So one of the entrenched institutions of the Shadowrun is the concept that Extraterritoriality automatically seems to equate to an unwillingness to share information, and an inability to cooperate beyond a basic level between agencies, governments and corporations. This has always bothered me, for a variety of reasons.

Now for some background: I work in a Law Enforcement agency, and I have liaised with a number of local, state and federal agencies as a part of the gang task force I work on. I also have several friends who work for local, state and federal agencies. So this likely colors at least some of how I see things. I just wanted my bias to be upfront-even though I am going to try and take an impartial look at this issue.

So I can see, reasonably, with the fracturing of nation States -and the resulting diminished presence they now have-that Mega Corporations can field nearly similar levels of resources, and given that some of these companies have a good sixty or so years of institutional cultures I can see tensions existing en the various agencies, especially in sensitive matters. Especially where proprietary data, properties and competitive interest's were involved. So there are definitely frayed edges that can be exploited-whether through a combination of proper planning or good luck and timing.

However the way I often read conversations on this board, and the feel I get from the books is that this is so common place that as I see it society would fail to function in any semblance of order. And some of you say, A ha Paul that's the point! Shadowrun is dystopic! It doesn't function like the world we know! And to a point I agree-however it seems to me that unless there's a significant reason not to cooperate there's nothing to be gained from not cooperating. Sort of an oligarchic collective-"It's better that we rule, then them."

So what I'm hoping to do here-with out examining our own present day beliefs and prejudices; politics or personal preferences-is explore just how we collectively see extraterritoriality functioning. What are the ins? The outs? What areas make sense for there to be cooperative efforts? What areas would be anyone's game?

I view the sharing of information as something that depends on the situation, and politics as they currently are.

Security footage isn't as likely to be shared as information on security protocols might be gleamed from them, which allows competitors to take advantage of them (This is where Shadowrunners get the most help.), but other items might get shared if politics are going well between two Corps.

Corporate and International Politics is a huge issue. Yes, eventually, the info will be shared. It's just how much red tape is thrown up between the two. I do a random roll based on how badly the groups compete and incidents that have happened between the groups, and a threshold based on how sensitive the intel is. More threshold, the faster the scene is given. Less, the more red tape and the time the security agency is willing to put into a manhunt is gone already.

And that's how Shadowrunners are able to slip through the cracks. Just remember, that information will always be available to the owning Corporation, and will eventually be available outside of it as well. Then it's just a Data Search roll away to link things together.

Hope you have a few good Spider contacts, or a really good Hacker/TM.

Another thing to consider is that runners are hired help. Hell, if they fail a mission they may not even get payed.

As such, hitting them spends corporate resources while doing basically little to no damage to the competition.

And also, information shared is information that can't be used to get a runner team to play fetch later on...

Well, this develops from two directions towards the middle.

On the one hand, there's the setting as described, with paranoid corporations trying to keep an edge by not sharing too much information. Because the other company doesn't share so much either, so how can you be sure their request was really as innocent as they make it seem?
Information will probably be traded rather than given. Maybe more informally, between employees that know each other and help out each others' careers now and then with a strategic favor, than formally.
Crazy things may happen if the legal department advises that granting a request for surveillance footage, may render the corporation liable for any criminal acts visible on that footage ("You saw it happen and did nothing; we're suing you for aiding and abetting!").

On the other hand, we've all got an inkling of the possibilities of RL surveillance, and this will only increase in the future. How can SINners, let alone Shadowrunners, persist? How much room is there to actually play this game, why won't the PCs be relentlessly persecuted?
One of the answers given is Data Balkanization. It's taking the desired conclusion ("the PCs have a chance") and rationalizing backwards until you've come up with a reason why the conclusion happens. It's shady in pure logic terms, but it works if you want to play a game and want to make suspension of disbelief easier.

The one approach starts IC and ends up somewhere; the other starts with an OOC desirable conclusion and finds a way how this might happen IC.

That's how I read it, myself. Without data balkanization, corporate extraterritoriality, and, on top of that, layers of misinformation and altered footage being fairly common - shadowrunning won't work. Shadowrunners should be able to take a few basic, almost hand-waved precautions, do the run, and, assuming there wasn't any excessive collateral damage or other major screw-ups, lay low for a bit before going on their next run.

