Territorial police force
A territorial police force is a police service that is responsible for an area defined by sub-national boundaries, distinguished from other police services which deal with the entire country or a type of crime. In countries organized as federations, police responsible for individual sub-national jurisdictions are typically called state or provincial police.
Canada
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is the federal-level police service. It also acts as the provincial police service in every province except for Ontario, and Quebec, which operate provincial police services, as well as Newfoundland and Labrador, which is served by the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary. The RCMP is also contracted to act as the territorial police force in Nunavut, Yukon and the Northwest Territories in addition to being the federal police force in those Canadian territories.Spanish Sahara
A separate Sahrawi indigenous unit serving the Spanish colonial government was the Policia Territorial. This gendarmerie corresponded to the Civil Guard in metropolitan Spain. It was commanded by Spanish officers and included Spanish personnel of all ranks.United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom the phrase is gaining increased official use to describe the collection of forces responsible for general policing in areas defined with respect to local government areas. The phrase "Home Office Police" is commonly used but this is often inaccurate or inadequate as the words naturally exclude forces outside England and Wales, but include some special police forces over which the Home Secretary has some power.The police forces referred to as "territorial" are those whose police areas are defined by:
- Police Act 1996 – England and Wales, later legislation matched the Metropolitan Police District to the boundary of Greater London
- Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 – Scotland
- Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000 – Northern Ireland