Antedating of Modern Sense of "Police"

[Shapiro, Fred]

police (OED3, 5.a., 1798)

1794 Patrick Colquhoun _Observations and Facts Relative to Licensed Ale-Houses_ 18 (Eighteenth Century Collections Online)  His [an immoral publican's] house, in spite of all the vigilance of the parish or police officers, becomes a complete school of vice and wickedness.

Fred Shapiro

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