Also note that revealing information about your being broken into reveals to the other corps, who are your rivals not your allies, that your security has holes and that you've lost a new product/researcher/whatever.

There's no profit in looking weak.

(As for the corp itself, subsidiaries and the Home Office likely don't get along. Compare the local security team to local police, and the home office boys to teh Feds. How do the local police feel when teh Feds trot in and say "We're here now. Go get us coffee."

A lot of it would be covering their own butts.

You don't want others to know how hard you just got hit, so unless the runners screw up or do something that can't be swept under the rug so outsiders don't know they are likely going to share it internally only.

Now if the runners drive a bus through the front door, use lots of explosives and automatic weapons causing major damage and deaths. All bets are off

Now a team that gets in and out clean with little to no collateral damage or obvious evidence is likely to be considered an internal matter that isn't going to hit the rest of the world's info nets. Unless the run resulted in a major issue of PR etc (and even then it's going to be a tough decision to admit a team got past the security ... it's a catch 22 legally. they were either a screw up in testing / quality control resulting in deaths/injuries or neglegent in protecting/preventing the incident)

It may help to consider the whole thing a cold war, at the edge of a cuban crisis. Basically the whole thing is balanced a bit like MAD, with the corporate court the one thing that has had any measure of success holding the whole thing from going kaboom.

How much info did USA and USSR share during those times? The hotline was not even installed until the cuban crisis was resolved.

It's important to remember here that every law-enforcement agency within a given country is fundamentally on the same side (barring political footballing). Ares internal security passing information to UCAS authorities is not the same as a modern-day rent-a-cop agency sharing data with the Seattle PD, it's more like Chinese police passing info to the FBI. Your analogy isn't really relevant.

In the Sixth World I can see cooperation over a big issue (Winternight). Everyone will cooperate and the Corporate Court will see no evil as everyone declares open season on the Global terrorist threat. Soon every eye is peeled for the people with the big universal bounty on their heads and nowhere on the planet is safe.

But as Renrauku what is my incentive to help Ares get back their head R & D gal who was extracted to MCT. Zip. Heck the people who pulled that off are a valuable asset; competent and deniable. Now of course if Shiawaise has access to the same data and the runners burned them a few months ago then it might be worth their while to share with Ares to get some (free) revenge. Assuming that is worth their time and effort. The game assumes that it is generally not, but I agree that the more noise you make and the more mess you leave makes that incentive go up and up. One of the sourcebooks said it very well; we runners live on the sufferance of the powers that be. They hire us as deniable assets to do dirty deeds done dirt cheap (sorry couldn't resist). Governments use us to spy on the corps and the other governments, corps use us to frag over each other and the Corporate court thinks that is just fine because it stops the corps from really fighting and blowing the crap out of valuable assets and customers.

If ever there was a unified world government that wanted to impose its tyrannical order on everyone else then the shadows would be booming. The big corp would pay and the small corps would suffer. Eventually the small fish would band together and take down the big one. If they fail to do so then the big one would win, take over everything then use half the shadow community to wipe out the other half then just not hire anyone else. The acceptable covert assets would be absorbed into the thought police and everyone else would just be a criminal with a bounty on their heads and a minimal amount of work available. The Sixth World will stay balkanized because it is in the corps best interests unless an alien invasion, global disaster, or some wierdness like an invasion of metaplaner monsters that will wipe out all of humanity forces everyone to accept hte authority of an over government.

Sound about right?

No, it's because they will help you with your issues in exchange. It's actually in the interests of everyone involved in stopping attacks on a corp to see that people who are willing to attack corps get stopped. He doesn't give a shit about what sort of illegal crap someone else in his corp might want to do, what he cares about is that people who are able to attack another corp will eventually attack him.

chain of command may be a issue...

Why should they need to worry their pretty heads about how things get done when they get done?

How often do agencies cross check & share info IRL? I mean, sure... on an ongoing investigation a detective or agent will send browse program looking for any priors, warrants, etc on a person of interest they are currently talking to, but not everyone is scanned & backgrounds done on them every day by multiple sources. An old warrant won't get called up unless the person on it gets caught speeding or something else that demands someone to do a check on them.

