The word 刑警 is a modern Chinese compound noun formed by combining two characters: 刑 (xíng), meaning "penalty" or "criminal law", and 警 (jǐng), meaning "police" or "to alert". It follows a common modifier-head structure in Chinese, where 刑 acts as the modifier specifying the type, and 警 serves as the head denoting the profession. Thus, the term literally translates to "penalty police" or "criminal law police", logically referring to police officers who specialize in criminal investigations, equivalent to "criminal police" or "detective".