What determines the military rank of a chief of police?
Police are not military but para-military. That means they have similarities to the military. One of those is rank and structure. The size of the department dictates the number of ranks and how many of each rank. My department has 3 corporals, 4 sergeants, 2 lieutenants, 1 assistant chief, and 1 chief. I have seen chiefs wear anything from 1 star to 5 stars. It has been my experience that the chief determines what he wears. If you want to compare the positions, then the chief would be like a 4 star general or general chief of staff. He is the boss over the entire department. He answers to the head of the city the same way the general chief of staff answers the President. The other ranks are similar to those of the military and (again depending on the size of the department) have a similar number of personnel under them. Hope this helps.
