City Police and and Legal System Post
ORDER:
Since the entire police force disappeared at the start of the game, it has been painstakingly rebuilt through a lot of hard work by both Imports and natives. Despite their best efforts, the loss of tens of thousands of people isn’t something an organization completely rebounds from in just a few years: the City Police Department remains understaffed and with a serious experience deficit, as most of the new generation of police officers don’t have the experience of the missing veterans to draw upon. In real life, the NYPD has a strength of about forty one thousand officers, counting auxiliaries. Between new trainees, transfers from other departments, and old cops coming out of retirement, the new City Police Department has been brought back up to about 85%, or thirty-three thousand officers.
This does not translate into the new force being 85% as effective as its predecessor. The courage and integrity of the new officers cannot be faulted; these are people who voluntarily joined an organization that has to take on supervillains and that was recently wiped out. However, problems with organization, equipment and experience combined with the frequently unprecedented challenges involved with policing a City of superhumans means that there is often only so much native officers can accomplish. Between this and the staffing gap, there is always a role to be played by superheroes and other crimefighters in keeping the City safe. This is also why Imports still play a leadership role in the force, especially when responding to extraordinary crises or pursuing Import suspects. It was only in 2011 when a native officer took charge of the City’s police, current NPC Commissioner Roberta Hernandez.
By now the police force is used to the role superheroes play in the City, and it's standard policy to cooperate with them to a point. Superhero activity isn't prosecuted as long as their methods aren't too extreme, and suspects apprehended by heroes can be successfully tried and convicted. There is an NPC police unit dedicated to handling suspects detained by superheroes and following up on their cases to make sure the evidence can stand up in court- when an unconscious mugger is dropped off, they track down the victim to secure their testimony for the trial, for instance. The activities of this unit can be handwaved or assumed however necessary.
When it comes to playing with NPC officers, they can generally be controlled like any other NPC, although there should be communication with copcast when something happens that would be of notice to their characters or affect the force at large, such as officers dying or being corrupt.
If a character is arrested by the police, they generally end up in the ‘Superjail’ facility for Import criminals, run by the Red Queen. Depending on their actual or proven mental state, they could also end up in the Norman Osborn Hospital for Psychiatric Evaluation (NOHoPE).
Other important posts for the police and prisons can be found at the following links:
IC Police Roster, consultants, and wanted list
OOC Police Blotter post
Superjail plotting
Superjail FAQ
LAW:
The courts in the City don’t run exactly the way they do in real life- a justice system being rebuilt largely by Phoenix Wright characters will do that. However, the City is an alternate-universe counterpart to New York City and its legal system is a rough analogue to New York’s, which means that real-life laws can be referenced:
However, there are even fewer players involved with this side of the law than there are police officers, so if you plan to have your character to go through a court system, you will have to do a lot of the legwork. Depending on what your character did and who was involved, a police or lawyer character could try to help you out. There's nothing wrong with things being handwaved either; in fact, most legal proceedings happen ‘off-screen’ in C&C.
Phoenix Wright Trials and You
http://dictionary.law.com/ - Law dictionary
http://ypdcrime.com/index.htm - A very cut-n-dry site, though it's actually handily outlined in a way I find rather nice. You just have to be prepared to use your mind to decipher strange, foreign English sentences.
These links were generously donated by objectiondenied:
http://24.97.137.100/nyc/ - This one is a pain to navigate unless you have a really good idea of what you're looking for.
http://www.megalaw.com/ny/top/nycriminal.php - NYC criminal law and procedure stuff. Very handy for our lovely cop cast.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/law/html/home/home.shtml - This is the official site which is a good place to start.
http://www.nyls.edu/centers/harlan_scholar_centers/center_for_new_york_city_law - Exactly what it says on the tin. A free research internet library of New York City administrative decisions.
http://www.nycourts.gov/ - Information and links about the courts.
http://www.new-york-arraignments.com/ - More info here.
