Australian Slang For Police (17 Examples!)

Police are always an interlinked part of any community.

It’s not surprising that any given language usually has a fairly wide variety of slang terms by which to refer to the police.

This is just as true in Australia as it is anywhere else.

There are plenty of local, colloquial terms for the police all across Australia.

Today, we’re going to look at some of the most widely used of those terms.

Let’s get started.

Bobby

Starting off with one of the more common, this has taken on its own Australian character, but was originally a British slang term.

Specifically, police officers in England, particularly in London, were referred to as Bobbies.

In Australia, it is still widely used today, probably more so than it is in England.

It originates from the name Robert Peeler, who was the man who invented the modern police force in England in the 19^th Century.

This also gave rise to the nickname peelers.

It’s likely the slang spread through prison ships bound for Australia.

Blue heelers

This one was so popular that it even spawned a cop-drama of the same name, Blue Heelers.

It is particularly used in rural areas of Australia, and is not a reference to the police themselves but instead to the dogs they use.

Very commonly, rural Australian police, and Australian police in general, favor the Australian Cattle dog for police work.

The breed is blue in appearance, that sort of morning fog color you also see in cats and even birds.

The notion of “heelers” is that the dogs are obedient, and return to your “heel” when called. It came into use in the early 20^th Century.

Traps

Another slang term you may still hear in relation to police in Australia is traps.

This one is a little more old fashioned now, and not one you’re likely to hear all that often.

Nonetheless, it is still in use, and has been for a long while.

It is somewhat unclear where this term comes from, although it could be a reference to the idea of the “honey trap”, which was where police would lure men into traps to entrap them for indecency charges.

It may also have been spawned when police were sent into public houses to catch “sinners” drinking on the Sabbath.

What’s more likely, though, is that it was a reference to the NSW mounted police in the 19^th Century, as they would “trap” escaped prisoners.

Trappers

Another version of the above slang term is “trappers”.

In terms of use and origin, this one is exactly the same, and in fact probably preceded the above version.

It was a slang term for police that originated in the 19^th Century.

Jacks

This term has a couple of different meanings, but both of them relate back to the police.

On the one hand, it is purely a slang term for police.

Any police officer is a jack, and the police as a whole are jacks.

On the other hand, though, someone who informs the police or betrays you to the police is a “jack”, someone who works with the police.

More broadly it can also just mean someone who is not to be trusted.

The word itself is a reference to the jackboots worn by police officers.

This term is still also used in parts of England, particularly in Liverpool, which is where it was exported to Australia sometime in the 19^th Century.

Cop

There are probably fewer places in the world where cop is not used as a slang term than where it is.

Though it is more commonly thought of as an Americanism, and this is certainly where Australian slang got the term, it’s so ubiquitous in Australia that I would be remiss to leave it out.

Many would argue that “cop” is entirely supplanting virtually all other slang terms for police.

And, further, though we tend to think of this as being an American term, it originally was British slang.

It came originally from the term to mean “someone who captures”, ultimately deriving from the Old French caper.

When and how it transferred to Australia cannot be known with any certainty, though it was likely very early on given Australia’s position as a penal colony.

Cop shop

Following on from that, one you might not actually hear in America is “cop shop”.

This is a slang term for a police station used in Australia.

This one seems like a pretty natural slang term to arise, so again it’s very difficult to say with much precision when it came into use.

It was likely sometime in the 20^th Century.

Bronze

This one is uniquely Australian, without a shadow of a doubt.

And we know exactly when it entered the language.

Again, this term just refers to any police officer, or the police in general.

“It’s the bronze!” for example.

In 1979, a franchise would be kicked off known as Mad Max, which was initially set in Australia.

In that film, the term bronze is used as a made up slang term for police.

It just happened to stick, and became common use in Australia!

The idea, in the movies, was that it was a reference to the bronze of their badges.

Divvy van

This one will no doubt sound a bit strange to non-Australian ears.

Let’s clear up the term “divvy,” first, which can in many slang dialects, including Australian, just mean an idiot.

In this context, though, the sense is a bit different.

This one is used mainly in Victoria and Western Australia, and means “police van”—that is, “divisional van”.

It is not necessarily, directly, calling the police stupid.

But, certainly part of the reason the term has stuck is because of this association.

The term itself is relatively recent, not appearing before the 1970s in any written record.

Double bubble

This next one is another reference to the vehicles police officers use.

