Deputy superintendent of police
rank used by several police forces
Deputy superintendent of police (DSP) is a rank used by several police forces in the Commonwealth and formerly in the British Empire. The rank is usually above assistant superintendent and below superintendent.
India
The rank of deputy superintendent of police (DSP or DySP) was created in 1876 as the policy of Indianisation was introduced. It was originally a rank only held by Indians and was equivalent to assistant superintendent (a rank then only held by Europeans).
Deputy superintendents of police are officers who belong to the State Police Services (SPS) of the respective Indian states. Officers are either directly recruited through the respective Public Service Commission examinations or promoted from lower ranks. Deputy superintendents of police can be promoted to the Indian Police Service (IPS) after several years of service which varies from 8 to 15 years depending on the state. Deputy superintendents of police are typically assigned the charge of a police sub-division under a police district in the post of sub-divisional police officer (SDPO). In the states of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, the post is known as circle officer (CO).
Under Indian law, a deputy superintendent of police may serve as the investigative officer (IO) in instances involving terrorism, dowry deaths, atrocities against scheduled caste, and corruption.
“Deputy superintendent of police” enters the record as rank used by several police forces. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Deputy, superintendent and police can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5261103. The first chronological checks are 1876.
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This entry incorporates text from “Deputy superintendent of police” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.