Police

Synonyms / Other Terms Used

Police Station, Police Post, Police Patrol, Policeman

Category

Public Facilities, Safety, Services

Message / Function

To indicate a police station or a place from which the police can be called.

	Source	Description
	BVG	Front view of policeman, star shaped badge in top right corner
	Expo 70	Front view of policeman
	D'source	Front view of policeman
	DB	Front view of policeman with revolver holster, text Polizei below
4)	McLaren & Braunstein	Front view of policeman, traffic lights above left
	Bolivia	Policeman pointing towards badge with letter T inside
	Argentina MSV	Policeman looking at booklet
	O'72	Side view of policeman, revolver holster and belt in negative
	O'72	Front view of policeman, belt in negative, arms signaling
	SVI	Front view of policeman, belt in negative
	UIC/TCRP	Front view of policeman, revolver holster and belt in negative
	WO'72	Front view of policeman, belt and badge in negative
	Eco-Mo Foundation	Front view of policeman, revolver holster and belt in negative
	UIC 413	Front view of policeman, revolver holster and belt in negative
	SIS	Front view of policeman in saluting posture
	EJP	Policeman in saluting posture
	Fiori R	Front view of policeman with belt
	Zurich Airport	Front view of policeman
	Icograda	Front view of policeman
	Icograda	Head with police hat and whistle in profile
	Muthesius	Head with police hat in profile, glove
	Dutchicon	Head with police hat and sun glasses
	SVI	Head with police hat (Polizia Municipale)
	SVI	Head with police hat (Carabinieri)
	Dreyfuss	Side view of police hat
	EJP	Front view of police hat
2)	Icograda	British police hat with star shaped badge
5)	Icograda	Hand plus handcuff in negative
	Icograda	Police hat, letter § below
3)	Icograda	Side view of police hat, beacon and lines indicating light above
	ON Testdesign	Side view of police hat, beacon and lines indicating light above
1)	Icograda	Front view of emergency car with roof-mounted single beacon and lines indicating light
	ON Testdesign	Front view of emergency car with two roof-mounted beacons and text POLIZEI (police)
	ON Testdesign	Size view of emergency car with roof-mounted light and text POLIZEI (police)
	ON Testdesign	Text POLICE, beacon and lines indicating light above
	GSR Portugal	Hexagonal star with disk in negative and badge inside, text Polícia above
	SADC	Yellow octagonal star with blue disk inside, with text POL in center
	Unknown	Pentagonal star with disk in negative inside
	Picto'grafics	Contour of U.S.Police badge in outline
	Unknown	Circle with bow above and below indicating eye
	Schiphol	Emblem of the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee

Discussion

The set of symbols above already indicates that no single visual stereotype exists concerning the message Police. Designs range from renderings of policemen in uniform, representations of local police headgear, police cars, concepts with text POLICE, often in local language, all kinds of combinations with lights, to very abstract solutions and even just local emblems.

A number of studies examined several aspects regarding this referent:

To identify the best variants before testing for comprehensibility, Easterby & Graydon (1981 a) inspected more than 40 pictogram variants originating from the Icograda student project plus a few others with the message Police on basis of two Appropriateness Ranking Tests. In the table above the best five variants are marked with 1) to 5) according to their scaled ranks, and the best three all were from the Icograda student project. Judging the positive results for the British police hat with star shaped badge, one has to regard that this test was conducted in the UK.

In the follow up Comprehension/Recognition Test (Easterby & Graydon, 1981 b) conducted in countries on several continents, the best ranked pictogram of the Ranking Test showing a front view of an emergency car with roof-mounted single beacon and lines indicating light reached 73.4 % correct answers. The British police hat elicited 57.8 % correct answers while the pictogram marked with 3) evoked just 45.3 % police related associations. Several respondents did not identify this police hat correctly but misinterpreted it as an airplane.

Regarding these results the Working Group Pictogram Design of the Austrian Standards developed several test designs (labeled 'ON Testdesign' in the table above). Using three different testing procedures (Brugger, 1992 a, 1992 b, 1999) these pictograms were compared with the Icograda variant delivering best test results before. In all tests applied, the pictograms including text elements POLICE or POLIZEI were consistently placed in front of the other variants. Using lenient scoring these renderings elicited more than 80 % correct answers in the Comprehension Test. The redesign of the police hat with a beacon above did not improve comprehensibility, resulting in 30 % correct answers only.

In a Japanese study to propose domestically unified graphical symbols based on scientific methods, the pictogram variant labeled as Eco-Mo Foundation proved to be sufficiently comprehensible with a comprehension score of 75.8 (Eco-Mo Foundation, 2001). When Fiori (2008) examined a map symbol for Police Station similar to the variant labeled Fiori R, only 32.7 % of the responses in a Comprehension Test were classified as correct. No details about scoring or classification of responses are available. Answers reported besides Police Station and Police were Security Guard, Traffic Warden, Military Area, and Guard, for example.

Recommendations

As results reported above are quite heterogeneous, we recommend to conduct an additional study including a Comprehension Test comparing the main concepts above to determine the image content working best.

Tests of pictograms of referent Police

Brugger, Ch. (1992 a): Reihungstest 1992. Report to the Austrian Standards Institute (ON) FNA 133 dated August 1992, Vienna.

Brugger, Ch. (1992 b): Verständnistest 1992. Report to the Austrian Standards Institute (ON) dated October 1992, Vienna.

Brugger, Ch. (1999): Public information symbols: a comparison of ISO testing procedures. In: Zwaga, H., Boersema, T. & Hoonhout, H. (Eds.): Visual information for everyday use. London: Taylor & Francis Ltd.

Easterby, R.S. & Graydon, I.R. (1981 a): Evaluation of Public Information Symbols: ISO Test: 1979/80 Series. Part I: Appropriateness Ranking Tests. AP Report 99, Applied Psychology Department, University of Aston in Birmingham, January 1981.

Easterby, R.S. & Graydon, I.R. (1981 b): Evaluation of Public Information Symbols: ISO 1979/80 Test Series. Part II: Comprehension/Recognition Tests. AP Report 100, Applied Psychology Department, University of Aston in Birmingham, January 1981.

Eco-Mo Foundation (2001): Test data of public information symbols in Japan - Procedure for the testing of public information symbols by the Study Committee. ISO: ISO/TC 145/SC 1 N 329.

Fiori, S. R. (2008): Mapas para o turismo e a interatividade - proposta teórica e prática. Tese de Doutorado - Depto. de Geografia, FFLCH-USP.