If I know someone was a police officer but not which force they served on, how do I find out which force?

If you do not know which part of the country he or she lived in you require to find out more basic information about the individual from other records – statutory registers, census returns, civil registers of births, marriages and deaths, etc. For basic advice go to the Family History pages.

If you know where someone lived you need to work out which forces operated in that area. Bear in mind that police forces were arranged into burgh, county or amalgamated forces until 1975. Also, some small burgh forces, in the suburbs of cities, were annexed later by Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. Someone who lived in Glasgow may have served on a number of forces, for example Glasgow City Police, the Lanarkshire Constabulary, Clyde River Police, or the constabularies of one of Glasgow’s many small burghs (e.g. Govan, Maryhill, Calton, and Partick). You can do this by finding out which county and/or burgh the place concerned was in before 1975. You could ask the relevant local authority archivist or police museum which forces were in operation in or around a particular place at the time in question.

Once you have a list of forces in that area go to the FAQ How can I find the service record of an individual police officer?

If you have searched all the surviving police personnel records for that area go to the FAQ Why might I be unable to trace a service record of a police officer?