Same for other agencies that aren't law enforcement. How often does Medicare records get called up on someone SSN for a credit check? Never... as it has no bearing. Unknown to the person doing the credit check, the person applying on record is a 90 year old grandmother on medicare for cancer & not the 20 year old woman trying to get more credit to get that car.

I think there's a definite lack of inter-connecting communications between groups which is only more enhanced in SR despite the technological advances made in SIN identification.

In order to ensure they get the maximum props when it goes right, and to have the proper scapegoat if it goes wrong so there's no blowback on them?

I could actually see an informal (and illegal) information exchange between the security chiefs of competing corporations, who could give a damn about the shady dealings of their bosses, and just want to nail those sneaky bastards who keep shooting their men.

But on the corporate level where official information is shared, there would be a lot less cooperation. Shadowrunners are an integral part of how the megacorporations wage war on their rivals. Even if they are not involved, they have no incentive to help one of their rivals which has been attacked by the surrogates of another one of their rivals.

I can just see the Courier run for that, with the Courier being part of the deal. "Here's the drek-head that was the get-away driver for the team that hit you. Poker on Tuesday as usual, Bob?"

One thing I try to push is the idea that "Cop Killers Never Stop Being Chased". Low-end security guards are one thing, AA+ Security, OTOH, have a bit of the "Blue Line" feeling still going, also being the "Police" for their Extraterritorial "Country".

So, yeah... Lone Star is slotted off at Knight Errant for getting the Seattle Contract, and if all the 'Runners did was get some Paydata, they'll throw Red Tape at letting KE get access to their Extraterritorial Parkade. Have KE show proof of some dead NeoNET Security into the mix, and watch how fast that red tape disappears, and Lone Star Goons go in and finds the 'Runners for Knight Errant. ("The Paydata was nowhere to be found, however. They must have ditched it somewhere else. So sorry about that, but at least you have those cop killers to bring to trial."). They'd never let KE just get access to their territory, however, that's just too much to ask for without a warrant from a Corporate Court Judge, that's above their pay grade to determine and the politics of the situation.

This is an important point. The megacorps aren't going to band together to get rid of shadowrunners if it's the megacorps (usually through layers of deniable subsidiaries) who are hiring shadowrunners. Ares could use and official team to hit MCT, but then that could easily lead to an all out war between two megacorps. Better to have the deniable assets doing the dirty work in the shadows and if it gets brought to light, all the megas can exclaim I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!

The cold war analogy hobgoblin used up thread seems pretty apt to me. The megas are the nations of the time, and their in house security are like the CIA, KGB, MI-6 and so on, with all the double agents and sleepers and so on that implies. Below that are the private contractors, the assets, the burned, the out in the cold and so on whose loyalty is negotiable and the knowledge of which can always be disavowed.

There's also a bit of the "right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing" if the hands are on an octopus that has octopuses for hands. It would be embarrassing for MegaCorp A to help MegaCorp B find out who hit one their facilities if it turns out that the runners were hired by a lower tier, wholly-owned subsidiary of MegaCorp A. If the corporate culture is based around covering your ass, cutting corners, turning a profit at all costs and the only real crime is getting caught, then it doesn't behoove anyone in a position of power to get to the bottom of anything that doesn't directly affect their bottom line.

If Corp A admits knowledge of some shadowrunners S, then Corp B's lawyers might try to twist that into Corp A being liable for the hit done by S on B last week (even though it's probably Corp C that had it done). Probably, eventually A's lawyers get the case thrown out of court, but that takes a lot of time and money. Better to just keep quiet.

It's amazing how quickly open exchange of information disappears when you involve lawyers.

Don't forget the culture this is set in.

Imagine you're a member of Seattle PD.

Feds come to visit? Drekholes don't appreciate how Seattle is run. This isn't Boston. Seattle is a cultural island, and operates by its own rules. And when the feds come in, they claim the case as their own and hog all the credit. You'll work with the fed, because you have to, but you're not going to invite him or provide more than you have to, because he's going to do it his, aka the stupid way, without respect for how things are. And when he's done, he'll dump you with the paperwork, while he tacks his name as the officer in charge.

