Police captain
Rank in law enforcement
A police captain is a police rank in some countries, such as the United States, France, Thailand and the Philippines.
01By country
France
France uses the rank of capitaine for management duties in both uniformed and plain-clothed policing. The rank comes senior to lieutenant and junior to commandant. This rank was previously known as inspecteur principal for plain-clothed officers, and officier de la paix principal for officers in uniform.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, the approximate equivalent rank of a police captain is that of chief inspector.
United States
In most American police departments, the rank of captain is immediately above that of lieutenant. A police captain is often the officer in charge of a precinct.
In some smaller police departments, a person holding the rank of police captain may be in charge of a division (patrol division, detective division, etc.) within that department. In larger police departments, a police captain may command only one section of a precinct which is commanded by either a police major, police inspector, or the next highest rank. A police captain is considered upper-level management in most large urban police departments.
New York City
In the New York City Police Department, the rank of captain is immediately below deputy inspector. Captains are usually veterans with extensive experience.
Philippines
In the Philippines, the rank of a police captain is equivalent to a senior inspector based on the original Philippine National Police rank under the Republic Act 6975. It has existed since 2019. It was higher than a police lieutenant, and lower than a police major.
02Notable police captains
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Police captain”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- French National Police captain.svg by Rama, CC BY-SA 2.0 fr
- U.S. police O-3 shoulderboard rotated (white and gold).svg by This vector image includes elements that have been taken or adapted from this file:, Public domain
- Philippines-Police-OF-2.svg by Skjoldbro, CC BY-SA 4.0
Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.