Wikipedia:Naming conventions (law enforcement agency categories)

The guidance provided here is to assist Wikipedia editors to properly and consistently categorise articles about law enforcement agencies and law enforcement units. This guidance applies to articles about the law enforcement agency or unit. It is not, for example, directly applicable things related to the law enforcement agency, or law enforcement generally.

Failure to meet these guidelines is criteria for either speedy renaming, or possibly even speedy deletion, as per Categories for discussion.

This guideline is a tailored version of Naming conventions (categories) and Categorisation applied to law enforcement agencies, and should be read in conjunction with those two guidelines.

The top level category for law enforcement agencies is Law enforcement agencies

Note: Throughout the rest of this guideline, the term law enforcement agency means law enforcement agency or law enforcement unit (of an agency).

Characteristics for categorisation
The characteristics of a law enforcement agency or unit used to determine which categories it should be placed in are:

Organisational status

 * fictional
 * not fictional (by default) and no default category
 * Fictional law enforcement agencies are described in Fictional law enforcement agency and have a parent category Fictional law enforcement agencies.


 * defunct (dissolved)
 * not defunct (by default) and no default category
 * Defunct law enforcement agencies are described in Defunct law enforcement agency and have a parent category Defunct law enforcement agencies.


 * nongovernment
 * governmental agency (by default) and no default category
 * Non-government law enforcement agencies are described in Non-government law enforcement agency and have a parent category Non-government law enforcement agencies.

Jurisdiction

 * international
 * International law enforcement agencies are described in International law enforcement agency and have a parent category International law enforcement agencies.


 * national or federal
 * National law enforcement agencies are described in National law enforcement agency and have a parent category National law enforcement agencies.
 * Federal law enforcement agencies are described in Federal law enforcement agency and have a parent category Federal law enforcement agencies.


 * local
 * country
 * Law enforcement agencies of a country are generally described in an article for each country named Law enforcement in country, and have a category Law enforcement agencies of country , which has a parent category Law enforcement agencies by country.


 * division of a country, for example state, province, territory
 * Law enforcement agencies of a division of a country have a parent category Law enforcement agencies of country division name.


 * sub division of a country, for example, shire, county, city, town
 * Law enforcement agencies of a sub division of a country have a parent category Law enforcement agencies of country sub division name.


 * no default and no default category

Social impact

 * police
 * no default and no default category
 * Police agencies are described in Police and due to their wide range of characteristics have no single parent category, other than the top category Law enforcement agencies.


 * secret
 * not secret (by default) and no default category
 * Secret police agencies are described in Secret police and have a parent category Secret police.

Speciality


Specialist law enforcement agencies are described in Specialist law enforcement agency and have a parent category Specialist law enforcement agencies.
 * not specialist (by default) and no default category
 * not specialist (by default) and no default category
 * not specialist (by default) and no default category
 * not specialist (by default) and no default category
 * not specialist (by default) and no default category
 * not specialist (by default) and no default category
 * not specialist (by default) and no default category
 * not specialist (by default) and no default category
 * not specialist (by default) and no default category
 * not specialist (by default) and no default category
 * not specialist (by default) and no default category
 * not specialist (by default) and no default category
 * not specialist (by default) and no default category
 * not specialist (by default) and no default category
 * not specialist (by default) and no default category
 * not specialist (by default) and no default category
 * not specialist (by default) and no default category
 * not specialist (by default) and no default category
 * not specialist (by default) and no default category

Secularity

 * religious
 * Religious law enforcement agencies are described in Religious police and have a parent category Religious law enforcement agencies.


 * secular (by default) and no default category

Military or civilian

 * military
 * gendarmerie
 * provost
 * civilian (by default) and no default category

Makeup

 * multinational
 * not multinational (by default) and no default category

Definitions of characteristics
Definitions of some of these characteristics: can be found in Law enforcement agency.
 * local police
 * international law enforcement agency
 * multinational law enforcement agency
 * federal law enforcement agency
 * federal police
 * national law enforcement agency
 * national police
 * religious police
 * police
 * military police
 * provost
 * gendarmerie
 * civilian police
 * secret police

World view common category structure and naming
There is a common top level categorisation structure for law enforcement agencies world wide. The standard name for the organisation within the world view standard is law enforcement agency.

