Officer as a term of address

Question

We use the word "officer" when speaking to cops. Especially when they pull us over for traffic violations. It is extremely common and a completely polite way to address them.

Compare:

What happened here, Officer?

What happened here, Sir?

The first sentence is immediately identified as a question posed to a cop whereas the second one could be addressed to almost any male person.

Does Spanish have something that can be used like our word "Officer"? I mean, besides "Señor"?

I have been curious about this ever since this picture-of-the-day thread (see Marshall's answer, the top one).

Answer 1

I have often heard "oficial" for addressing a police officer.

Edit: I see both in the dictionary, so I wonder if it's a regional thing.

Officer [o-fi-sar]

sustantivo

1. Oficial, el que tiene cualquier cargo público.

2. Oficial, empleado, dependiente en cualquier oficina.

3. Oficial, en la milicia desde alférez arriba.

It may be so in Mexico I guess, because they take so many things from the US. In Argentina we use 'agente". - 00e657d4, May 6, 2011

Answer 2

This makes me think it's "agente."

So, could I walk up to a police officer and say, "¿Qué ha pasado aquí, agente?" And would it generally be assumed (if that sentence were written alone without context) that "agente" was referring to a cop?