NAN police? You mean the people who stole your family estates out in the Cascades and contributed to the bank failures that followed? Hells to the no. Those boys can sit on it and spin.

Tir police? Hahahahaahaha.

Ares coming through? Hope you're not in this job for justice, because Ares sure isn't. Worse, when you tell your boss you have the case handled and nearly wrapped it up, he comes and tells you to hand it over anyway. Seems like HIS boss is in on a special deal from Ares, and wants to make sure they get the cred for this one.

Renraku/CAT/Whoever? These boys act like you're a corporate espionage team. If it's in-house, you're lucky they even tell you a break-in happened. But they don't tell you what the project was that was attacked, how the intruders got in, how successful they were or anything. Apparently headlines on the screamsheets saying "Renraku Robbed Again" don't help stock prices. To make up for it, if the crime actually doesn't touch anything sensitive, the security team dumps the body on the street and is therefore your responsibility, so they can keep their own numbers low on their weekly reports.


Just culturally, I can't think of a lot of organizations which will culturally see the other guy as friendly. It's like playing Prisoner's Dilemma with a tax auditor. You're going to screw him over at every chance just on principle (and he expects it, so he'll do the same thing to you). I certainly don't see that changing for something as minor as a smash and grab.

You'd wonder why the old ShadowTalker "SPD" was always whining about Lone Star becoming the "Police" of Seattle.

Whatever happened to SPD, anyhow?

Yeah, in the 4th ed Seattle Source book I'm suprised he didn't say something about KE. Of course he might have decided to join KE or he might be dead (He'd be at least in his 60's by 2072 iirc).

I haven't read this entire thread, but I do remember back in Target: Matrix talking about how the various law-enforcement corps had information exchange agreements, so that a Knight Errant patrol would know that there was a warrant out for your arrest, even if it was a Lone Star-issued warrant. Whether they decided to act on it or blow it off was up to them, but the data was shared...or it was supposed to be.

The LE corps might have a collective rep as knuckle-dragging leg-breakers, but a goodly number of them are involved in LE because, well, they're cops...and cops are cops the world over. I know more than a few working in local government as I do, and I need go no farther than my own brother to ask advice.

YMMV, but some information sharing has been canon for a long time.

What it really gives the Corps is a lot of flexibility in deciding what information they will share and with whom.

"The Blue Line" as I put it. Sorry, everyone might not be familiar with that line. It's a connection that all cops seem to have with one another, at least when it comes to the "Flatfoots" on the streets and the Detectives as well. Not sure if it applies to "Brass" or "Suits" or whatever they call them.

In some areas and ways, it's a good thing. Relationships between them are good, information sharing is decent, less pissing contests over jurisdiction as long as the scum gets caught and put away. In other ways it's bad as "Bad Cops" are protected as "regular people have no idea what they go through" (Which in ways is true), a drive to get at "Scum" no matter what the evidence says that they're innocent or not, and other such problems.

Some people refer to the Police as "The World's Largest Street Gang", and, at times, it really does look that way.

I'm sorry if I offended any officers we have here, or family of officers. But they're human just like the rest of us, and there are bad ones out there. And there have been times they've been protected by "Brother Officers" just because they were police officers. And there are some areas where the whole lot of them are corrupt.

But, again, they're human just like the rest of us. There's a lot of good ones that go out day-after-day into situations the rest of the world seems to ignore. They see humanity at it's worst a lot of the time, and somehow do not fall into the abyss themselves. (Right now it can be hard to remember that due to the scenes we're seeing like the shooting of veterans in the head with rubber bullets, midnight raids to tear down tents of protestors after denying respected international reporters, and point-blank military-grade pepper spraying students sitting in peaceful protest of tuition hikes and other such events. But these are human beings, and, I sincerely hope, the vast minority of people doing these things.).

Just a messed up world we live in.

And some shared projects might be done by two or more corps.
Wuxing and Aztechnology worked togeter to build the Guatemala Canal. Azttechnology got some geomancy tricks out of it and Wuxing got the Triad's "break your oath and die horribly" Blood Magic ritual out of it.

And much less sinister cross marketing might be done regularly, Aztechnology and EVO aren't going to miss a chance to cross market a hot Sim-Star and Stuffers at Stuffer Shack that can make both of them piles of just because they compete in other areas.

