After the success of Understanding Military Rank Through Film (Parts One and Two), I thought it might be a good idea to try to figure out how police ranks work. Granted, a lot of this shifts between precincts, but this will give you a good overview. We begin, as always, at the bottom.
Officer
Where it all begins.
Officer John McClane (Bruce Willis) in Die Hard.
Detective
Now you get to wear normal clothes.
Detective Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) in Beverly Hills Cop.
Sergeant
Now you’re in charge of people.
Sgts. Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh (Mel Gibson and Danny Glover) in Lethal Weapon. They both got promoted to Captain in part four.
Lieutenant
Welcome to middle management.
Lt. Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) in The Naked Gun.
Captain
In charge of a whole precinct, which may or may not be assaulted.
Capt. Dudley Smith (James Cromwell) in L.A. Confidential. Real nice guy.
Major
Haven’t actually found any of these, but in some departments it’s the same as Commander, so let’s skip there.
Commander
AKA “inspector,” but in San Francisco an inspector is the same as a detective, which is how Inspector “Dirty” Harry Callahan can be outranked Lt. Al Bressler.
Commander Adam Beck (David Morse) in The Negotiator.
Commissioner
AKA Chief of Police. There are several ranks of commissioner, but this is the only one that ever gets a speaking role.
Commissioner James Gordon (Gary Oldman) in The Dark Knight.
You may be wondering about the sheriff and the deputy (and if they were shot by one person or two). In some counties, you can have an elected position called sheriff, with deputies working under him or her. You can also have a second-in-command called an undersheriff. Here’s how it all breaks down.
Sheriff Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy) in First Blood.
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