Police and Law Enforcement
Everyday police duties are still performed by humans or parahumans. A key reason for
this is biochauvinism - the New Zealand people are simply unwilling to hand over law
enforcement duties to infomorphs. Under current law only a citizen (which can only be a
(para)human, bioroid, or ghost) may be empowered to make arrests, enact warrants,
make statuatory declarations, and so forth.
The police do make significant use of infomorphs, but they act purely as advisors to
human agents.
Standard kit for a human or parahuman officer in low to medium threat situations is
as follows;
- Orion PW-18 Armgun, which includes HUD, laser sights, and recognition pad
as standard. Typical load is 2 APS and 2 tangler rounds, usually homing.
- Standard police uniform is made of arachnoweave (provides PD 2, DR 8) and
includes a clear indication of the officers name and rank. This
will be worn even in absolutely benign situations. Indeed, most officers are not
permitted to make arrests unless they are wearing correctly marked uniform.
- Officers on patrol carry medium nanoweave vests which provide PD 2, DR 20 to
locations 9-11, 17-18. These can be worn at the officers discretion.
- Standard police headgear is a light full helmet with low-light optics, a
Near Miss Indicator (NMI), a complexity 5 computer running a NAI-5, and
encrypted short-ranged communications. The AI will usually keep a full video
record while the officer is on duty in case it is needed for evidential purposes.
- Each patrol car will have a Recoilless Rifle and 4 homing tangler rounds secured
in the boot.
While on everyday patrol in calm areas most officers will leave their armguns and
vests in the boot with the recoilless rifle. The New Zealand islands themselves (North Island,
South Island, Stewart Island, and the Chatham Islands) are usually pretty peaceful, and
any incident serious enough to merit police in full kit will usually be handled by
the Armed Offenders Squad, unless for some reason time is a factor. The territories are
another matter; officers serving on Niue, the Cook Islands, Tokelau, or any of
the underwater colonies routinely wear their armour and weapons.
Thre specialist units of significance are the Armed Offenders Squad (AOS), the
Network Squad, and the Dog Squad. All three provide specialist assistance, on call to
police departments throughout New Zealand and it's territories.
- The Armed Offenders Squad is called in for high threat situations -
by New Zealand standards this can include anyone with a firearm. The AOS
is the only New Zealand law enforcement agency to use tactical cybershells -
the Israel Robotics IRP-7 Sentinel.
- The Network Squad specialises in computer crimes, especially
xoxing and data piracy. They are also responsible for policing
AIs, including hunting down emergent and rogue AIs, and tracing back
criminal uses of AI to the operators.
Their agents operate mostly within the global web, liasing
with other police to perform fieldwork. Each member of this squad is
assisted by a LAI-7 (or higher) infomorph who acts as their partner.
- The Dog-Squad is used to track and subdue violent criminals. They use a
mixture of K-10A postcanine and
K-15 werewolf uplifts accompanied by
human handlers.