desk sergeant

desk sergeant (plural desk sergeants)

1. (law enforcement) A sergeant who has an administrative position inside of a police station.

   A woman ran into the police station and told the desk sergeant she had been robbed.

   • 1983 December 24, Larry Goldsmith, “Cops Bust 70 Anti-Nuke Demonstrators”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 23, page 6:

     After arriving at the Area A police station, I renewed my protests that as a working reporter with visible police credentials, I should not have been arrested. The desk sergeant insisted that I be booked, however, and I was put into the holding tank, a fifteen-by-fifteen dark and filthy cell, with 49 other people.