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"Police" is a collective noun, meaning that "police" includes a number of people, rather than being a single entity. "Were" is used when there is more than one person/thing involved, where as "was" is used for a single person/thing.
The police was called?
OR
The police were called?
And why?
Tia...
Catherine C.
It is 'The police were called."
As a noun, 'the police' are plural, because they are the officers of the 'polis' - the Ancient Greek word for a city state, from which 'police' derives.
In many European Romance languages, the derivation (and the plural) is more obvious - for example, 'policia' in Spanish.
In American English we usually treat our collective nouns as singular, the team was victorious, the company is bankrupt, the army is advancing however, police is always a plural in AE, also.
police? 
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