I dunno, I like him. he was a great Law-enforcement viewpoint that seems to be missing in 4e. I want to know more about the cops! We need a Knight Errant Book! Something to help us GMs handle Law-enforcement.

Well, sure, but what is the fun in that?

There IS a Lonestar sourcebook, but it's about 15 years out of print and super hard to find, and it's pure gold if you can get a copy.

Mine is sitting on the shelf behind me. That said I seem to recall saying the SPD character was offed somewhere along the way. Forget who said it, or how it happened.

*Pours a 40 on the curb* Good thing I got these in bulk.

I know, been trying to track that down. I'm hoping for a modern one. Something to take the wireless world and Emerged into account.

Also,
*pours 40 out for SPD*

He was part of the inspiration for my favorite NPC. Someone needs to find out how he died so we can hold a proper funeral.

One of the Seattle source books? Do you recall which book it was mentioned?

I dug out my old Corporate Shadowfiles book because I always liked the fluff on extraterritoriality. pg 20

"...to this day in the UCAS, many of the NAN, Japan, and most other developed countries any "continuous and cotiguous, recognized and long term" corporate site is extraterritorial regardless of property and building ownership.

Translation follows; "continuous and cotiguous" means that the area must be recognizable as a single area distinct from its surroundings. Throw a fence around a tract of land or lease an entire floor of an office building and it's "continuous and cotiguous". As long as you can see some kind of intuitively obvious distinction between the corp property and the surrounding territory; like "the 10th floor as opposed to the 9th floor" or "all the offices that can only be reached via the Gaetronics lobby" the area will qualify as extraterritorial. A hypothetical Yamatetsu rep who shares a bullpen style open office with reps from other corps couldn't claim her desk as extraterritorial because you can't see a clear distinction between her territory and everyone else's. It sounds complicated but the intuitively obvious rule makes a good guideline.

"Recognized" means that the area must have official and public recognition as corp territory. For example MCT can't open up a secret office under the name of a local sole proprietorship and then claim extraterritoriality for it. It is not recognized as MCT turf so it does not get those benefits.

"Long term" means an official lease must exist signed by a duly authorized officer of the corporation. couple of court cases tried to hash out exactly how long a lease has to run to qualify, but the corp has to have the lease with the officer's signature. That means a Renrauku suit can't stand in the middle of his living room just as Lone Star goons kick down his door and claim his apartment is Renrauku corp territory. That's how extraterritoriality works." ...

Just FYI.

No. As I recall it was someone on this forum. They may have referenced a book but I don't know.

The worst part is that I can't search for SPD because it's too small a word.

I'm Pretty sure one of the books has a brief sidebar summarizing the level of corporation between the Corps and Government organizations. Arse I think is pretty cooperative with UCAS law enforcement when it comes to the extradition of criminals.

What I see is that unless the GM makes the cooperation a part of a specific plot (oh noes, people are cooperating to find you! Go do a run to spread distrust!), it is assumed that corporations don’t share data. Remember that some things (killing a Knight Errant officer is specifically mentioned), are crimes against Knight Errant and not the corp who hired them, so Knight Errant can use data from all of it’s security contracts. Also, it is implied (if not specifically stated) that one of the ways that security megacorps ensure monopoly is that they will pursue criminals through other nations that have also hired them (so if everyone in a block hires Knight Errant, they will chase you down that block).

The way I've always looked at extraterritoriality & how corporate/governmental information sharing works is through the lens of the "Alphabet Soup" of the US government on a federal level. This is similar to how CanRay put it: corps will gladly share data and info with each other, up until they won't. Just like the DEA, FBI, and local law enforcement will usually work together if the need arises, so too will various corps and civil governments work together... but also like the DEA/FBI/Local PD, as soon as one of them has something they think is "too important" to give up to another group, they'll withhold that info and possibly even throw other groups off the trail if it's valuable enough. Or maybe if you're really valuable, they'll cut a deal to bribe other corporations & agencies to do their work for them. Two examples:

A runner group pulls a job on Renraku, extracting a guy in upper management from their Seattle offices. Renraku has some basic data on the runners - basic appearances, enough to check to see if there are any possibles who're already in the system ("She's an elf with a pink mohawk, a spider tattoo on her neck, and he's a Troll with only one tusk who speaks in a Russian accent."). It's in Renraku's best interests to share info with Knight Errant, Lone Star, and anyone else they suspect may know who these people are. They won't get anyone actually running an investigation for them - KE's more worried about that Halloweener firebombing that's making the news - but if some enterprising KE cop wants to make a name for himself, get some juice with the bosses and an external corp, it's in his interests to keep an eye out for elves with pink mohawks. If KE picks this person up, they have every reason to hand them over to Renraku for interrogation, since keeping them would fuck up KE's quarterly stats and require paperwork they don't have time for. If for some reason they DID need to keep the suspect - maybe she shot at some KE cops - they could always share data remotely with Renraku, or invite a friendly rep down to "observe" the KE interrogation.

Now let's suppose the guy who this elf extracted has a lot of dirt on Renraku - shit like tax code violations (be they lack of payments to the Seattle Metroplex gov't or corporate court) or unauthorized waste dumping on other people's turf, or maybe he liked to have his way with 10 year old girls that he had his staff kidnap for him. Fact of the matter is, that's not info Renraku America wants getting out - that makes Renraku America look bad, and they can't have that. If the suspect gets picked up by Lone Star or somebody else, she might know something, and she might blab it, which would let Renraku's enemies know how to attack them. Even if she doesn't know much, it could start people looking into things Renraku would rather they didn't. So in this case, it's in Renraku's best interests NOT to share any info with KE or other corps. They want to get this elf, but they don't want anyone else to get at her first.

On the other hand, what if the exec had committed all these crimes at his prior job with Knight Errant... and KE wanted to unload him but couldn't outright fire him due to contractual obligations or dirt on HIS bosses, so instead they cut a deal with Renraku. "You take our guy," they said, "And we'll give you discounted policing in your non-extraterritorial locations in Seattle for the next five years. Saves you millions." So if this exec has been extracted, it's a risk to KE for similar reasons as above - maybe someone stole him to use him as leverage against Ares. In that case, Renraku should definitely alert KE and suggest that maybe they want to get these runners bad enough to open up a task force to find them... unless they want Renraku to maybe start spreading around WHY KE got rid of their guy.

Corporations share data when it's in their interests to do so. I would suggest, however, that the default sharing setting for any corp with any other is "yes but in a clinical or unfriendly fashion". Because if it's not "yes", then the entire concept of SINs is meaningless, since that data HAS to be shared between corporations and governments. But it can't be too much "yes" or Shadowrunning becomes functionally impossible.

This thread has been an interesting read. Thanks everyone.

I firmly believe that corporations, security/police, and governments would likely share information with each other in the Shadowrun setting. Sometimes through back-channels, often through official channels. Hell, there is probably more information sharing going on in 2072 than we could fathom in this day and age. I would admit that a lot of it would be related to "common" criminal activities. Simple auto-theft, muggings, etc. Evidence of regular crime by regular criminals, which is more common than now in many areas, would definitely be shared. People want to feel safe in their homes, and the government and security companies are there to offer security. On the average a regular SINner can live a relatively peaceful existence if they so desire.

There are exceptions though. Say some runners are caught on camera... in a top secret MCT engineering facility. Is MCT going to give video footage of those runners to KE, when their new whiz-bang prototype drone is visible in the background.... not a chance. Sure, they may clean up the video but that takes time. Also, if said runners are being chased, carrying hot pay-data about said drone, and they run through say... NeoNET extra-territorial property getting caught on more cameras, do you think NeoNET will blindly hand over information garnered, or try and figure out what happened? If they figure it out, they may be likely to help, or they might also try to buy said info from the runners in question... Or kill them and take it. Or kill their Johnson (from Evo) once he has the goods. Johnsons are easier targets than runners sometimes.

The corps, especially the megas, are not blind champions of justice. Because that doesn't help them, or hurt their competitors. If it accomplished at least one of those results, then they might. Instead, any data will go through various filters and processing for usefulness, and any action taken will be done based on how it affects the decision-maker and his superiors(for better or worse, depending). Once you get past the low-level managers, everyone left has at least a little Machiavelli in them, or else they'd still be in the lower ranks. As is said in the books, bureaucracy is slow. Inter-organizational efforts could crawl at a snail's pace before becoming useful in bringing in a group of shadowrunners.

