Overpolice

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To police too much, as by patrolling a neighborhood excessively or meting out a punishment incommensurate to the severity of a crime. transitive

    "First, many veterans of protest marches believe that the police overpolice these events. Second, why are the police still willing to protect a St. Patrick's Day Parade if security concerns and costs are suddenly so important?"

Example

More examples

"First, many veterans of protest marches believe that the police overpolice these events. Second, why are the police still willing to protect a St. Patrick's Day Parade if security concerns and costs are suddenly so important?"

Etymology

From over- + police.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.