Since the entire police force disappeared at the start of the game, it has been painstakingly rebuilt through a lot of hard work by both Imports and natives. Despite their best efforts, the loss of tens of thousands of people isn’t something an organization completely rebounds from in just a few years: the City Police Department remains understaffed and with a serious experience deficit, as most of the new generation of police officers don’t have the experience of the missing veterans to draw upon. In real life, the NYPD has a strength of about forty one thousand officers, counting auxiliaries. Between new trainees, transfers from other departments, and old cops coming out of retirement, the new City Police Department has been brought back up to about 85%, or thirty-three thousand officers.
This does not translate into the new force being 85% as effective as its predecessor. The courage and integrity of the new officers cannot be faulted; these are people who voluntarily joined an organization that has to take on supervillains and that was recently wiped out. However, problems with organization, equipment and experience combined with the frequently unprecedented challenges involved with policing a City of superhumans means that there is often only so much native officers can accomplish. Between this and the staffing gap, there is always a role to be played by superheroes and other crimefighters in keeping the City safe. This is also why Imports still play a leadership role in the force, especially when responding to extraordinary crises or pursuing Import suspects. It was only in 2011 when a native officer took charge of the City’s police, current NPC Commissioner Roberta Hernandez.
By now the police force is used to the role superheroes play in the City, and it's standard policy to cooperate with them to a point. Superhero activity isn't prosecuted as long as their methods aren't too extreme, and suspects apprehended by heroes can be successfully tried and convicted. There is an NPC police unit dedicated to handling suspects detained by superheroes and following up on their cases to make sure the evidence can stand up in court- when an unconscious mugger is dropped off, they track down the victim to secure their testimony for the trial, for instance. The activities of this unit can be handwaved or assumed however necessary.
When it comes to playing with NPC officers, they can generally be controlled like any other NPC, although there should be communication with copcast when something happens that would be of notice to their characters or affect the force at large, such as officers dying or being corrupt.
If a character is arrested by the police, they generally end up in the ‘Superjail’ facility for Import criminals, run by the Red Queen. Depending on their actual or proven mental state, they could also end up in the Norman Osborn Hospital for Psychiatric Evaluation (NOHoPE).
Other important posts for the police and prisons can be found at the following links:
IC Police Roster, consultants, and wanted list
OOC Police Blotter post
Superjail plotting
Superjail FAQ
LAW:
The courts in the City don’t run exactly the way they do in real life- a justice system being rebuilt largely by Phoenix Wright characters will do that. However, the City is an alternate-universe counterpart to New York City and its legal system is a rough analogue to New York’s, which means that real-life laws can be referenced:
However, there are even fewer players involved with this side of the law than there are police officers, so if you plan to have your character to go through a court system, you will have to do a lot of the legwork. Depending on what your character did and who was involved, a police or lawyer character could try to help you out. There's nothing wrong with things being handwaved either; in fact, most legal proceedings happen ‘off-screen’ in C&C.
Phoenix Wright Trials and You
http://dictionary.law.com/ - Law dictionary
http://ypdcrime.com/index.htm - A very cut-n-dry site, though it's actually handily outlined in a way I find rather nice. You just have to be prepared to use your mind to decipher strange, foreign English sentences.
These links were generously donated by objectiondenied:
http://24.97.137.100/nyc/ - This one is a pain to navigate unless you have a really good idea of what you're looking for.
http://www.megalaw.com/ny/top/nycriminal.php - NYC criminal law and procedure stuff. Very handy for our lovely cop cast.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/law/html/home/home.shtml - This is the official site which is a good place to start.
http://www.nyls.edu/centers/harlan_scholar_centers/center_for_new_york_city_law - Exactly what it says on the tin. A free research internet library of New York City administrative decisions.
http://www.nycourts.gov/ - Information and links about the courts.
http://www.new-york-arraignments.com/ - More info here.