- published: 13 May 2016
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Policja (Polish pronunciation: [pɔˈlit͡sja]) is the generic name for the police in Poland. The Polish police force was known as policja throughout the Second Polish Republic (1918–1939), and in modern post-communist Republic of Poland since 1990. Its current size is 103.309 officers and ca. 12.000 civilian employees. Among the branches in the force are: Criminal Service, Traffic Police Service, Prevention Service and Supporting Service. Most towns and some villages have their own city guards, which supervise public order and road safety; however city guards have jurisdiction only over misdemeanors and in cases of crimes may serve only in a supportive role for the state police.
The force's name, Policja, translates into the English language as Police, whilst the force's full name Policja Rzeczypospolitiej Polskiej is best translated as 'Police of the Polish Republic' or 'Police of the Republic of Poland', however, the full official title of the force is rarely used in speech.
An individual officer is typically called a policjant (plural policjanci); these are not, however, official titles and are not included in the official rank structure, they are simply terms used to refer to any police officer regardless of the rank they may hold. A police station is known as Komenda Policji or Komisariat Policji both of which translate more or less into English as Police Commissariat. Female officers may be referred to as policjantki, the singular of which is policjantka.