I was wondering if anyone has an experience using county Sheriffs in SR, as a supplement to Lone Star. Seattle-Everett-Tacoma sprawl has three counties, King, Pierce, and Snohomish, which could possible be still in existence. It would add another dimension to LE in SR, something that could help or aggravate runners, with elected officials dealing out justice. Somebody has to be around to deputize corporate security and Lone Star to enforce the law, and evict squatters.

I was also thinking off making an actual public LE organization in Seattle, either with them doing all the detective work with Lone Star doing the 'beat' cop stuff, or having them also do patrol duty, but with a smaller force and a crippled budget (since most of is outsourced to Lone Star). My thought was to have a municpal public service apparatus, with a mayor selected police commissioner, who then outsources most of the police to Lone Star.

Any thoughts?

Bringing back the SPD, eh?

I'd say that the deputizing would probably be done by some bureaucrat. The cost for maintaining an actual police department, even a small one, would seem to kill a lot of the benefits of contracting the work out anyway. If they're going to do it, why not go whole hog?

~J

Deputizing. Lone Star is not up holding the law. They are upholding a contract. They don't need to be deputized.

Thanos

Well, I have a hard time seeing Sheriff's departments going away, as they're a county entity. They're also elected positions, and I have a hard time seeing a sheriff wanting to replace themselves with private law enforcement. They also get their money from county taxes, not the city.

That's why I made the distinction between county and city governments (to further extrapolate, state LE would be the Metroplex Guard, while federal LE would be UCAS FBI or some other govermental body).

Sherrifs, at least in the US now, serve summons, provide courthouse security, conduct auctions of seized property, and conduct seizures and evictions of foreclosed property. They also do traffic control, prisioner transport, and jail keeping, but much of that stuff could probably outsourced by the Sheriff's department to privately-owned LE companies.

Now getting back to the SPD, I'll let the Lone Star have the 'uniformed' patrols and tactical duties, but I have a difficult time seeing them doing detective work. PLECs nowadays don't do detective work, just patrol duty, and the ones that are allowed into crime scenes are usually police consultants. Granted, this is SR, but you want to keep your detective department public, since you don't want conflict of interest with corporations when the evidence gets to the courts. What happens if KE becomes the police provider and a crime occurs on Ares property?

I would expect rural regions to hold onto government law enforcement rather than contracts. That's where sherriffs would survive, rather than in the cities and suburbs.

Just as a point of note, The whole situation of:

Well I think its pretty much hinted at that rural areas of the UCAS retain a traditional style Sheriffs department (Both in SONA and the original, and still highly useful NAGTNA) however keep in mind Seattle is by no means a traditional rural area, or for that matter really similar to the rest of the UCAS.

In the end I suggest doing what you and your players will enjoy most. If a resurgence of Sheriff style policing (So federally and state funded cops versus Corporate Cops) makes your game fun, then go for it.

You could even use it as a plot hook, where the Star is flagging due to various political factors, and performance factors-and the fedreal or state (Or in this case Metroplex Government) steps in with a contingency plan.

Seattle doesn't have counties. at least, nothing of the sort is listed in any of the government sections in any sourcebook i'm aware of. the metroplex is broken down into the districts we're familiar with; there is no division along county lines. ergo, no sherriffs.

Ahhh, that may be true too, there is no county, just the all inclusive Seattle Metroplex.

Oh, Bit - completely unrelated:

1. Won't be a detention officer after all (probably, most likely not)

2. It's my weapon choice that frags my bullet selection. I can get a box of 100 rounds in .45 from Sprawl-Mart for $20 or 100 rounds .40 S&W for 13ish and change.

Now, as to Seattle and the contract - the govenor may appoint special investigations units to check on LE from time to time as well as audit the books.

New Seattle hints at the current govenor's growing dissatisfaction with LS.

-Siege

Detention is over rated. I should know.

Wasn't doing it because I wanted it as a career choice.

-Siege

Detention pays rather well... And they just raised the cost of .40S&W here to 15.95 for a box of 100 at Wal-Mart. Still fairly cost effective though. They also still look at me funny for buying them out of their last 500 rounds.

And yes, the city still has influence over the law enforcement process, the stations are city owned, not Lone Star extraterritorial property and Lone Star has no say in the court system or laws. They still have civilian oversight panels and things.