police

English police comes from Middle French police, from Latin polītīa ("state, government"), from Ancient Greek πολιτεία (politeía), itself built on πόλις (pólis), "city."

The word traveled from a Greek noun for the city-state and its governance, through Latin and French terms for civil administration, into English as the name for the body that enforces public order.

Police is a doublet of policy and polity, both of which trace back to the same Greek πολιτεία, and it's also linked to polis, the Greek word for city-state.