On the boards it seems like every time the star is mentioned the next post boils down to "This is cyber-punk; star wouldn't care if you set them fire". But they are paid well enough to afford squad cares and drones, and metroplitain private security is a large enough market to have cyber suits tailored for officers.

So What do cities /actually/ expect? Not what do they promise the SINers, what do actually pay for and would consider finding a new contractor is the star failed to deliver. Obviously changes by neighborhood, but what are your thoughts.

I think you hit the nail on the head. C and better neighborhoods get enforcement. What type and level of enforcement is very much like today. If the criminals mess with someone of influence, Lone Star will put in more effort. On the other hand, if your in a C zone and you get mugged.. Lone Star will chase the guy down if they are there but don't expect an investigation to go anywhere (just like today). Large public crimes of a violent nature will get a violent response. If you steal a car in the middle of the night an nobody gets hurt, who really cares?

And when it comes to Extra territoriality, sheesh that gets complicated. What is company X's current position with the city gov? (remember, they don't pay taxes on extra territorial land..) Those dudes are running out or KE territory? Good for them, KE keeps trying to take my job!


BlueMax
/The Dude: Do you find them much, these, stolen cars?
//Younger Cop: Sometimes. Wouldn't hold out much hope for the tape deck though.
///Older Cop: Or the Creedence.

take the clichee american corrupt and lazy cop . .
he cares if you make his work harder.
he cares if he will be seen in a bad light by your actions.
he cares if you do not bribe him enough.
They might be rented by the city, but they are still rent-a-cops.

Perhaps rent-a-cops mixed with Blackwater would be a bit closer. Lone Star is not Paul Blart.

If you get a chance -- find and read the Lone Star sourcebook. It was actually really good and some great insight into how they do business, and it is a business. There are some in their ranks that do care, but in the end -- it all depends on how much someone is willing to pay to have the investigation done. Their city contracts determine how much they are willing to protect businesses, areas of town or regular citizens.

The magical investigations was quite enlightening, especially if you want to nail someone for something. Indiscriminate runners may not be as anonymous as they think.

LS cares deeply about anything that makes people who sign their contracts unhappy with them. LS has people who care about "doing a good job" etc, but anything that threatens the contract has a very high degree of visibility.

If the voters start getting angry about the job LS does that is bad, as that will tend to result in them not get their contract renewed. If they do things that directly annoy a politician with pull that would also be bad. So bad PR is bad. Good PR is good. Bad people being arrested is good, good people (voters) being beaten up by LS is bad. Bad people shot down doing bad things is very good, bad people getting away with doing bad things to good people is very bad when it shows up in the press.

Hmm, this would tend to result in LS being very hands off any corruption investigation unless it looks like someone is going to not renew their contract. If a pol starts talking about not renewing the contract I'd expect he'll have LS crawling up his ass.

Imagine how many employees would be made redundant if the Star lost it's Seattle contract. I'm sure the company, and it's branches and subsidiaries would pick up the slack, but imagine how many extra cops they need in Seattle than say, Knight Errant or Eagle, just by the virtue of them claiming the whole (UCAS owned) metroplex. Seattle is huge.

It reminds me of Mr. Zorg. "Fire one million."

Cops are like oil, the supply is limited, in demand, and if you're not buying it from one company from that source then you're buying it from another company from that source.

If Lone Star lost it's Seattle contract then another law enforcement contractor would have to be contracted to replace her in short order. Odds are, the Seattle Metroplex entertains contract bids most every year but Lone Star manages to keep her contract for one reason or another- but...if all of a sudden Lone Star lost the contract and say Knight Errant got the contract, where do you think Knight Errant is going to conjure the thousands of police officers it needs to meet it's contractual obligations overnight?

That's right! They'll hire thousands of cops from the ranks of the recently unemployed Lone Star officers. Some 'troublemakers' won't get hired and many others will sign contracts for less remuneration than they got with Lone Star, but at the end of the day you'll be shot at by the same cop as last week, only this time he'll be wearing a different patch on his arm.

It's interesting that LS seems to be financially motivated to do a decent job. (excepting the corrupt politician bit.) Making people feel safe increases the likelihood of contract renewal and ensures bonus for the senior Seattle management. Traditionally, in the US, one common way for a mayor to have an opportunity to seek other opportunities in the private sector has been to have severe or increasing crime problems. So the city government has incentive to blame any crime issues on LS, so LS has additional incentive to ensure that there is nothing significant to talk about. Plus LS can actually apply more pressure on it's staff than can a traditional civil service PD. Hmm.

No, take the Blackwater back out. According to the Lone Star Sourcebook, a new officer fresh out of the academy has received sixteen weeks of training. This is up from two at the organization's founding. Pay is strictly based on seniority, and the salary cap for the Enforcement Arm is, in editions up to and including Third, below what is required to maintain a Medium lifestyle.

You're going to want to add in some Random Gang for violence and attitude, but you aren't going to get any kind of serious mercenary dimension out of the majority of the Enforcement Arm.

~J

Really? I'm gonna have to include more bribes in my dealings with the Star.

I still refer to the LS Sourcebook now and again. Does anyone know if there are any plans for a revised edition?

16 weeks or about four months of training for police is not too bad actually. Some police in the U.S. don't even train for that long. Some do train longer, but it is kind of up in the air as far as the average training for a police officer.

I think that the Star has a division that does mercenary work for corps not big enough to take over small banana repubblics, I think it was base in Quebec but I'm not too sure about it; what I remember well is that this section is separated for the command chain of the local law enforcement to prevent some officer to use its assets to bolster the number of cops, which are stretch thin.

Or perhaps a small team of sinless stopping by to take him out hmmmmmm i think i may just had next weeks game dropped in my lap, thanks kzt