Police IS your friend. ❌
Police ARE your friends. ✔️
The police officer/man/woman IS my friend. ✔️
Are the police our friends? ✔️
The police officers/men/women ARE my friends. ✔️
The police force IS your friend. ✔️
The first police force WAS established at Bow Street, London, in the early 18th century. ✔️
The police commander IS your friend. ✔️
The police department IS your friend. ✔️
PS: the irony, “Police IS your friend” is a popular mantra coined by the police force and pasted on the walls of every police station in Nigeria and it is what we grew up to know. It now part of of us.
Explanation,
There are some nouns which appear singular but they have a plural sense. And as a result, they are used with plural verbs. These nouns are: cattle, police, youth, vermin, people, folk, gentry and clergy.
Examples:
The police…….happy about the dwindling crime rate (UME 94 Q.65)
(a) says they are (b)say it is (c)say they are (d) say it is. The correct option is C.
The police work hard (not works), but, that policeman (not policemen) works (not work) hard.
Police and policemen are collective nouns that is why they attract a plural verb.
But policeman is not collective noun but a singular noun, hence a singular verb.
According to Longman dictionary
GRAMMAR: Singular or plural verb?
Police is a plural noun and it’s followed by a plural verb:
The police ARE investigating the case ✔️
Don’t say: The police IS investigating the case. ❌
When talking about someone who works for the police, you say a police officer, a policeman, or a policewoman.
Don’t say: a police. ❌
More examples:
The police investigate something.
F-Division Police ARE (not is) investigating a break-in at the club. ✔️
The police catch somebody
The police ARE (not is) no nearer to catching his killer.
CAMBRIDGE DICTIONARY
The police are investigating fraud allegations against him.
The police are appealing to the public for any information about the missing girl.
OXFORD LEARNER’S DICTIONARY
Police are investigating the break-in.
Note: Though a collective noun, it is generally construed as a plural both in AmE and in BrE, e.g,
the police AREN’T here yet.
COLLINS DICTIONARY
But police HAVE also been the focus of intense political scrutiny, their actions sometimes provoking political change of an unexpected kind.
The police ARE the official organization that is responsible for making sure that people obey the law.
The police ARE also looking for a second car.
Police SAY they have arrested twenty people following the disturbances.
I noticed a police car shadowing us.
Concord isn’t difficult if you know the rules.
ODOGWU
THE TRINITY
