Psychology Today | 25.04.2026 19:56
In 1913, the term flatfoot was first used to refer to police officers who patrolled the streets on foot rather than in a vehicle. The reason for calling the officers flatfoots is that their arches often fell after years of patrol on foot. More apocryphal accounts suggest that the use of flatfoot to refer to a police officer was rooted in stigma: People denied from entering the military due to flat feet often joined the police instead.
