the Old Bill

n

British

the police.

A working-class London term which slowly entered common currency during the 1970s, partly owing to tele-vision police dramas. The term's origins are obscure. It seems to have passed from 'Bill' or 'Old Bill', a mock affec-tionate name for individual police offic-ers, 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!', mean-ing he or she is a police officer. Coincidental^ 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 motorised, all their licence plates had BYL registrations. A banner was draped from cell windows [at Wandsworth prison where police had taken over from striking warders] reading: support the screws - Old Bill out.' (Guardian, 3 January 1989)