po-po

• popo

From reduplication of the abbreviation PO (“police officer”), originally in reference to partnered bike officers in Southern California whose paired shirts would read POPO.

POPO originated in Pontiac Michigan during Detroit's heaviest crime wave during the 1960s and 1970s and into the 1980s. People of the time migrated out and into other major cities. With them they carried the term.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpoʊˈpoʊ/

po-po (countable and uncountable, plural po-pos)

1. (colloquial, derogatory, countable) Synonym of police officer.
   • 2006 Sept. 10, David Simon & al., "Boys of Summer", The Wire, 00:23:44:

     Yo, po-po, man. Shut it down.

   • 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 134:

     The cops had busted us for selling hot designer bags up on Utica Avenue for some cat who figured we was too young to get knocked if we got caught, but two fat white po-pos said fuck how young we was, and threw us in a cell for damn near three days until they could contact Noojie to come get us out.

2. (colloquial, derogatory, uncountable) Synonym of police.
   • 2012, Liz Talley, Under the Autumn Sky, page 151:

     “Shit,” Brian breathed. “Who called the po-po?”

• Originally chiefly urban American slang, now spread to UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. This term has also spread to Hong Kong during the protests in 2019.

• → Dutch: popo

• Lim, Lisa. "How Hong Kong Slang Terms for 'Police' Have Evolved over Time", South China Morning Post, 28 Sept. 2019.

• oppo, poop