City Police admitted to compassion and calmness (9)
I believe the answer is:
placidity
'calmness' is the definition.
(placidity is a kind of calmness)
'city police admitted to compassion' is the wordplay.
'city' becomes 'la' (Los Angeles).
'police' becomes 'cid'.
'admitted to' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'compassion' becomes 'pity' (pity is a kind of compassion).
'la'+'cid'='lacid'
'lacid' inserted inside 'pity' is 'PLACIDITY'.
'and' is the link.
(Another definition for placidity that I've seen is " Calmness".)
I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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