Also "the Bill", "the Old Bill" (British)

The police. A working-class London term, which slowly entered common currency

during the 1970s, partly owing to television police dramas. The term's origins

are obscure. It seems to have passed from 'Bill' or 'Old Bill', a mock affectionate name for individual police officers, via 'the Old Bill', a personification of the police force as a whole, to 'the Bill'. It can also be used in expressions such as '(look out) (s)he's Bill!', meaning he or she is a police officer. Coincidentally or not, in 1917 the

Metropolitan Police used Bruce Bairns father's famous cartoon figure Old Bill (he of 'If you know of a better 'ole, go to it') on a recruiting campaign. It may also be significant that when the Flying Squad was first motorized, all their licence plates had BYL registrations.

'A banner was draped from cell windows Wandsworth prison where police had taken over from striking warders reading: support the screws – Old Bill out.' (Guardian, 3 January 1989).