Posted: 2/4/2010 7:52:30 AM EDT
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They have sgt and cpt. I could have sworn I saw a cop on FOX news a couple days ago being interviewed with the rank of col. in front of his name.
So, how high do they go? General? |
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Usually it's:
Officer, Sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain, Deputy Chief, Chief. Sometimes: Officer, Corporal, Sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain, Major, Deputy Chief, Chief Around here typically it's DPS with the military style ranks, cities are generally the first one. But there are still cities with Majors though. Never heard of a colonel in a police department though, but never say never, |
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Quoted:
Varies with department; it is consistently inconsistent. I have seen sheriffs from California with four stars on their collar. That generally denotes years of service and or a level of rank gets x amount of stars. The SO here is like that. Sgt is one star, Lt is 2 stars, Captain is 3 stars and Dep Chief is 4 stars and Sheriff gets 5. |
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I think VA State Police have Col.'s
ETA : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_State_Police#Rank_Structure |
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Very inconsistent across departments and states.
Reminds me of a story..... 
Back at my old police department, we had a rank of Inspector. Inspector Baxter choose to wear Colonel Eagles on his shoulders. The department got a new Chief of Police from outside the agency. He was a retired full bird Colonel, retired from the Army. On his first day on the job, he called in Inspector Baxter and told him, "Inspector, there is only one Colonel in this outfit, and it ain't you. Get those birds off your shoulders." The Inspector started wearing Major's oakleaves on his shoulders after that. 
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| Yeah we have Deputy, Corporal (Jail only), Sergeant, Lieutenant, Undersheriff, and Sheriff. Our Sergeants wear stripes on their cleeves as well as collar brass chevrons, which struck me as funny and redundant at the same time. The university PD chief wears Colonel's eagles on his collar tabs. He gets mad when I call him Colonel. Good guy though. |
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Quoted:
Very inconsistent across departments and states. Reminds me of a story.....
Back at my old police department, we had a rank of Inspector. Inspector Baxter choose to wear Colonel Eagles on his shoulders. The department got a new Chief of Police from outside the agency. He was a retired full bird Colonel, retired from the Army. On his first day on the job, he called in Inspector Baxter and told him, "Inspector, there is only one Colonel in this outfit, and it ain't you. Get those birds off your shoulders." The Inspector started wearing Major's oakleaves on his shoulders after that. I would have shown up the next day in General's stars just to be contrary, but I'd take them off when he asks/threatens me. 
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Varies by department.
For us, it is as follows Officer-Trainee Officer/ Detective Sergeant/Detective Sergeant Lieutenant/Detective Lieutenant Deputy Major Major Lieutenant Colonel Colonel Deputy Commissioner Commissioner We used to have captains, but they were done away with in favor of deputy major. Deputy major and above are by appointment only, and "serve at the pleasure of..." Years of service are indicated by a wreath on your right coat sleeve, in multiples of 5. |