Policemen are called “coppers” (and “cops”) because of older English slang where cop meant “to seize, grab, or catch,” so a copper was literally “one who cops” – the person doing the catching.

Quick Scoop: Where “copper” comes from

  • In 18th–19th century English, to cop meant to take, seize, or arrest, especially in criminal slang.
  • When police forces became more organized in the 1800s, officers were the ones who “copped” (caught) criminals, so they picked up the nickname coppers – “the ones who seize/arrest.”
  • By the 1840s–1850s, “copper” for a policeman was common in Britain and then in the US, and it was often used as rough or criminal slang.
  • “Cop” is simply the shortened form of “copper,” and it eventually became the more neutral everyday term.

What about copper buttons or copper badges?

You’ll sometimes hear a story that “coppers” were named after the copper metal in their badges or buttons, especially in New York, but language historians consider that a folk etymology rather than the real origin. The usage of cop and copper as “to seize” and “one who seizes” is attested earlier than those badge stories.

Mini timeline example

  • 1700s: to cop = to seize, grab, take (slang).
  • 1840s: “copper” used as slang for police officer (“the one who cops”).
  • Late 1800s: “cop” widely used as short for “copper,” becomes the standard informal word.

So “coppers” are not named after the metal in their uniforms, but after their job: they cop people, so they’re coppers.

TL;DR: Policemen are called “coppers” because the old verb to cop means “to seize/arrest,” so “copper” arose as slang for “one who cops,” later shortened to “cop.”

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.