Policemen initially hurried off (6)
I believe the answer is:
rancid
'off' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'policemen initially hurried' is the wordplay.
'policemen' becomes 'cid' (I've seen this in other clues).
'initially' says to put letters next to each other.
'hurried' becomes 'ran' (running is a kind of hurrying).
'cid' after 'ran' is 'RANCID'.
(Other definitions for rancid that I've seen before include "(Of fat/oil) stale and foul smelling" , "Stinking" , "Sour like stale fat" , "(Of fatty foods) stale" , "Noxious" .)