Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bottle (and stopper) n.

(US) a police officer.

1919		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 19: It’s the rhyming slang [...] Bottles an’ stoppers those are coppers.
1928		R.J. Tasker Grimhaven 180: Then we moped because the bottles and stoppers had the beef by that time and there was nothing for us to do but hop in the rattle and jar, and powder.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks.
1944		Maurer & Baker ‘“Aus.” Rhyming Argot’ in AS XIX:3.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1963		L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 106: When he says he is ‘looping’ away from a ‘bottle and stopper’ or from a ‘copper’ he means he is running away from a policeman.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 160: Every other stud you meet on the streets belongs to the bottles. They got four snitches on each block.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.
1999		E. Bunker Mr Blue 114: A ‘bottle and stopper on the hammer and tack,’ means there’s a copper on your back.
2002		D. Shaw ‘Dead Beard’ at www.asstr.org 🌐 Maybe I’ll ask the local bottles and stoppers if they know about what’s on your sheet with the sweeney todd.