List of Police-related Slang Terms - A

A

Aina

Swedish, the police. From the Turkish Aynasız.

Accoutrements

UK, a police constable's personal equipment. At signing-on parade, the procedure was to give the order "show your accoutrements", at which the constables would produce their handcuffs, truncheons, whistles and notebooks for inspection. This was common practice up to the early 1990s. As officers now carry more equipment for their protection, having every officer produce this at the beginning of a shift would be impractical. Up until the introduction of police radios officers carried a whistle, (to signal to officers that they required assistance, and to attract the attention of the public) and 3 Old Pence so that, whilst on patrol, the officer could ring the police station from a public phone kiosk. (This amount would, of course, have varied according to the minimum cost of a call from a phone-box.)

Asfalt Kovboyu (Asphalt Cowboy)

Turkish, police officers. Police officers are related to cowboys in Turkey due to their lawless acts.

Aynasız (Plural Aynasızlar)

Turkish, address to a police officer. The word literally means "mirrorless" and its attribution to a police officer suggests that a cop is perceived as someone who constantly accuses others of vice, whereas he himself has no mirror to see his own vice. It is roughly equivalent in usage to the English word pig and is commonly used when translating English-spoken movies into Turkish.