Mestská polícia Nitra

Security services used to be and still are identified under the different names but "police" is the most common title. In the past, we can also find "četníctvo" (from Czech), "žandarmerie" (gendarmerie from French), "carabiniers" (from Italian), etc.
Police force is connected with the beginning of a human society organization. The expression "police" came from the Latin form of the Greek word "politia" which means the way of a public force management, municipal administration and communal activity.
The castle walls, towers and gates guard were the most important duty of the municipality police forces. E.g., in the 4th century B.C., in Athens there were archers performing their order service duties. In an ancient Rome we can find municipal cohorts and firefighters. Gradually, new specializations of municipality administration were established, such as the fire police, building police, security police, etc.
The first reference to municipal police force comes from the Austro-Hungarian times, where it acted as a military force guarding safety and social system, being used by local aristocracy as a protection of their property.
After The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the competence of the municipal police was specified by the town organizational statute. Besides administrative authority, this branch held the balance of judiciary and implying police authority. They acted at municipal or town public notary offices. At the head of this military force there was a town police captain.
The main police tasks at that time consisted of a thefts and missing person investigation, passport control, public nuisance, punishing people without legal residence permit, residence registration, etc. Furthermore, police unit had to take charge of the local pubs, register foreigners, report cattle infections, issue milk quality verification and a dance-ball permission,  investigate various applications, e.g. for an old-age benefit, etc.  
At that time, a policeman was considered a public person always on duty, hence every citizen, aside from the social status, had to obey him.

Among the first legal acts after the Czechoslovak republic establishment in 1918, there had been so called reception rule (Act No. 11/1918 Coll.), by which existing state machinery was undertaken. Reliable system from The Austro-Hungary divided service of security forces into municipal police, state police and "četníctvo".

In Slovakia all administration agenda was provided by the municipalities, independent in the meantime. In every municipality, there was a town municipal police. After the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic, a very quick reform of state administration proceeded, for purpose of obtaining the decisive influence in municipalities. By the ordinance from 1919 year, Ministry of Interior of the Czechoslovak Republic made the police force nationalized. On the basis of the amendment of the act of municipal institution, municipal police began to be integrated into the state administration, such that in some spheres of activity, the officers from the police commissariat were subject to the county "hejtman" (from Czech, the police chief) as a state administration representative, although the police at this regional level had been financed by municipality, not state.

In February 1945, short of Czechoslovakia liberation, the Presidency of the Slovak National Council passed a statute in which the old gendarmerie and police organs were dismissed and the National Security was legally originated. Municipality police were also integrated into ZNB (National Security Corps). The Bill on the National Security of 1948 ended up the municipal and town police corps for a long time.

Their revival began after 1989 year. In 1991, the Municipal Police Act was approved (Act No. 564/1991 Coll.). Under this rule, metropolitan and municipal police forces came into existence trying to modify their philosophy and work according to citizens´ needs and regards. Metropolitan police has gradually become "a police of the first contact", because if a citizen finds himself in a trouble or recognizes any violation or assault, he calls the emergency number 159, where he hears: "Metropolitan police, how can I help you?"