I’ve always thought {‘avwI’} “guard” is the best currently available word for a police officer in general.  (No doubt in a militarized society like Kronos there are numerous specialized security services of which we know next to nothing.)  Okrand certainly uses {‘avwI’} in a general sense, especially here:

Qo'noSDaq paw cha' DIvI' beq.

tlhIngan 'avwI' lughom.

Two Federation crewmen arrive on Kronos.

They meet a Klingon guard. (PK)

Oddly we only have one example of the verb {‘av} “guard” AFAIK:

molor chalqach 'avlu'bogh pIrmuS lupawta'
they reach the base of Molor's guarded tower (PB)

Other examples of {‘avwI’}:

mughoS 'avwI' 'ar

How many guards are coming? CK

'avwI' nejDI' narghta'bogh qama' reH 'avwI' Sambej

When an escaped prisoner looks for a guard, he always finds one. TKW

pawpu' 'avwI' paghDIch

the zeroth guard has arrived KGT
["implying that no guard has arrived even though one (and probably more than one) is expected." (KGT 177)]

'avwI' Hay' yaS

The officer duels the guard. KGT

jav luHpu' 'avwI'

The guard has caused a prisoner to confess.

(slang; lit. "The guard has yanked a six") KGT

And then there are those two jokes in Power Klingon:

Qo'noSDaq paw cha' DIvI' beq.

tlhIngan 'avwI' lughom.

lutlhob «naDevvo' vaS'a'Daq majaHlaH'a'?»

jang 'avwI' «lIchopbe'chugh ghewmey!»

Two Federation crewmen arrive on Kronos.
They meet a Klingon guard.
They ask him, "Can we get to the Great Hall from here?"
The guard answers, "If the bugs do not bite you!" (PK)

'avwI'vaD jatlh qama' «jIghung»

jang 'avwI' «jIghung je»

jatlh qama' «jI'oj»

jang 'avwI' «jI'oj je»

jatlh qama' «jIDoy'qu'»

jatlh 'avwI' «jIDoy'be'!»

A prisoner says to the guard, "I am hungry."
The guard replies, "I am also hungry."
The prisoner says, "I am thirsty."
The guard replies, "I am also thirsty."
The prisoner says, "I am very tired."
The guard says, "I am not tired!"  (PK)

After all, what is it that police do if not guard the citizenry - or guard the rulers from the citizenry?  See the Irish *garda* "guardian, police officer", the Spanish Guardia Civil, etc.

--

Voragh

From: tlhIngan-Hol [mailto:tlhingan-hol-bounces@lists.kli.org]
On Behalf Of André Müller

I usually used {Hung yaS} 'security officer' to refer to the police, but maybe {qopwI'} 'arrester' is an idea, too.

mayqel qunenoS <mihkoun@gmail.com>:

Numerous times I wondered how to say "police" in klingon. The best
solution I could think of was {qopmeH 'obe'}.


<bellerophon.modeler@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 31, 2016 at 11:48 AM, Steven Boozer <sboozer@uchicago.edu>
> wrote:
>>
>> > Klingon Word of the Day for Monday, October 31, 2016
>> >
>> > Klingon word: qop
>> > Part of speech: verb
>> > Definition: arrest
>>
>> AFAIK never used in a sentence.
>
>
> And I see no evidence in Star Trek that Klingons have any kind of permanent
> police force, though suspects are taken into custody and courts are convened
> to try them.
>
> So perhaps {qop} is used in the more general sense of the word "arrest,"
> causing motion or some other process to be halted. One might then say
> ?{HachchoHghach qoplu'bogh} for arrested development.
>
> ~mIp'av
>