Be coercive and bring the police into operation (3,5)
I believe the answer is:
use force
'be coercive and bring' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether it can be defined by this definition.
'police into operation' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'police' could be 'force' (the force can refer to the police force) and 'force' is located in the answer.
'operation' could be 'use' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'use' is present in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'the' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for use force that I've seen before include "Employ compulsion" , "Employ coercion to cure foes" .)