The standardised top level structure is as follows:
 * Category:Law enforcement agencies
 * Category:Law enforcement agencies by country
 * Category:Law enforcement agencies of country name
 * Category:Federal law enforcement agencies of country name
 * Category:Law enforcement agencies of country division name
 * Category:Law enforcement agencies of country sub division name &lt;!-- only for countries with large numbers of LEAs for each division --&gt;
 * Category:Specialist law enforcement agencies of country name
 * Category:National law enforcement agencies
 * Category:National law enforcement agencies of country name
 * Category:Federal law enforcement agencies
 * Category:Federal law enforcement agencies of country name
 * Category:Specialist law enforcement agencies
 * Category:Specialist law enforcement agencies by country
 * Category:Specialist law enforcement agencies of country name
 * Category:Specialist federal law enforcement agencies of country &lt;!-- only for countries with large numbers of specialist LEAs for each division --&gt;
 * Category:Specialist law enforcement agencies of country division name &lt;!-- only for countries with large numbers of specialist LEAs for each division --&gt;
 * Category:Type specialist law enforcement agencies
 * Category:Institution law enforcement agencies
 * Category:Education law enforcement agencies
 * Category:Border guards
 * Category:Waterway law enforcement agencies
 * Category: Coast guards
 * Category:Environment and heritage law enforcement agencies
 * Category:Postal law enforcement agencies
 * Category:Property law enforcement agencies
 * Category:Road law enforcement agencies
 * Category:Customs services
 * Category:Railway law enforcement agencies
 * Category:Vehicle law enforcement agencies
 * Category:Protective security law enforcement agencies
 * Category:Anti fraud law enforcement agencies
 * Category:Anti-corruption law enforcement agencies
 * Category:Paramilitary law enforcement agencies
 * Category:Diplomatic law enforcement agencies
 * Category:International law enforcement agencies
 * Category:Multinational law enforcement agencies
 * Category:Defunct law enforcement agencies
 * Category:Defunct law enforcement agencies of country name
 * Category:Fictional law enforcement agencies
 * Category:Non-government law enforcement agencies
 * Category:Military police agencies
 * Category:Gendarmerie
 * Category:Military provosts
 * Category:Military provosts of country name
 * Category:Defunct military provosts

At levels lower than the world view standard, the structure diverges for country specific contexts, if required. Also, country specific structures can be added into the lower levels of the world view standard.

Also, country specific lower level category structures may use country specific terms for the organisation.

Country specific structures below the common world view level
While the common world view can be directly applied to most countries' law enforcement agencies, some countries have very specific and-or diverse law enforcement structures. In such cases there are standards for these countries for the lower levels of categorisation of law enforcement agencies.

United States
The United States has one of the most fractured law enforcement agency regimes of all countries, and as a result has by far the greatest number of law enforcement agencies (the vast majority of them having small jurisdictions and small numbers of personnel). To accommodate the categorisation of a very large number of agencies and types of agency, lower levels of categorisation are needed than are needed for most other countries.

The sub categorisation of law enforcement agencies for the United States overlaps with the lower levels of the world view standard.

The standard for the United States is:
 * Category:Law enforcement agencies of the United States &lt;!-- as per the world view standard for countries --&gt;
 * Category:Federal law enforcement agencies of the United States &lt;!-- as per the world view standard for countries --&gt;
 * Category:Specialist federal law enforcement agencies of the United States
 * Category:Law enforcement agencies of the United States by state
 * Category:Law enforcement agencies of state name &lt;!-- as per the world view standard for country divisions --&gt;
 * Category:State law enforcement agencies of state name
 * Category:Law enforcement agencies of county name &lt;!-- as per the world view standard for country sub divisions --&gt;
 * Category:County law enforcement agencies of county name
 * Category:Specialist law enforcement agencies of state name
 * Category:School police departments of state name
 * Category:University and college police departments of statename
 * Category:Transit police departments of state name
 * cat for each specialist
 * Category:Municipal police departments of state name
 * Category:Defunct law enforcement agencies of state name
 * Category:Specialist law enforcement agencies of the United States
 * Category:Specialist police departments of the United States
 * cat for each type of police
 * cat for each non police
 * Category:Military police agencies of the United States
 * Category:Military provosts of the United States
 * Category:Municipal police departments of the United States by state
 * Category:Municipal police departments of state name
 * Category:County law enforcement agencies of the United States by state
 * Category:County law enforcement agencies of state name

United Kingdom
The United Kingdom is a collation of countries and crown protectorates. The organisation and naming of law enforcement agencies has been influenced by this and is not typical of most other countries.

The standard for the United Kingdom is:
 * Category:Law enforcement agencies of the United Kingdom &lt;!-- as per the world view standard for countries --&gt;
 * Category:National law enforcement agencies of the United Kingdom &lt;!-- as per the world view standard for countries --&gt;
 * Category:Law enforcement agencies of the United Kingdom by country
 * Category:Police forces of country name &lt;!-- as per the world view standard for country divisions --&gt;
 * Category:Military police agencies of the United Kingdom
 * Category:Defunct law enforcement agencies of the United Kingdom
 * Category:Defunct police forces of the United Kingdom

Guidelines

 * Naming conventions (categories)
 * Categorization

Discussions

 * Categories for discussion/Log/2008 April 9‎
 * Categories for discussion/Log/2008 April 9‎
 * Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Speedy (2008 April 30)