diff --git a/include/cutils/sched_policy.h b/include/cutils/sched_policy.h
index eaf3993..753a08c 100644
--- a/include/cutils/sched_policy.h
+++ b/include/cutils/sched_policy.h
@@ -24,11 +24,28 @@
 typedef enum {
     SP_BACKGROUND = 0,
     SP_FOREGROUND = 1,
+    SP_CNT,
+    SP_MAX        = SP_CNT - 1,
 } SchedPolicy;
 
+/* Assign thread tid to the cgroup associated with the specified policy.
+ * If the thread is a thread group leader, that is it's gettid() == getpid(),
+ * then the other threads in the same thread group are _not_ affected.
+ * Return value: 0 for success, or -errno for error.
+ */
 extern int set_sched_policy(int tid, SchedPolicy policy);
+
+/* Return the policy associated with the cgroup of thread tid via policy pointer.
+ * Return value: 0 for success, or -1 for error and set errno.
+ */
 extern int get_sched_policy(int tid, SchedPolicy *policy);
 
+/* Return a displayable string corresponding to policy.
+ * Return value: non-NULL NUL-terminated name of unspecified length;
+ * the caller is responsible for displaying the useful part of the string.
+ */
+extern const char *get_sched_policy_name(SchedPolicy policy);
+
 #ifdef __cplusplus
 }
 #endif
diff --git a/libcutils/sched_policy.c b/libcutils/sched_policy.c
index f9c111e..35d362a 100644
--- a/libcutils/sched_policy.c
+++ b/libcutils/sched_policy.c
@@ -273,5 +273,17 @@
     return 0;
 }
 
+const char *get_sched_policy_name(SchedPolicy policy)
+{
+    static const char * const strings[SP_CNT] = {
+       [SP_BACKGROUND] = "bg",
+       [SP_FOREGROUND] = "fg",
+    };
+    if ((policy < SP_CNT) && (strings[policy] != NULL))
+        return strings[policy];
+    else
+        return "error";
+}
+
 #endif /* HAVE_PTHREADS */
 #endif /* HAVE_SCHED_H */
diff --git a/toolbox/ps.c b/toolbox/ps.c
index 7c3de4a..7c35ccb 100644
--- a/toolbox/ps.c
+++ b/toolbox/ps.c
@@ -167,14 +167,8 @@
             SchedPolicy p;
             if (get_sched_policy(pid, &p) < 0)
                 printf(" un ");
-            else {
-                if (p == SP_BACKGROUND)
-                    printf(" bg ");
-                else if (p == SP_FOREGROUND)
-                    printf(" fg ");
-                else
-                    printf(" er ");
-            }
+            else
+                printf(" %.2s ", get_sched_policy_name(p));
         }
         printf(" %08x %08x %s %s", wchan, eip, state, cmdline[0] ? cmdline : name);
         if(display_flags&SHOW_TIME)
diff --git a/toolbox/top.c b/toolbox/top.c
index 999c8e1..7642522 100644
--- a/toolbox/top.c
+++ b/toolbox/top.c
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@
 
 #define PROC_NAME_LEN 64
 #define THREAD_NAME_LEN 32
+#define POLICY_NAME_LEN 4
 
 struct proc_info {
     struct proc_info *next;
@@ -67,7 +68,7 @@
     long rss;
     int prs;
     int num_threads;
-    char policy[32];
+    char policy[POLICY_NAME_LEN];
 };
 
 struct proc_list {
@@ -381,14 +382,10 @@
 static void read_policy(int pid, struct proc_info *proc) {
     SchedPolicy p;
     if (get_sched_policy(pid, &p) < 0)
-        strcpy(proc->policy, "unk");
+        strlcpy(proc->policy, "unk", POLICY_NAME_LEN);
     else {
-        if (p == SP_BACKGROUND)
-            strcpy(proc->policy, "bg");
-        else if (p == SP_FOREGROUND)
-            strcpy(proc->policy, "fg");
-        else
-            strcpy(proc->policy, "er");
+        strlcpy(proc->policy, get_sched_policy_name(p), POLICY_NAME_LEN);
+        proc->policy[2] = '\0';
     }
 }