THE COLONIAL SECURITY SERVICE INTRODUCTION: Policing Charter of 2265. The charter was greeted by ColSec, and many colonial In a civilisation as dispersed as that of the United governments, with mixed feelings; many felt it Earth Federation (UEF), the enforcement of law was typical of a UEF centralist approach requires a special breed of men and women to hijacking real colonial issues for political ends. police remote colonial settlements light years The Charter involved the re-organization of away from anywhere, and maintain the security ColSec hierarchy and a tightening up of arrest of the spacelanes and trade routes. and trial procedures. These changes have caused some tensions within ColSec and have Alongside the highest aspirations and ideals of attracted criticism from colonial media. humanity that left Earth to begin the colonisation of space there travelled the criminal, the dangerous and the malevolent. To combat these ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE: rogue elements in the colonies the UEF have created the Colonial Security Force (ColSec). In the simplest terms there are three layers to ColSec, under the mandates of the Federal Law ColSec. The ColSec officer works under the Enforcement Authority (FLEA) have been auspices of ColSec policy which is dictated by charged with the day to day security of colonies the mandate granted to FLEA by the UEF. of the UEF. Policing the colonies is a tangled nightmare of logistics, poor communications 1. Uniform: The traditional uniformed police between systems, local politics and a constant offer whose duties comprise of traffic, patrol, arms race between criminals and the police. security and crime prevention. Despite these problems ColSec has been 2. Investigations: Highly trained plain clothes remarkably successful in bringing UEF law to the personnel that investigate more serious colonies. crimes like murder, drug smuggling and people trafficking. ColSec has suffered in recent years from bad 3. Judicial service: The judicial service deal publicity as a result of accusations of brutality with the criminal after the arrest. They are and some high profile corruption cases. the lawyers, magistrates and legal advisors Responding to public, media and political of ColSec. pressure the UEF Senate instigated the Colonial The Colonial Security Service 1 UNIFORM: magazines. They also carry a stun baton and a Also referred to as The Patrol, in some ways the pair of auto-seal cuffs. A shotgun or assault rifle role of the uniformed police officer has not is usually kept in a bio-locked box in the car changed significantly since the 21st century. cabin. While technology and training methods are markedly different from contemporary models, The Car: the uniformed officers role is still one of keeping The police ground car is a Chrysler V15. It has the peace, patrol, protecting crime scenes, traffic lightly armoured frame and plexi glass screens. control, crime prevention and detaining ColSec vehicle colours are a traditional black criminals. and white colour. The car boot often contains cutting tools, medical supplies and spare items Within patrol there is no departmentalisation of of equipment. Each car has an onboard role. (i.e. traffic police, etc) Manpower and computer and can access the trafcom system. resources are an ongoing issue for ColSec and in response they have developed an overlapping Riot: approach in police duties. A police officer can Riots do occur on colonies from time to time and expect to perform several roles during an ColSec have a variety of ways of dealing with average working day. There is, however, one the problem. If a colony is a closed environment area of uniform that is segregated from normal they may automatically seal of the area to police duties. A police officer can apply to be a contain the threat and send in the riot police, or member of a Special Firearms Unit. (SFU), but simply pump in gas to stun the rioters. those duties will run adjacent to patrol requirements and the officer will be on call for A patrol officer may be expected to act as a riot SFU duties. control officer should the need arise. They are then issued with Riot Armour with breathing Uniform Structure: apparatus to protect against noxious The structure of ColSec uniform officers is based substances, and are armed with stun batons and loosely on a military system. Firstly there is the riot shields. They use the locked shield tactics as officers themselves. Standard protocols dictate with support from armoured vehicles that can that there must always be a two uniformed police use riot foam or stun gas. officers on patrol together. (However, manpower and budget restraints can mean this is not ColSec officers on riot duty have access to always practicable) These patrol teams report to heavier weapons should they be needed such as the duty sergeant, the senior police officer on the taser pistols, shock