Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a police officer, usu. male.

1905		F. Hutchison Philosophy of Johnny the Gent 79: ‘[T]hem big cheese coppers thinks nobody's hep to them bein’ dicks who they take off the brass buttons an hide their star?’.
1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 162: The ‘dicks’ ain’t givin’ him no protection, see?
1916		J. Lait ‘Canada Kid’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 153: A plain-clothes dick nails me wit’ my fingers in a rube’s overcoat.
1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 373: The dick and the dip saunter off up to the station.
1930		(con. 1900s–10s) Dos Passos 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 290: There was a dick looking into our faces as if he was trying to remember them.
1943		C. McCullers Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1986) 331: He saw the dicks and in a panic he started to run.
1951		Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 321: Gotta keep me eyes skinned for Ted next door, he’s just been put on and if you ask me he’s a dark horse. I’ve a feeling he might be in with the dicks.
1958		Hughes & Bontemps Book of Negro Folklore 348: Taxi, taxi, taxi, / Drive me to Tennessee. / He said, Drive me, bubber, / ’Cause the dicks is after me.
1965		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 72: He’d turn a few tricks and baffle the dicks, / leavin’ not a clue to find.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 100: Sid Hudgens didn’t call so much – he wasn’t a Narco dick now.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 11: [F]our Sheriff’s dicks were inside the complex.

2. a detective; thus house dick, the security officer in a hotel, office; store-dick a store detective, dry dick, a Prohibition agent, etc.

1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 293: He turned Stevey up while Steve was workin’ on th’ ‘pete,’ and th’ ‘dicks’ rushed in and glomed him.
1916		J. Lait ‘Charlie the Wolf’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 26: We’re a fine pair o’ dicks.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 30: The pinch had been made by a store-dick in Carson, Pirie & Scott’s establishment. [Ibid.] 255: The context is often the only clue the crook has in determining the meaning of some words. A dick may mean a detective, or a policeman.
c.1930		(ref. to late 19C) N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 98: We’d strut in the hotel lobbies, wink at the house dick we knew, but never go for a masher or give the eye to a gentleman.
1931		C.B. Yorke ‘Snowbound’ in Gangster Stories Oct. n.p.: ‘You’re not such a bad guy for being a dick’.
1935		Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks n.p.: Dick or ‘D’ or Dee: Detective.
1938		R. Chandler ‘Red Wind’ in Red Wind (1946) 16: I didn’t know either of the dicks. You can be in the detecting business a long time and not know all the men.
1943		R.L. Bellem ‘Heads You lose’ in Dan Turner Hollywood Detective Feb. 🌐 I’m a private dick. That makes me a cop, sort of.
1947		I. Shulman Amboy Dukes 70: I guess you don’t like dicks.
1948		Dan Burley ‘Back Door Stuff’ 20 Nov. [synd. col.] Bull-shouldered railroad dicks.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 125: house dick A hotel detective.
1950		P. Hoskins No Hiding Place! 192/1: Dick. A detective.
1953		E. Wilson Look Who’s Abroad Now 11: The Swedish equivalent of the American ‘prohibition agent’ is joked about just as we used to laugh about our ‘dry dicks’.
1954		J. Thompson Swell-Looking Babe 119: Risk Fillmore’s [...] calling the house dick.
1958		R. Prather Scrambled Yeggs 36: I have to carry a gun [...] the girls wouldn’t think I was a private dick if I didn’t.
1959		C. Himes Crazy Kill 77: You’re too smart for us country dicks in Harlem.
1961		R.S. Close With Hooves of Brass 26: No doubt the dicks reckoned she was involved in it, since she was known to have been living with Jack when they picked him up.
1965		C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 51: The [...] plainclothes dicks all had their prisoners in tow.
1965		R.L. Pike Mute Witness (1997) 145: The house dick knows this Rykind character.
1970		‘Troy Conway’ Cunning Linguist (1973) 46: I shushed her as best I could, using the pillow before she brought the house dicks in on us.
1975		J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 77: Here’s a mug shot of that dude the dicks want for shanking his old lady.
1981		S. Berkoff Decadence in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 8: Decided for a hunch to hire a dick with a nose like a Jew / a private detective.
1983		A. Payne ‘Willesden Suite’ Minder [TV script] 17: You’ve seen it in the movies, they’re called the house dick.
1990		J. Wambaugh Golden Orange (1991) 35: One team composed of police detectives called itself ‘The Swinging Dicks’.
1996		(con. 1949) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 207: The house dick, a fat, bald-headed dude who’d given Matty the fisheye from time to time.
1999		Guardian Guide 5–12 June 81: Hiring a private dick to help locate her natural mother.
2000		Indep. on Sun. Culture 23 July 3: He’s a black private dick.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 55/2: dick n. a detective.
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] ‘I’ve been over it a thousand times with the filth, with that fat fuck Walker from Bellington and with the Sydney dicks’.
2018		(con. 1963) L. Berney November Road 222: A house dick came over and asked Barone who the fuck he was.