COCOON PATROL
  Agent's manual

  1. Introduction

  The Cocoon Patrol is a largely independently operating part of Starfleet
  Security, the federal police force of the United Federation of Planets.

  Starfleet Security should not be confused with those departments on bases
  or ships providing unit security and headed by a Chief Security Officer.
  While the education and training are largely the same, officers and agents
  of Starfleet Security deal with a much different group of clients in a
  much different environment, lacking most of the backup support that comes
  with a security department and ship at their call. Of course the SFSec
  officers and agents are capable to handle unit security environments as
  well.

  SFSec is entrusted with the safety of the individual Federation citizens
  in all Federation territories. It also observes potential threats to
  this safety, organizes the prevention of criminal activities and
  apprehends criminals if those activities fail or are circumvented.

  The main occupation of Cocoon Patrol is law enforcement within the Cocoon
  Sectors' Federation territory, namely the Juun Union. They cooperate and
  compete in this with the Juun police forces and Juun Militia which
  retained a large portion of it's independence for political reasons as
  well as their familiarity with both people and places. The unspoken
  agreement is that SFSec will take on all threats created by the presence
  of the Federation and outside incursion while the Juun will cope with
  their own people. Intersections between the two cannot be excluded of
  course and may provide friction points.

  2. Organisation

  Cocoon Patrol is divided into sector offices within the vicinity covered
  by a fleet. This doesn't mean one office of the Patrol matches one physical
  sector, rather that it covers a certain area of space that is conquerable
  with material and personnel and draws additional resources from the Fleet
  in the same area.

  Each sector office has an office director, ranking from Lieutenant
  Commander to Captain, depending on the number of officers and agents
  under his purview. He reports to the SFSec Director assigned to the fleet
  and has himself wide direction authority over his local units, in the
  boundaries of his orders.

  Each sector office has a number of officers and agents assigned to them.
  They are grouped in teams of 2 to 4 and usually take on whole cases and
  work on them independently after they are assigned. They can be combined
  to larger units if required.

  Officers serving in uniform are called just that, officers serving in
  civil outfit are called agents. To reinforce teams with additional
  investigative manpower, each office has a pool of highly trained experts,
  the special officers/agents. They usually have a degree in medicine,
  engineering or sciences. They are assigned on a as needed basis to
  investigation teams, while officers and agents usually do work together
  for several missions in a row to benefit from being familiar with each
  other.

  Each investigation group has a senior officer/agent, most often ranked
  Lieutenant, who is generally responsible for the conduct of the
  investigation and the resources allocated to it. He will frequently
  report to the office director and file the final report as well as
  choose the approach to the investigation from the options presented by
  the team members.

  All officers and agents are highly trained officers. This is especially
  true for the Cocoon Patrol that has higher standards as to the conduct and
  professionality of their personnel as other subdivisions of SFSec due to
  the sensitive nature of their area of operation and the immediate
  requirement to display such standards to the new environment to further
  the acceptance of Federation presence. To hold up these standards will
  be expected from all officers of the Cocoon Patrol and strictly enforced,
  if necessary.

  3. Flying Equipment

  Since SFSec operates in small groups in the enforcement division, small
  unit craft are assigned to it to support operations.

  At the top of the line the Samurai corvettes serve as regular patrol
  vessels. They are most often used to prevent smuggling of weapons, drugs
  and other restricted materials and to stand up against pirate activities.
  They are usually commanded by a Lieutenant Commander and have significant
  crew. Their missions usually border to activities usually conducted by
  Starfleet itself and most often are only brought in if no Starfleet ships
  are available to support enforcement teams. Often they double as outpost
  defense in addition to covering an area with their patrolling.

  Most often used, and especially if no confrontation in space is to be
  anticipated, are the Danube class runabouts that are the mainstay of
  medium distance personnel transport in Starfleet. They are able to carry
  up to 12 persons and flight crew or additional equipment if not fully
  used. They are manouverable and fast and can be lightly armed. Usually
  one of them is assigned to each team with a mission pack of additional
  equipment. The ships are specially secured against unapproved use and
  entering.

  Below that, the regular Starfleet small craft equipment is available, on a
  as-needed-and-useful basis. Sometimes teams use commercial transportation
  or travel on Starfleet vessels to their operation area. Infiltration
  operations may require additional creativity.

