police detective vs detective

police detective and detective both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
police detective	Yes	No	No	No
detective	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, police detective and detective are synonyms defined as:

police detective and detective: a police officer who investigates crimes

Other synonyms of police detective include investigator, tec.

police detective (noun)	detective (noun)
a police officer who investigates crimes	a police officer who investigates crimes
	an investigator engaged or employed in obtaining information not easily available to the public