Cyberpunk 2020 - Superconsumer Part 4

The Police

Law enforcement still exists in Superconsumer, but like all things it's been twisted and changed by the media control and corporate enforcement. After decades of a continuous rise in crime despite a constant increase in funding and manpower the government just gave up trying. They handed over the running most law enforcement to private companies to handle. Giving them a frozen budget and simply told to do their best. If it failed the politicians had a scapegoat so they couldn't be blamed.

The three major corporations who handle running private law enforcement now are Peacekeep, The Badge Inc and Security Solutions. With Peacekeep and The Badge handling most major police departments across the nation while Security Solutions handles private police forces for gated communities and rural areas that were formerly Sheriff Departments.

First thing that was looked at was how to get around the static budget they were given. It was obvious there was no interest in giving them anymore than what the original contracts offered but there was also nothing limiting how to gain funds in other ways. Thus was born the idea of Corporate Sponsorship.

Various Corporations could now sponsor specific precincts for a tidy sum in the form of a donation to the department. Their logo would be slapped onto the patrol cars, uniforms and media presence for that specific precinct giving them mobile advertising that is also illegal to deface. This, of course, led to more influence by the corporations as time has gone on.

With a big enough donation officers could be told to turn a blind eye to specific activities being done in their patrol zone. If they are sponsored by Militech then they would be ordered not to interfere with a group of edgerunners extracting a corporate official from a rival in their jurisdiction. Other companies could order them not to report illegal dumping of chemicals or tell them to remove the homeless in an area with violent force.

Even the system that all on duty officers use for their weapon smart links has a list of 'friendly' targets loaded into them as designated by their sponsors. So in a firefight the police may not be able to return fire against a man shooting at them because he is a relative of old man Arasaka who is paying their bills.

On the other hand some use the police to test out new weapons and equipment. Arming them with the latest test run of smart gear and non-lethal technologies so they can get a better idea of how they work in the line of duty. What the police use one day may be the next big weapon trend a few months later. Or a sudden spike of weapon failures and officers killed in the line of duty could send something back to development or get it canceled altogether.

Of course this means there are place that nobody really cares about. The outskirts and slums around a city may be stuck with the bottom level of funding. Scraping by however they can. Maybe getting Slurps to sponsor them so they can put new tires on some of their barely running patrol cars. In these areas the police become less concerned about doing their job and focus on their own survival often looking away just to keep from being the next loss on a spreadsheet someplace.

Thus the crime levels in wealthier parts of the city and in areas around corporate assets have seen a dramatic drop in reported crimes. While the worst parts of the city continue to spiral down with criminal activity going completely unchecked. Or that if a corporation suddenly gets an interest in a specific section in a run down section of the city there could be a huge spike in funding over night.


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