Police chief

A chief of police is the title given to an appointed official or an elected one in the chain of command of a police department, particularly in North America. A chief of police may also be known as a police chief or sometimes just a chief, while some countries favour other titles such as commissioner or chief constable. A police chief is appointed by and answerable to a national or local government, with the main exception being elected sheriffs in the United States.Pensacola Florida Town Marshal Stephen Mallory 1832Brooklyn NY Police Chief John S Folk 1851-1865Atlanta GA Police Chief George T. Anderson 1877-1881 Dodge City Kansas Town Marshal Edward Masterson 1878-1879Trinadad Colorado Town Marshal Bat Masterson 1880-1882Tombstone Arizona Town Marshal Fred White 1880Tombstone Arizona Town Marshall Virgil Earp 1881-1882NYPD Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt 1894-1895CW Wappenstein, Chief of the Police Department, Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition, Seattle, 1909San Francisco Police Chief Fred Lau, 1996-2002 A chief of police is the title given to an appointed official or an elected one in the chain of command of a police department, particularly in North America. A chief of police may also be known as a police chief or sometimes just a chief, while some countries favour other titles such as commissioner or chief constable. A police chief is appointed by and answerable to a national or local government, with the main exception being elected sheriffs in the United States. In the United Kingdom, the chief police officer for 43 of the 45 territorial police forces and the 3 special police forces holds the rank of Chief Constable. The exceptions are the Metropolitan Police Service and City of London Police, where the chief police officer instead holds the rank of Commissioner. The umbrella term for the chief constables and commissioners is chief police officer. The term 'chief officer', by contrast, includes the chief police officers and their deputies and assistants. The National Police Chiefs Council is the association for chief officers. The rank of Commissioner should not be confused with the Police and Crime Commissioners. They are elected officials who oversee a police force and how its funds are spent, rather than being police officers.