Police action

The earliest use of the phrase dates back to 1883, describing attempts by Dutch and British forces to liberate the 28-man crew of the SS Nisero, who were held hostage in Sumatra.

The Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary: Eleventh Edition called it in its 1933 issue; a localized military action undertaken without formal declaration of war by regular armed forces against persons (as guerrillas or aggressors) held to be violators of international peace and order.

During a June 1950 press conference, he explicitly remarked that the "United Nations Security Council held a meeting and passed on the situation and asked the members to go to the relief of the Korean Republic" with the aims "to suppress a bandit raid" occurring.

During a May 2017 remembrance event, Ohanaeze Ndigbo leader John Nnia Nwodo stated that "Nigeria faced disintegration by the declaration of the Republic of Biafra" and lamented how the "commencement of a police action that turned into a three years civil war" caused "sacrifice– in blood, suffering and toil".

Nonetheless, Congressional approval has been asserted by means of funding appropriations or other authorizations as well as the contested War Powers Resolution.

[citation needed] Use of the term does not appear to have gained currency outside of the limited arena of justification of military action:[citation needed] for example, the U.S. Navy refers to the Korean conflict as the Korean War, and when they refer to police action, they surround the term in quotation marks.

Dutch troops during Operation Kraai , a police action which took place during the Indonesian National Revolution in 1948.
The implementation of a "police action" that resulted in the Nigerian Civil War caused international protests in locations such as The Hague against the widespread war crimes suffered by civilians .