Hope's Police Structure

From the city's origins to its modern-day landmarks, you'll find everything you need to anchor your characters and concepts into the world.
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IamLEAM1983
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Hope's Police Structure

Post by IamLEAM1983 »

Hope follows the American standard in terms of police ranks, obviously enough. For simplicity's sake, however, most of these posts are organized in a purely generic manner. Dig around a little and you understand that being an Inspector in New York and being an Inspector in San Franscisco are two very different assignments.

What follows is a quick-and-dirty breakdown of Hope's police system, along with a few helpful statistics to keep in mind or at least close at hand.
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Basic Facts

Post by IamLEAM1983 »

Hope is covered by thirty-five distinct police precincts and a smattering of smaller police stations along Pickman's Sound and in Mertown. The complete total comes to forty distinct locations in which you can expect to find cops. Central is located in East Willowdale, and is where most officers above the rank of Captain can be expected to be found on a regular basis. Naturally, Chief Alderan's offices are there, and the mayor used to have a desk to call his own in Central, as well.

Interestingly, Hope has no Special Investigations unit. In a universe where the odd and the impossible are rather commonplace, the kind of cases that would normally grow cold in some precinct's storage room still tend to remain active. Cold cases still occur, but depend solely on the amount of available evidence, and not on the believability or plausibility of the crime in question. With mages and Diviners about, a tacit policy about open-mindedness tends to prevent the police procedure from becoming utterly calcified in the case of exotic or fairly eldritch elements.
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Police Ranks

Post by IamLEAM1983 »

Chief of Police : Ethan Joseph Alderan is the only member of the force who couldn't expect to claim his post thanks to the standard method of regular promotions. Chiefs of police aren't made – they're born. As such, election is the standard processs used to determine the leader of the executive board comprised of the chief, his three deputies and all inspectors. Once elected, the chief of police is tasked with acting as the first and last representative for mortal law for the entire city. He handles the brunt of all Public Relations-related appearances and speaks for the entire police service. When an officer is in need of more than a simple commendation and deserves a medal with all the associated pomp and circumstance, it comes from him.

In essence, Alderan and Percival exist on the same level. At their leisure, both can override any and all decisions taken by their lessers, as part of their executive power. In normal circumstances, an officer is expected to follow the chain of command along his career. With a word from either of them, however, if a simple commendation does not suffice, entire rungs can be skipped. This is a rare and momentous occasion, as political as it is protocolar.

Deputy Chief : tasked with collating all relevant data incoming from inspectors with the colonel's requirements along with all general happenings in the force, the deputy chief's task is to create a concrete picture or set of statistics out of every ounce of data generated for his landmass' services. As such, Hope only has three Deputy Chiefs.

Inspector : the highest rank Wallace attained before entering politics; inspectors are charged with working on the same level as lieutenants – but for the entire city. Once again affected to Supernaturals, Wallace spent a few years serving as the defacto representative for all of mortal authority in the face of those with scales or fangs.

Colonel : existing as a go-between to allow for an easier exchange of data and resources between majors and inspectors, colonels are tasked with keeping an eye on the affectations of all respective forces and divisions, and to attribute the orders of division inspectors to the appropriate services. If someone from Naughton ends up working on a case taking place in Old Hope, it's because the colonel made the call and had this specific lieutenant or detective hand-picked.

Major : these members of the police force oversee all precincts in a given borough. A distinctly administrative rank, majors are often called to oversee all matters that their captains can't quite solve, and are usually the first persons in town to escalate troublesome cases related to specific officers to Internal Affairs.

Captain : as captain, an officer's responsibility involves watching over an entire precinct or police station. In essence, it's a bit of a dial-back from the Lieutenant rank, but one that involves more paperwork and less people.

Lieutenant : in practice, lieutenants don't really stand out from detectives. During his stint among their numbers, the mayor still found himself walking the beat with Harry Benson and holding regular talks with Sir Percival. However, he also found himself in charge of Precinct 22's Supernaturals division. As such, Wallace oversaw the activities for all cops in his jurisdiction who were tasked with interacting with the local dragon and vampire populations.

Detective : the first plainsclothes rank, any officer with the rank of “DT” tends to act as the first rung of the supervisory track, keeping an eye on their fellow Officers and issuing orders as needed. In some cases, senior detectives can and do display a level of senior authority that goes beyond what you'd normally expect of Officers. This is especially the case with those tasked with working as a joint unit with the conscripted Knights from Faerie. In Hope, detectives are often the first line of diplomatic response from Hope to Evergloam.

Officer : the rank-and-file rank in Hope, the majority of the police population is occupied by Officers. As you can imagine, their duties generally involve the application of the law on the road or on foot, as well as first-response tasks for situations such as a signalled assault or murder. Your average squad car pairings, in essence.

Technicians : either consultants or civilian members of a division (Narcotics, Supernaturals, Homicide, etc.), their task is to offer specific forms of expertise as required by their division. This might include arcane researchers, cryptanalysts, blood spatter specialists, forensics specialists, criminal psychologists and several other varieties.
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Local Representatives

Post by IamLEAM1983 »

Chief of Police : Ethan Alderan (Sir Percival of Evergloam, Faerie Liaison)

Deputy Chiefs : Seamus Mac Loch (Mertown), Feargus O'Sullivan (Pickman Sound), Crystal Tala (Green Island)

Inspectors : Open (Homicide), Open (Narcotics), Open (Internal Affairs), Open (Supernaturals), Henry Kulich (Superhumans), Open (Aliens), Open (Occult Affairs), Open (Public Relations), Open (Port & Spaceport Authority)

Colonels : all open, one per greater district. Three maximum

Majors : all open, twelve available. Patrick Leahy (Naughton)

Captains : thirty-four available, four per borough. Peter Smirnov (Precinct 14, Sandhill)

Lieutenants : thirty-five available, four per borough.

Detectives : always open. Mike Callahan (Precinct 24)

Officers : always open.

Keep in mind, I'm not expecting us to fill out the entirety of the roster over our years playing this. Slot whoever you feel like playing in there and if there's room and the concept fits, we'll introduce him or her. Just don't feel pressured into submitting a deluge of cops. If we end up with a ton of detectives or officers, you might have trouble getting your guy to stand out from the lot...
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