  4. Other equipment

  4.1 Weapons

      SFSec Enforcement is not a fighting troup. It is their job to smartly
      apprehend suspects for questioning and fair trials. To this end they
      are equipped with weapons capable of stunning violent criminals and
      only as last resort defend themselves with lethal force, personal
      hand-to-hand combat abilities nonwithstanding.

      SFSec officers are usually equipped with class II phasers for personal
      defense. Most of them prefer the type IV version that resembles the
      romulan disruptors in shape while having the same capabilities as the
      standard dust-buster model, but improved aiming and handling.

      Agents usually carry a version of the class I phaser with a special
      casing that prevents easy detection of the power cell. This makes it
      slightly bigger than the standard class I. It is, however, equally
      limited in it's power and aiming accuracy.

      For use in security raids the phaser rifle is available, it comes with
      an energy diffusor for this purpose that widens the field of fire
      while limiting the effective range. This makes it a better choice for
      use in buildings and corridors. Drawback is the amount of waste heat
      that is produced, especially in locations with bad ventilation.

      As auxiliary weaponry there are stun, smoke and flash grenades that
      are thrown and either time, impact or communicator activated.

  4.2 Scanning devices

      To gather evidence a number of sensitive scanning devices are in use.

      Most widely the standard tricorder as used by Starfleet away teams are
      available. There are engineering and medical specific enhancement
      slots and a system to add storage capacity and subprocessor power by
      combining several tricorders. Special plug-in scanners for example
      for microscopic applications and ambulant chemical analysis are part
      of the security sensor pack.

      Since most often teams are working in the field away from readily
      usable computer access, there is an extension module with flat screen
      and freely configurable console pad as part of the office set, a
      combination in a suitcase that also holds two additional repalcement
      tricorder modules without scanning set for additional computing power,
      a subspace communication relay that boosts individual communicator
      range to 5,000 km to allow to access the shuttle's/runabout's computer
      and library, a universal energy transformer to power the system and
      load energy cells and an emergency transporter beacon.

      Since the standard communicator pin is not usable for agents, a
      different design that can be used in various shapes has been
      developped with the same characteristics and functions. It often
      comes in a flat, credit-card sized shape that includes the agent's ID
      card and is protected by fingerprint identification to activate it.
      Other versions are mended into a piece of clothing or come as a
      jewelry. Finally there is a flexible version to be glued to the
      skin and a subcutaneous implant, both with less battery power and
      output for thermal reasons and detection prevention.

      As an addition to the scanning devices the so called "bugs" are
      counted. These spy devices come as audio, audio/video and full
      holoscan, with increasing size and bandwith requirements. Their use
      is restricted to the manners established since the late 20th century.
      Most often the permission of a federal court is required to use
      evidence collected with them.

  5. Responsibilities

  5.1 Investigation Teams

      Investigation team members are generally peers in an investigation.

      Should the need for a decision on the course of the investigation
      be required, the investigation team leader will make it.

      Investigation team members are expected to post at least once a
      week. Failure to meet this over a longer time can and will be
      answered with the removal of the team member from the investigation.

      Investigation team leaders are appointed for one case. They will be
      responsible towards the office director for the proceeding of the
      investigation, interim reports and a final case file once the
      investigation ended.

      Investigation team leaders are generally responsible to make sure the
      investigation will not violate the general story arc of the club. To
      this end he will frequently monitor the WWW page for changes that
      may have an impact on the investigation, especially the weekly
      situation reports. He will make sure these informations are passed
      on to the investigation team.

  5.2 Investigation Reports

      The investigation team leader will keep a file where all important
      facts the team turns up will be recorded. This serves two purposes:

      a) the orientation of team members who get confused or enter the team
         as addition or replacement

      b) to compose a final report from it that describes the solution of
         the case and how the team got there

      Team members can request an update whenever they require it. A
      weekly situation update for the SFSec director is expected.

      Teams are encouraged to maintain a WWW page to allow independent
      access to updated investigation material.

  5.3 SFSec office director

      The office director is responsible for the coordination of cases,
      the assignment of personnel within SFSec, the selection of team
      leaders and the presentation of final case reports.

  Document created and (c) for alt.holoworld.rpg by Armin Lenz