The Indian Police Service (Devanāgarī

Devanagari

Devanagari |deva]]" and "nāgarī" ), also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...

: भारतीय पुलिस सेवा, Bhāratīya Pulis Sevā), simply known as Indian Police or IPS, is one of the three All India Services

All India Services

The All India Services are the three all India civil services of India namely the Indian Administrative Service , the Indian Police Service and the Indian Forest Service ....

 of the Government of India

Government of India

The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...

. In 1948, a year after India gained independence from Britain

British Raj

British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

, the Imperial Police (IP) was replaced by the Indian Police Service.

The IPS is not a law enforcement agency; rather it is a civil service

Civil service

The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....

 in which officers are selected on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations, and to which all police officers are professionally identified.