forces & Society
  Armed Forces & Society is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes scholarly articles and book reviews on civil–military relations, military sociology, military institutions, conflict management, arms control, peacekeeping, conflict resolution, military contracting, terrorism, and...
  
  , Jul 1975; Vol. 1: pp. 388–401.