Police officers let suspect get spirit (6)

I believe the answer is:

mettle

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'spirit' is the definition.
(mettle is a kind of spirit)

'police officers let suspect' is the wordplay.
'police officers' becomes 'met' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'suspect' indicates an anagram.
'let' with letters rearranged gives 'tle'.
'met'+'tle'='METTLE'

'get' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for mettle that I've seen before include "Fortitude" , "Temperament; courage" , "Spirit could sound like iron, say" , "Quality" , "Spirit, resilience" .)

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