The term "police" is an example of a collective noun that refers to a group of individuals who are part of an organized body responsible for maintaining public order and enforcing the law. In English, certain collective nouns, such as "police," are treated as plural despite representing a single entity or group. This is because they denote a collection of individuals who make up the body and are capable of acting independently.

When we use "police" in a sentence, we almost always pair it with a plural verb because we are generally referring to the members of the police force as a whole. For example, "The police are investigating the crime." This sentence suggests that multiple officers within the police force are involved in the investigation.

This plural usage is particularly common with organizations where the individual members perform tasks, as opposed to collective nouns where the group acts as a single unit, like "team" or "family," which can be paired with either singular or plural verbs depending on whether the emphasis is on the group as a single entity or the individual members within it.

In summary, "police" is a plural noun because it refers to a group of people working collectively, and the actions attributed to the police are typically carried out by multiple individuals within that group.

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