A police officer ancestor?

The Norfolk Constabulary has an online index to records of police who served with the service between 1854 and 1955, not including records for the formerly independent forces of Norwich, King's Lynn and Great Yarmouth.

If you see a name you recognise and require additional information write to: Force Historians, c/o Facilities, Norfolk Constabulary Operations and Communications Centre, Falconers Chase, Wymondham, Norfolk, NR19 0WW quoting the book number and page number as shown in the listings where it is available.

Checking a few other counties, not a complete survey, I found no comparable online index. Many counties do have material on the organization history, best found by googling policy, history and the county name. It may lead to sources of information on individuals. Here are a few examples.

Hampshire indicate records are at the Hampshire Record Office, except for Southampton and the Isle of Wight. Go here and scroll down to FRONTLINE.

The (London) Metropolitan Police have information here.

Cheshire has a Museum of Policing with a query form.

For general information on police ancestors try Martin Rigby's blog posting.

If you are fortunate enough to have access to a digitized local newspaper, and the officers name was not too common, try a search for the name. Police were often in the public eye.