Restricts police action against my colleague (8)
I believe the answer is:
contains
'my colleague' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'restricts police action against' is the wordplay.
'restricts' becomes 'ns' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'police' indicates an anagram (police can mean to control or manage).
'against' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'action' is an anagram of 'contai'.
'ns' put after 'contai' is 'CONTAINS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for contains that I've seen before include "Has within" , "Holds, comprises" , "Keeps under control" , "Holds or accomodates" .)