It refers to highway patrol police vehicles in Australia, and the term itself is a reference to the rotating blue lights that these vehicles have on board.

Of course, most police vehicles have rotating blue lights, but the highway patrol vehicles have much larger ones, and they are both blue.

Urban police vehicles tend to have a blue and red light, usually, though this isn’t always the case.

When this term came to be is a mystery.

Again, it’s a rather natural term to arise, referring to the “double” lights, but when precisely is unclear.

Feds

You’re probably familiar with this one too if you know any American slang for police.

But this one, too, is also used in Australia, and is an established slang term of its own in many parts of the country.

It is a simply shortening of federal police.

This is distinct from local police; the feds are national police such as the FBI.

The feds in Australia are the Australian Federal Police, and they are colloquially referred to as feds.

Again, this is probably a very old term, as federal police have existed for a long time in Australia and the US.

It was likely widely adopted in the late 19^th and early 20^th Centuries.

Filth

Usually the full name is The Filth; this as you can see is a pretty explicitly derogatory slang term for the police.

This is yet another one that is very common in Australia but which was originally coined in Britain.

It’s widely used in parts of the South of England as well as in broad swathes of Australia today.

It probably originated in the notion that police departments were corrupt and so “filthy” in a metaphorical sense.

This is a more recent term in terms of widespread use, probably not dating back much further than the 1960s.

It likely travelled to Australia in the next decade or two.

As with so many, though, we can’t really say for sure.

Mountie

Though you might think of this one as the most quintessentially Canadian slang term for police that there is, it is also widely used in Australia, too.

It is most well known as a name for the Canadian Mounted Police, but has also become used in parts of Australia to refer to their state’s mounted police.

This term goes back as far as 1914, though probably even further—this is just our oldest written record.

Again, when it transferred to Australia is all but impossible to tell, though it likely did not take very long.

Plod

This is a common one throughout Australia, other versions including Pc Plod and Plodder.

It’s used to refer to a single policeman, usually, and just about any policeman.

It ultimately comes from the Enid Blyton children’s stories, Noddy, which featured a policeman called Mr Plod.

It is a reference, also, to the way they plod heavily down the street without much purpose.

It’s certainly meant to be poking fun at the police at least a little bit.

Vics

This one is really regionally specific, but there are no prizes for guessing which Australian state uses this slang term for its police.

Interestingly, this term was first used in America in the 1990s and 2000s, referring to the Ford Crown Victoria model car that the police typically used.

However, in the state of Victoria, in Australia, it has also come to be a slang term for any and all Victoria police.

It’s simply a shortening of Victoria, if you hadn’t figured that out!

It probably spread to Australia after it was used in the US, rather than arising independently.

So, it’s likely been in use since around the early 2000s.

Walloper

No other country can lay claim to this slang term for the police.

Walloper is uniquely Australian, probably not well known outside of Australia, and though it is declining in use, is still heard today.

It has been in use since the 19^th Century, when police officers would walk their beats carrying truncheons.

To “wallop” something is to hit it very hard, so it’s quite clear where this slang term comes from.

It was a reference to the truncheons and how police officers would, oftentimes, overreach their authority to give someone a good walloping.

Water rat

Finally, we have another one that is unmistakably derogatory, water rat.

This one is an Australian slang term specifically for the water police, though in the past it was actually a term for a thief or scoundrel who operates on a waterfront.

When the change took place is unclear, though both terms are still used independently.

Water rats, also, are an actual animal that live in Australia, and are, as their name suggests, rat-like creatures that live near the water.

They are properly called rakali.

Interestingly, there was a long-running procedural drama called Water Rats, about police who operated on the water.

It ran for six seasons from 1996, and so undoubtedly played a big role in the widespread adoption of the term water police.

Australians are known worldwide for their colorful and amusing slang terms, and many of the terms on this list certainly qualify.

They have many different ways of referring to cops in Australia, and these are but just a few.

Though they clearly share many of their slang terms with other countries, they’ve also come up with plenty of their own slang terms.

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Founder - @PollyWebster

Polly Webster is the founder of Foreign Lingo and a seasoned traveler with a decade of exploration under her belt.

Over the past 10 years, she has journeyed to numerous countries around the globe, immersing herself in diverse cultures, traditions, and languages.

Drawing from her rich experiences, Polly now writes insightful articles about travel, languages, traditions, and cultures, sharing her unique perspectives and invaluable tips with her readers.

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