rifles and baton-loaded watch. The Duty sergeant stays in police shotguns. headquarters monitoring police activity and managing uniform response. Uniform Equipment: The ColSec uniform is black in colour. Officers tend not to wear the full police body armour unless there is a need for it. However most will wear a thin armoured vest under their white shirt. The shirt is collarless, and they wear no ties. The shirt has the ColSec badge on both arms. A black baseball type cap with the badge on it is also worn, and a black bomber-jacket with ColSec in reflective white on the back. Hair is recommend to be cut short, however those that decline to do so must tie their hair back while on ColSec officer in Riot Armour duty. aiming his Taser Pistol. Weapons: Special Units: All police are issued with a standard M11-P SFU: Special firearms unit: This is the specialist 10mm automatic pistol and at least two spare weapons response team of ColSec. The Colonial Security Service 2 information is passed from relay point to relay Small in number but highly trained these officers point. However with communication delays it is perform duties as police snipers, aggressive possible for some criminal to be “ahead” of their arrests procedures and civilian threat crime by several F drive jumps or data to have suppression. In larger space ports some units become corrupted during transmission. have been trained in hostile ship boarding tactics by marine specialists. (A lucrative market for ex Recruitment of Investigation personnel come marines is training ColSec officers in firearms directly from uniform. It is a given that all and tactics as paid advisors) The SFU is detectives must at least spend three years in nominally composed of volunteers from patrol patrol before applying to take the investigations who attend there normal duties and can be on entrance exams. If successful they are often call for emergency, or pulled from normal duty in shipped to a larger colony where more suitable advance if required. training facilities can be provided. Training is demanding and rigorous. There are constant They are more heavily armoured than normal reviews and drop outs are common. Once the patrol officers and use military issue firearms. patrol officer has completed their training they The SFU also make use of custom built STV are returned to their colony and they then have a which are armoured and have a 12.7mm year’s probation and teamed with a “mentor” minigun as well as gas rockets. In domed or who will assist in their “real” training. sealed colonies they often use a custom built and heavily armoured ground carrier. Special Units: SOCO: Scene of crime officers. When evidence Pilots: need to be collected these are the experts that The pilots of ColSec are a valued resource and often examine a crime scene and attempt to find many are ex military. They perform the often sufficient evidence to assist in an arrest and dangerous job of pursuing criminal in space via prosecution They often wear hermitically sealed fast moving cutters or flying police STVs into bio hazard suits to protect themselves and the potentially hostile situations. crime scene.. Within SOCO there are several sub departments, like Digital forensics, ballistics, id tracing and, of course, the coroner. INVESTIGATIONS: Investigations is a catch all term used by ColSec The scene of crime officer is the only officer that to describe those multi-skilled non-uniformed can “clear” a crime scene for investigators to police detectives tasked with dealing with enter. However the crime scene is often remote serious crimes like narcotics, murder and people scanned beforehand to insure that no criminals smuggling. Investigations use a web of are still present in on the scene. Standard databases, contacts and intelligence to collate procedure when finding a crime scene is for and investigate crime. The size of investigations uniform to seal the site. SOCO and depends greatly on the size of the colony. investigations are called. SOCO examine the However it is usually a fourth of the total number site and investigations can enter once cleared. of uniform. Investigators often deal with several cases at any one time. An investigation team Undercover: size is dictated by the potential complexity of the Possibly one of the most dangerous forms of case a murder investigation may have up to five police work. Undercover police NEVER operate or six detectives working on it at the same time. in the colony of their birth as the risks are too high. It is a dangerous profession that encourage Investigations have developed a fearsome the loner and has a high burn out rate. reputation for dogged determination in the pursuit of a criminal. Investigations have a THE JUDICIAL SERVICE: multitude of resources available to them like Once you have laws you must have a system of extensive laboratories, criminal profiling enforcement and punishment.