Green’s Dictionary of Slang

burglar n.

[play on SE; note WWI milit. burglars, Bulgarians]

1. (US) a swindler, a bribe-taker, thus v. burgle, to take bribes.

[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 29 Oct. 7/4: Three sweet burglars in Melbourne are in a tight place. The old story. Too fond of the Jimmies.
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 29 Nov. 4/7: A pea comes up [...] an’ arsts me for the fair-dinkum chat. ‘E’es a real burglar an’ I warns ’im orf the course.
[US]D. Runyon ‘Mexican Love Song’ 5 Nov. [synd. col.] I love to [...] dream of pleasant scenes / Like pottin’ burglin’ jockeys from the stands.
[US]Van Loan ‘Sanguinary Jeremiah’ in Old Man Curry 131: A day when all the burglars at the track will be levelling for the get-away money.
[US]Wentworth & Flexner DAS.

2. a sodomite [euph. for SE bugger and implication of ‘breaking in’].

[US] ‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 441: Burglar, An active pederast.
[US]Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 43: Burglar. – An active pederast.
[US]G. Legman ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants.
[Aus]B. Moore Lex. of Cadet Lang. 65: G explains burglar as a corruption of bugger (in its primary sense ‘someone who engages in active as opposed to passive anal intercourse’).

3. a security prison officer.

[UK]J. Campbell Gate Fever 110: That evening the burglars spun Gilbert’s cell.
[UK]J. Morton Lowspeak 32: Burglar Brigade – officers in prison who inspect the anus of a prisoner for concealed drugs.
[UK]Guardian Rev. 31 Mar. 9: The three prison officers from security (also responsible for cell searches and affectionately known as ‘burglars’) marched him out.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

burglar cop (n.) (also burglar copper) [cop n.1 (1)/copper n. (3)]

(US Und.) a corrupt police officer.

[US](con. 1905–25) E.H. Sutherland Professional Thief (1956) 125: The burglar copper is not regared as a traitor to the public or as a friend but as a sensible person who is playing the game intelligently.
[US]C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 320: Burglar cop, A policeman who extorts protection money from thieves.
burglar hole (n.) [through which one can espy potential robbers]

(US) a peephole in a front door.

[US]M. Rodgers Freaky Friday 27: I peeked through the burglar hole . . . and almost fainted dead away! [HDAS].