Quick question on rank notation protocol

[230RN]

I noticed that military ranks seem to be initialized and capitalized lately, eg. LTC, PFC, SGT, etc.

Ok, but I wamt  to write a letter to a local Police Sergeant and I wondered if that same protocol should be applied to the Police rank designations.

That is, should I address the letter to Sgt. So-and-so or SGT So-and-so?

No problem or anything, I just wanted to thank him on record for a courtesy he granted me in finding a lost article.

Terry, 230RN

[zxcvbob]

I'm pretty sure "Sgt" is correct.  (not sure if it should have a period at the end or not)

[BobR]

I would go with "Sgt." When used as part of a named person's title it is capitalized and has the period to denote abbreviation. That's my understanding and I am sticking with it.

bob

[230RN]

OK, thanks, I'm going to go with "Sgt." as being more conventional.  I was mainly interested in if the police in general had changed their protocols to reflect the "military manner."

[kgbsquirrel]

"MA2" 

[K Frame]

"I noticed that military ranks seem to be initialized and capitalized lately, eg. LTC, PFC, SGT, etc."

It really depends on which style manual the writer is using (if a reporter) or is most familiar with (if military affiliated, US Government, etc.)

AP style is listed here: https://writingexplained.org/ap-style/ap-style-military-titles

DOD usage is that the abbreviations are all caps or upper lower, depending on the service: https://www.military.com/join-military/military-ranks-everything-you-need-know.html#:~:text=Army%20Ranks%20%20%20Paygrade%20%20%20Rank,%20%20PFC%20%2026%20more%20rows%20

Personally I'd go with the upper lower style used by AP and, I believe, Chicago Manual of Style. It looks a lot cleaner.




"I was mainly interested in if the police in general had changed their protocols to reflect the "military manner.""

There are upwards 18,000 federal, state, and local policing agencies in the United States today, and in general, they pretty much all can adopt whatever rank convention they want. There's no single arbiter.

[Ben]

I used to have to write or refer to military ranks all the time. I always did Air Force lower case and the feet wet guys upper case. I never referred to Army guys and at the time always thought land (and air) lubbers were lower case and maritime guys were upper case, but I see by Mike's link that Army is upper case, at least now. Don't know if they changed or have always been that way.

When I had to refer to Fish & Game or cops, I would always do lower case. Feds like all caps for a lot of stuff, like ranks, ship names, etc. Civilians are more into lower case, from my experience.

[K Frame]

When I was working at Navy Federal Credit Union back in the 1990s we defaulted to Dept. of the Navy, which went with the all caps stuff, but I seem to recall using all caps for Marine Corps ranks, as well.

[Ben]

When I was working at Navy Federal Credit Union back in the 1990s we defaulted to Dept. of the Navy, which went with the all caps stuff, but I seem to recall using all caps for Marine Corps ranks, as well.

Yeah, me too. I included the crayon eaters in "feet wet". 

[dogmush]

AR 25-50 (Preparing and Managing Correspondence) shows that the Army will abbreviate rank with an all caps abbreviation.  So Colonel becomes COL and Sergeant becomes SGT.

It's been that way the entire 24 years I've been in the Army.

 

[230RN]

 

Thanks for that.  One of the few times I got lucky and guessed right: "sergeant Sgt."

I guess it wasn't quite such a routine question as I thought.

If I may wax snotty for a moment, from the commentary, it rather looks like any or all of the style "guides" were really developed according to common mis-use and possibly fisticuffs.

But, thanks again.  Actually very helpful, dogmush.  I put that link in with my common symbols file.

Terry

[RoadKingLarry]

Depends on if you want to piss them off or praise them.
Always get a chuckle out of calling a non-Navy Captain a Lieutenant, oops sorry about that, I was Navy and always get confused...