"Po-po?"

[Eve]

I must know. I haven't read the whole thread (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=397241), so perhaps it is answered within. But the slang po-po for police: never heard it before. Is it a Southernism (Atlanta)? Is it meant to be cute, like flatfoot, or insulting, like pig? How old a term is it? Did Askia make it up? In which case, we must try to get it into the vernacular, so the SDMB can have invented a word!

[Margaret Dumont] "I say, I wonder where the opera house is? I'll ask that po-po!" [/Margaret Dumont]

[Jayrot]

Very very common here on the west coast. Certainly a slang/underground term.

[Quasimodem]

In German a "popo" is your ass, and while I understand that some policemen can be asses, I don't think this is the origin of the slang term as we use it.

Hope not, anyway. ;)

Q

[susan]

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=popo:
A Police officer. especially the ones that rides on bikes.

Orgin: California late 80's

police officers that patrols certain beaches on bikes wore a vest that said PO in huge blockletters on each of their chest. which means Police Officer. they usually ride around in group of two's.

when you see them coming by. you see the word "PO" "PO" when they stand next to each other.

[Khadaji]

I wondered pretty much the same thing Eve. I had no idea what a popo was and why they would shoot the guy's neighbor.

[Antigen]

I wondered pretty much the same thing Eve. I had no idea what a popo was and why they would shoot the guy's neighbor.
I figured out what it meant, but I thought it was an awfully weird way of saying it.

[twickster]

Those young people and their wacky slang!

[DrDeth]

Very very common here on the west coast. Certainly a slang/underground term.

Lived on the West coast all my life, never heard it. Even saw that beach patrol.

[Harmonix]

I hear it all the time here in california.

[Starving Artist]

I live in the midwest and have heard it mainly from those in the meth/drug/underground culture.

[Kalhoun]

In German a "popo" is your ass, and while I understand that some policemen can be asses, I don't think this is the origin of the slang term as we use it.

Hope not, anyway. ;)

Q
That's what we called it when we were kids.

[hajario]

I hear it all the time here in california.

I did too in my college days in the 80's.

[TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW]

Heard it for 15+ years. It's specifically black/ghetto slang.

[GingerOfTheNorth]

I believe that I first saw it used in Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. At any rate, I have heard it used by people in Baltimore, usually West Baltimore African-Americans.

[gigi]

I first heard it from a white kid up here in small-town Vermont.

[velvetjones]

Count me among those who grew up hearing po-po as a name for your backside.

My mom even had this silly little diaper changing song that she used to sing that contained the phrase "pat 'em on the po-po".

[JCorre]

Another Californian here that has heard the term for a long time now.

FWIW I've always heard it to refer to "the police", plural. So the "I'll ask that po-po!" example would be unusual.

[bordelond]

FWIW I've always heard it to refer to "the police", plural. So the "I'll ask that po-po!" example would be unusual.
Exactly ... much like saying "the fuzz". A collective noun.

I've heard for a good 15 years, at least, from folks of all stripes.

[Diogenes the Cynic]

I've heard it plenty in Minneapolis, both in the plural and the singular.

[silenus]

Another Californian weighing in with "Heard it for quite awhile, always collectively."

[Cluricaun]

I've always heard it in rap songs, and from people I know who think it's funny. Another in the same catagory would be "One time".

[Eve]

Well, that explains it: as an old, East Coast white woman, I always called them "coppers."

[Hampshire]

So how does it fit into Kevin Federline's "Po-po Zao" that they mecilessly poke fun of on The Soup?

[Kalhoun]

Count me among those who grew up hearing po-po as a name for your backside.

My mom even had this silly little diaper changing song that she used to sing that contained the phrase "pat 'em on the po-po".
Sis? Is that you???

(I'm freaked. I thought it was just my mom being weird.)

[Godfrey Daniels]

Heard as slang for the police in Oregon as early as 1982.

[abbeytxs]

Sis? Is that you???

(I'm freaked. I thought it was just my mom being weird.)

Count me in as another who heard "pat em on the po po" as a child. However while po po did refer to one's backside my mother never used it as part of a diaper changing song. "Pat em on the po po" was my mother's term for a smack on the butt for misbehaving. "Knock it off or you all are going to get a pat on the po po!!"

Much like Ginger of the North I didn't hear the term again until I became familiar with the habits of stoop kids and corner kids in West Baltimore. There it is used exclusively to mean police.

[gigi]

So how does it fit into Kevin Federline's "Po-po Zao" that they mecilessly poke fun of on The Soup?
Now, that (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PopoZ%C3%A3o) has something to do with >ahem< patooties. And umlauts.

[Harriet the Spry]

As a toddler, this was the term our family used to refer to that part of the body technically known as the "wee wee."

[Hirundo82]

I grew up in Virginia and am familiar with the term. I have also heard it used as a singular noun.

FWIW, I have never heard it used in a derogatory sense.