I believe even that would be spotty outside of the "safe" zones, though. There are places like the Redmond and Puyallup Barrens that exist in Shadowrun, where the law does not always reach. This alone makes it easier for Runners to exist. Should a particularly unlucky, or ignorant, runner get APB's out on him from every corp and PD in Seattle, he can still hide in the Lava Fields, or Glo-City if needed. How many street cops, or even FBI agents, are going to risk radiation exposure, or volcanic ash, or possible insect hives, or unopposed go-gangs, or Tamanous/ghouls, etc. to go after a someone, because they all know he whacked a couple of guards, and ran off with some SOTA gear. Sure, they'll pick him up if he's seen in the city proper, but it's like finding the needle in a haystack of info... in a timely manner.. before he ghosts into the Barrens again... or slides across the border into S-S or PCC territory.

This does bring me back to another point. Shadowrunners, at base build, are NOT regular criminals. They are closer to trained mercs, well-trained thieves/criminals, and/or professional covert operatives in skill, ability, and luck. I generally tell my players that things like nano-paste disguises, extra SINs and commlinks, tag erasers, vehicle spoof-chips/morphing license plates, etc. should not be considered optional. If your going to leave things behind, sanitize them. Keep your daily gear to the essentials. If you are going to do really bad things with restricted or illegal goods, consider those goods to be disposable. And most of all, real runners DON'T use their customized, personalized, daily-carry Ares Predator IV on runs. You either carry a second one, which is only for runs, or (better) you carry one you just picked up off the black market. To be truly thorough, you drop the gun in a crucible of liquid iron at a foundry/steel mill as soon as possible (without making a spectacle of yourself).

It really IS possible to run with realistic levels of law enforcement, if and only if, you can expect realistic levels of professionalism from your players characters. Another plus is also understanding the "Me first" mindset that prevades the corporate culture of the setting.

Keeping some thermite or a dose or two of demolishers may also be a option...

You can never have enough explosives.

In doubt, always go te method 'P for Plenty'.

And that leads to the problem of seperating the good data from the unnecessary. A smart runner can overload the system with multiple hits with conflicting information (He was in Berlin and Seattle on the same day at the same time?) Look here PICs of both, which is accurate. Also with the availability of masking spells, nanopaste disguises and other tricks is that video feed accurate (maybe, maybe not). As for sins, you have the same issue, but with fake ones you could come up twice and then con the guy by saying"that is the third time I've called them about that error this week!".

This is much easier than living off the grid.

What better way to mess with the competition by sharing information through normal channels, but sometimes "loosing" some information, or sharing the wrong information

I think both CIA and KGB seeded known bogus data, both to weed out double-agents and trip up the other side.

Think? SOP, man.

In logical terms, the answer to the question is: how big is your 'hawk?

On the pink mohawk side of the spectrum, there must logically be little exchange of information; oh the black trenchcoat side there will be more. My game world is more on the black trenchcoat side of things, but while morphing licence plates and regularly changing the barrel of your gun are almost a must for runners, they won't necessarily need the nanopaste disguise unless they are planning a social infiltration.

In my game world, runners are pawns in the covert cold wars between the megas. Because the runners don't know who the Johnson is, once they have handed over the McGuffin or whatever, the Johnson's mega won't care 2 shits about the team. If the hacker was clumsy enough to have been traced to the node of a local McHughes, so be it ... and let's face it, because of the covert nature of the corp Johnsons' work, even if McHughes were behind the run almost nobody in the company would know not to cooperate.

Saying that, as per SR canon, most megas will not spend the man hours and money to track down a runner team that has hit one of their facilities because they know that the info/McGuffin will be gone by the time they find them.

Of course, in my game world it may be a different story if the PCs have overtly blown up a facility or cold-bloodedly murdered surrendered company employees or done something else that makes pretending the infiltration never happened impossible - if the Corp can't hush things up, they will have to be seen to be tough on crime and go after the runners themselves and/or report events to KE in which case all bets are off.