Diff for "Police"

Police in Centralia are the civil servants responsible for enforcing PrincessAlice's petty demands. Er, uh, I mean, keeping the peace. Yeah, that.

The most notable Centralian police officer is ConstablePayne.

Function

Centralian police constables always employ deescalation and mediation as a primary strategy, with most incidents being resolved without the need for violence or physical force. If involved parties are suspected of violating Centralian law, the accused are referred to the courts by means of a written citation.

Centralian police are authorized to employ physical force only in direct defense of life or limb. A constable would, for example, be authorized to forcibly subdue an attacker, but would not be authorized to handcuff or physically restrain a nonviolent person simply for refusing to comply with commands. Use of force must be reasonable and proportionate; a constable found using force in excess of that needed to defend against a threat will be prosecuted for assault and battery as would any member of the public.

This is of, course, largely academic, as in practice, most of what the Centralian police actually do is evacuating crowded public places when monsters show up so the MagicalGirls can fight them without collateral damage.

Organization

The national police service of Centralia is the RoyalCentraliaCivilGuard, a division of the MinistryOfPublicSafety. The Royal Centralia Civil Guard provides police service to unincorporated areas, municipalities with a population of less than 50,000, and Crown properties within larger municipalities. The traffic enforcement unit of the Royal Centralia Civil Guard is known as the RoyalHighwayPatrol.

Municipalities with a population of 50,000 or greater are responsible for providing their own police services, as is QueenCity, which is formally organized as a special prefecture rather than a municipality.

Other law enforcement agencies

Some government entities, including universities, transit authorities, and hospitals, maintain protective service agencies, which employ special constables. Special constables have police authority only within the area they are employed to serve. For example, a special constable employed by TheUniversityOfCentralia has authority only on university property.

Security services for public parks, including national parks, are provided by park rangers. Like special constables, park rangers have police authority only within park grounds.

Officers performing services on behalf of the Courts are known as bailiffs. Duties of a bailiff include courthouse security and service of process.

Uniforms and equipment

The standard Centralian police uniform consists of a white dress shirt, black skirt or black slacks, and a white peaked cap with a black brim. When working on or near roadways, constables are required to wear fluorescent yellow-green high-visibility vests marked POLICE.

The Centralian police badge is a 5-pointed star in a circle, similar to the emblem on the national flag. Badges worn by the Royal Centralia Civil Guard are gold and badges worn by local police are silver.

Centralian police are typically armed only with non-lethal weapons. Plans to replace the standard-issue pepper spray with Dr Pepper spray were abandoned after negotiations with the local Dr Pepper/7-Up bottling company fell through.¹

Vehicles

All marked police vehicles in Centralia are painted in a standard black and white color scheme and marked with the word POLICE (or HIGHWAY PATROL), the name of the operating agency, and the Centralian circle-star emblem. Marked police vehicles are equipped with roof-mounted red and blue emergency lights and a siren. The circle-star emblem is silver on local police vehicles and gold on Royal Centralia Civil Guard or Royal Highway Patrol vehicles.

Unmarked vehicles equipped with flashing red and blue lights are used for traffic enforcement, though any constable conducting a traffic stop in an unmarked vehicle is required to call a constable in a marked vehicle to the scene as soon as is practical and safe.

CategoryCivics CategoryPublicSafety