Austria Blue berets are currently in use with the
Bundespolizei and have differing emblembs indicating their line of service.
Germany During the Cold War, West German police and the
BGS were required to wear green beret with the emblem of either their state or the BGS insignia. Today, dark berets are in use with
riot police units of state police forces. The successor of the BGS, the
Bundespolizei reserved green berets for members of its elite
GSG9 while the beret for riot police was ditched in favor of base caps, but many officers wished for berets to be reintroduced. In spring 2020 reintroduction of dark blue berets for these units began.
Hong Kong The navy blue beret is the standard headgear of officers of the
Police Tactical Unit of the
Hong Kong Police Force. Officers are nicknamed the "Blue Berets" or the "Blue Caps". These berets are also being worn by the officers of the
Emergency Unit,
Airport Security Unit and
Counter Terrorism Response Unit of the
Hong Kong Police Force.
Hong Kong Correctional Services also adopts berets as one of their main headgears. Hong Kong Customs and Excuse's Dog and Small Boats units also wear a dark blue beret with embroidery cap badge.
Iceland The members of the
Special Operations Unit of the National Commissioner of Icelandic Police (
Víkingasveitin) wear black berets. High-ranking members of the Reykjavík Air Rescue Unit are entitled to wear red berets after 5 T-10 army parachutes jumps (3 Hollywood jumps and 2 with full gear).
Indonesia The
Indonesian National Police wear and use
Berets as their uniform headdress. The berets worn by law enforcement agencies are dragged to the left while in the other hand, the military wear berets dragged to the right. Different beret colours indicates the wearer's unit. Dark blue is worn by members of the
Mobile Brigade Corps, Dark Brown is worn by members of the public police unit, Light blue is worn by internal affairs officers and members participating in
UN operations, and Blue berets are worn by
water police units.
Italy Dark blue berets are worn by the
Polizia di Stato and blue berets by the
Polizia Penitenziaria.
Malaysia •
Hackle is worn above cap badge during official duty and ceremony parade. All police personnel usually wear dark blue hackle unless stated above. However, for the General Task Police Force and General Operations Force, the hackle's colour differs between Police Contingent and Brigades.
Macau The members of the Police Tactical Intervention Unit of the
Public Security Police Force wear red berets with the force emblem on it as its standard headgear.
Pakistan The
Pakistan Levies wear the black beret as a force wide item.
Panama The following branches of the
Panamanian Public Forces wear berets: •
Panamanian National Police - dark blue (cadets) •
National Border Service - Green •
National Aeronaval Service - Green (Infantry Battalion), Tan (Special Forces) •
Institutional Protection Service - Black (duty uniform only)
Philippines Black berets are worn by the
Philippine National Police's
Special Action Force and the Special Operations Group of the
Philippine Coast Guard, while some other
Non-commissioned PNP officers wear blue berets when in a specific event.
Poland The Polish Police Anti-Terrorist Units wear dark blue berets. Dark blue berets are also worn by other Police special units such as pyrotechnics. Polish Border Guards wear light green berets.
Portugal In
Portugal, the beret is worn by a number of civil security forces and emergency organizations. The colors worn are:
Singapore Black berets were worn by all members of the
Singapore Police Force until 1969, when the
peaked cap was introduced. The beret was, however, retained for specialist forces, such as officers of the
Special Operations Command (SOC) and the
Police Coast Guard, as well as the
Gurkha Contingent. A dark blue beret is worn, although the
Police Tactical Unit of the SOC switched to red berets in 2005. The Gurkha Contingent began wearing khaki-coloured berets from 2006. TransCom (Public Transport Security Command) officers wear light grey berets. Members of the
Singapore Civil Defence Force attached to a headquarters element, or on overseas missions, also wear black berets. These are adorned with the SCDF crest, and may sport a flash in certain specialist units, such as the Rescue Dog Unit and the elite
Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team.
Auxiliary police officers of
Certis CISCO and
Aetos Security Management don dark blue berets when performing escort and other high-risk duties, as do specialist forces of the
Singapore Prison Service. In addition, student cadets of uniformed
youth organizations such as the
National Cadet Corps also wear berets of different colours.
National Cadet Corps has three distinct beret colours for each of its services (Land, Sea and Air), these are NCC Green, NCC Black and NCC Blue for each service respectively. The
National Police Cadet Corps wears their own separate dark blue berets, while
National Civil Defence Cadet Corps wears their separate black beret.
South Africa The
Special Task Force of the South African Police Service wear
camouflage berets.
South Korea Several police
SWAT teams belonging to different municipalities wear either maroon or green berets; Seoul Metropolitan Police SWAT team (Unit 868) wears maroon berets, while
Incheon Metropolitan Police SWAT team (Unit 313) wears green berets.
Spain in his red beret. The beret,
txapela in
Basque, where it was especially popular, has been in common usage in Basque Country for centuries. Some believe it was introduced in the sixteenth century from the
Low Countries, which at the time shared the same monarchy. The
Txapelgorriak (from Basque
txapel gorri, "red beret") were an Isabelline troop, but later the red beret became a symbol of
Carlism. The red beret became a
Falange symbol when Carlism was temporarily merged into it after the
Spanish Civil War. Today, red berets are worn on ceremonial occasions by various local and autonomous police forces in Spain, such as the Basque police force,
Ertzaintza, in common with older police units such as the former
Miquelete police of Gipuzkoa and "Foral" police of Bizkaia. The historic provincial police forces of Álava (Miñones) and Navarra (Policía Foral/Foruzaingoa) and a few local city police forces, including Bilbao, still wear the traditional red berets, though many police forces now wear a baseball-style cap for duty, retaining the beret for ceremonial duties. Catalonia's police
Mossos d'Esquadra have traditionally worn long sloping barretina-style berets
Barretina with red and black checkered bands, though caps are becoming more popular
Sri Lanka The
Special Task Force of the
Sri Lanka Police wear green berets.
Sri Lanka Army Commandos wear a maroon beret while
special forces wear a black beret.
Turkey Gendarmerie General Command personnel wears
green beret.
Police Special Action teams of
General Directorate of Security wears dark green beret while
Çevik Kuvvet personnel wear dark blue.
Ukraine The maroon beret was used by Berkut officers as their standard headgear.
United Kingdom CO19, the armed response unit of the
London Metropolitan Police, used to wear dark blue berets, and were nicknamed the 'Blue Berets'. Today, they generally wear helmets or baseball caps. Navy blue berets are part of the uniform of the
Northern Ireland Security Guard Service. The
Combined Cadet Force wear berets appropriate to their regimental affiliation (
Army Cadet Force) or the
RAF beret with the
ATC cap badge (except for the
CCF(RAF) who wear the RAF cap badge). ==Civilian organizations==