Inspecteur (police)

Inspector, also police inspector or inspector of police, is a police rank. The rank or position varies in seniority depending on the organization that uses it. In Australian police forces, the rank of inspector is generally the next senior rank from senior sergeant and is less senior than a superintendent (in the cases of the Queensland Police and Western Australia Police) in the other Australian police forces. Members holding the rank usually wear an epaulette featuring three silver pips, the same rank badge as a captain in the army. In addition to the general rank of inspector, some police forces use other ranks such as detective inspector and district inspector. In Austria a similar scheme was used as in Germany. At some point the police inspector was completely removed from the list of service ranks. The current police service has an inspectors service track with Inspektor being the entry level – it is followed by Revierinspektor (precinct inspector), Gruppeninspektor (group inspector), Bezirksinspektor (district inspector), Abteilungsinspektor (section inspector), Kontrollinspektor (control inspector) and Chefinspektor (chief inspector). In most Canadian police services the rank of inspector is the first officer/commissioned officer rank, above that of staff sergeant. It is usually immediately below the rank of superintendent. Depending on the police force, an inspector may be considered senior management. The rank insignia of an inspector in Canada is usually a crown on the epaulettes, the insignia of a major in the army. In some police services such as the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary or the Vancouver Police Department, the rank insignia are three pips, similar to the insignia of an army captain, while in others including the Toronto Police Service and Peel Regional Police, the insignia consists of two maple leaves, similar to an army lieutenant's insignia. Provincial police services and the majority of municipal police services, such as the Toronto Police Service have a staff inspector rank, which ranks above inspector and below superintendent.