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Police and their power to get part for an old ship? (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

yardarm

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'an old ship?' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?

'police and their power to get part' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'police' could be 'yard' (Scotland Yard, Metropolitan Police HQ) and 'yard' is located in the answer.
'power' could be 'arm' (arm can mean power or strength) and 'arm' is located in the answer.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'for' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for yardarm that I've seen before include "End of spar on ship's mast" , "place of naval execution" , "First drink, when sun over it" , "Part of ship's sail support" , "Either end of a spar on a square-rigger's mast" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times and The Sunday Times.
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