== Today == 

 This may seem pedantic but I believe that it is important to challenge what has become an increasingly persistent misuse of language in respect of British Police forces. This article is following the modern trend and so it seems appropriate to discuss it here.  

 What I am talking about is, I believe, an acceptance of phraseology that has arisen from a lazy definition of non-warranted and support staff within the various forces. They are very often described as civilian staff. The use of the term civilian in reference to these posts is not in question, for they are most certainly that, but the use is in the context that the warranted staff are by inference something different. In the normal usage of the English language in the context of governmental authorities is that they are either civilian or military (in which the term naval may be substituted dependent upon which arm of the armed forces is in question).  

 The article describes the senior management structure and the relevant paragraph concludes: -"Also forming part of the command team are the Director of Human Resources and the Director of Finance although both of these roles are filled by civilian members of staff". 

 It is easy to understand how the canteen discussions by warranted officers may well use a form of short-hand (if speech can be described thus?) that differentiates between those sworn into the office of Constable and those who are not, but it is not a viable definition in any other circumstances. In a civil emergency in the UK, by law, the Police are the service which is given the role of lead for the very reason that they are a civil force. Unlike the Gendarmerie in France and other places which is a branch of the military, the British Police forces are definitely civilian, and therefore even the most senior officer is a civilian and not to be distinguished in that regard from the Directors of Human Resources or of Finance. 

 I contend that notwithstanding the frequent description of civilians within the various British Police services as something not really part of the service, a use frequently made by politicans, pundits and journalists, these are clearly not well informed sources and their poor usage ought not to influence Wikipedia.