SSP: Senior Superintendent of Police
The full form of SSP is Senior Superintendent of Police. In India, metropolitan, highly populated, or Naxal-affected districts have an SSP. This is a Senior scale post under the IPS pay Rules and they are entrusted with the Powers and responsibility of maintaining law and order in their district. This term is not found in either the Indian Police Act nor in the IPS pay Rules. So it is not a universal term but in use in States like UP and Punjab.
Where it is in use, it means the head of the district police in the same sense as Superintendent of Police (SP) in the Indian Police Act. In districts where an SSP is the head, the SP is the head of a large urban or rural area within a district. In metropolitan areas having a police commissioner system (like in Delhi Police, Mumbai Police, Bangalore City Police or Hyderabad Police) the head of district police is called deputy commissioner of police (DCP), and they hold the rank of a SSP. DCP is an IPS officer with 7 to 13 years of service and assisted by a number of ACPs.
The insignia of the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) is the national emblem above two stars. SSP rank officers wear IPS logo under the star with a gorse patch on their shoulder. The background of the Gorget Patch is dark blue. There is a white stripe on the gorjet patch.