[Kalhoun]

As a toddler, this was the term our family used to refer to that part of the body technically known as the "wee wee."
Technically, it could be both a butt and a hoo-hoo. At our house.

I didn't know what a vagina was til I was 37.

[jayjay]

"Feet up! Pat 'em on the po-po! Let's hear him laugh?"

It was a fairly popular novelty song (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feet_Up_(Pat_Him_on_the_Po-Po)) in 1952.

Here's a sound file (http://forbiddencrypts.250free.com/MonsterMash8126/3FeetUpPatEmOnThePoPo.mp3) of it.

[Quasimodem]

I didn't know what a vagina was til I was 37.

"Cooter" down here in the South.

Just lettin' y'all know and trying to be helpful! :)

Q

[Monty]

Californian weighing in here: I never heard the expression in Monterey, Marina, San Francisco, San Jose, Mountain View, Oakland, or Alameda.

[tomndebb]

I live in the midwest and have heard it mainly from those in the meth/drug/underground culture.Aren't straight lines supposed to be reserved for MPSIMS or the Pit?

:p

[Starving Artist]

Hey, I'm just glad that so far no one has pointed out that meth is a drug.

:p

[Johnny L.A.]

Another Californian weighing in with "Heard it for quite awhile, always collectively."
Another Californian weighing in with 'I have never heard the term before seeing it in the Pit thread'.

[snailboy]

I'm a native Texan and I heard it here in the mid or late-90's. Before then, I was probably too young anyway.

[Guinastasia]

It sounds almost like another term for someone's grandfather-similiar to "Pappap".

[Enola Straight]

I first heard it used on NYPD Blue, as Andy Sipowicz asks his young son if somebody touched him on the po-po.

[Nametag]

When I first saw the thread title, my first thought was "one old lady shot another old lady?"

Popo is Chinese for "maternal grandmother" (Cantonese, I think).

[kittenblue]

Never heard it until I read that thread. Lived in Cleveland area all my life, except for a few years in Colorado and Georgia, but then I didn't hang with the locals unless they quilted, so slang word for police didn't normally come up!

[Loach]

I have heard it quite often but not nearly as far back as some have. Until recently the warning cry that the police are here was "5-0". That seems to have been replaced by po-po. Not an improvement in my opinion.

[anson2995]

Is it meant to be cute, like flatfoot, or insulting, like pig? How old a term is it?

Still haven't seen an answer to the OP's question, and I'm curious. Is it a term of derision?

[teela brown]

Well, that explains it: as an old, East Coast white woman, I always called them "coppers."

I can never read that word to myself without mentally hearing it through James Cagney's voice.

[indecisive1]

How is it pronounced?
poe-poe? pu-pu?
(I'm woman of a certain age in a smallish Wisconsin town. It takes many decades for anything to find its way here).

[Loach]

Still haven't seen an answer to the OP's question, and I'm curious. Is it a term of derision?

I haven't heard it as derision, just a nick-name. Like I said it used to be 5-0. Which I found amusing because I bet almost none of the teenagers who used it ever saw the TV show.

[Loach]

How is it pronounced?
poe-poe? pu-pu?
(I'm woman of a certain age in a smallish Wisconsin town. It takes many decades for anything to find its way here).

It's from po-lice which makes it poe-poe.

[Miss Purl McKnittington]

How is it pronounced?
poe-poe? pu-pu?
(I'm woman of a certain age in a smallish Wisconsin town. It takes many decades for anything to find its way here).
Heh. I grew up not even in, but outside of, a very small Wisconsin town, and I remember hearing po-po in middle school, which would have made it somewhere between 1994 and 1998. Probably 1996 or so. It's been around for more than a decade in Wisconsin, I'd say.

[gigi]

Still haven't seen an answer to the OP's question, and I'm curious. Is it a term of derision?Not how I've heard it. It's basically used to call attention to the fact that a cop is nearby and better slow down!

[JCorre]

I wouldn't call it a term of derision...but I wouldn't use it in front of the po po either.

[Donovan]

Still haven't seen an answer to the OP's question, and I'm curious. Is it a term of derision?

In my experience, it is not derision per se, but it would generally be used (non ironically) by someone who is somewhat hostile to cops or is generally happier when they are not around - it is not a term of endearment - Cluricaun was pretty spot on with his comparison to 'one-time'.

I too have heard it since the early nineties, and i grew up in the suburbs of Milwuakee, WI.

[Elendil's Heir]

Heard it for 15+ years. It's specifically black/ghetto slang.

I've only heard it in the last two months or so, but agree it's a black/ghetto coinage.

[DrDeth]

Californian weighing in here: I never heard the expression in Monterey, Marina, San Francisco, San Jose, Mountain View, Oakland, or Alameda.

(High Fives fellow Bay area resident.) :cool:

[Max Torque]

Just thought I'd mention that where I work, there's a fellow who is, shall we say, familiar to the prosecutor's office. He goes by "Po Po". The reason, apparently, was the frequency with which his friends would shake their heads and say, "Po' po' Willie got busted again."