Detective Duffy's Guide to Dawn Alert - SinaiMUCK Mutant Chronicles Background Information

Detective Duffy's Guide to Dawn Alert for the Rookie Cop

Introduction

Hey again, kid. So you're ready to get to business, eh?

First of all, let me tell you a bit about what the Dawn Alert Community Protection Service is about. We're about serving our community-- protect, serve, and track down those perps and bring them in so they won't be back to bother our people again. That means, we're not out to rack up a body count, and we're not lone vigilantes bringing justice to the Perimeter-- we're a team, and everyone has their part to do.

Some call us DA-Cops. Other people call us the Fuzz, 'cause we hire so many dog-men and Devilcats. Still others call us Brothers, and they don't mean in a nice way. Doesn't matter; if they're people who pay us or on the grounds of people who have a contract with us, they're our customers. And law and justice's our service.

Rank

DACPS is one of the biggest Perimeter security agencies going, and that means we have a lot of territory to cover, and not really enough people to have a man on every corner. We have to use our people smartly. That means, you stay in contact with headquarters, and if there's more trouble than you can handle, you let us know and we'll send backup. Otherwise, you'd better be able to do your own job.

We have several levels of agents:

Cost	Social Status	Job Level	Description and Perks	Pay
-0.5	2 Poor	Associate	You don't have any official ties with us.	We'll call you in when we need you, and we pay by the job.
0	3 Poor but Happy	Patrolman	You get a badge, a gun, and a regular beat. You don't get a squad car; you're supposed to be out on the street, making sure Dawn Alert's seen protecting our community.	1,200 crowns/week
1	3 Poor but Happy	Senior Patrol	We start giving you tougher beats. Call in if you have trouble; we know you aren't going to turn white over a few druggies now.	1,500 crowns/week
2	4 Low Standard	Detective 3rd Class	Once you've served a little time, you'll start working the city, going to crime scenes and helping us track down perps	2,000 crowns/week
3	4 Low Standard	Detective 2nd Class	You get tougher cases. If you can't solve them, file 'em. Not every crime is solved on the first time - ever heard of a serial killer? You will.	2,400 crowns/week
4	4 Low Standard	Detective 1st Class	You get our toughest cases and a lot of respect. Remember that; it's going to be the only thing that comforts you when the Commissioner's chewing you out over the perp you haven't caught yet after months of searching.	2,800 crowns/week
6	5 Average Guy	Sergeant	You get an office. And you can start delegating your cases to the subordinates.	3,200 crowns/week
10	6 Comfortable	Lieutenant	You get a window office and a secretary. You'll probably be in charge of a major task force.	6,000 crowns/week
16	7 Well-to-Do	Captain	You get two offices, one for you and one for your secretary who screens your visitors before they go in. You'll be in charge of one of our major departments - homicide, organized crime, etc.	12,000 crowns/week
n/a	8 Wealthy	Commissioner	You're in charge. You work in the penthouse, and you have a personal staff.	24,000 crowns/week

On the Take Some people are on the take. We don't approve of it, and if you're into taking bribes, you'd better not let it interfere with your job. We have a lot of people who have faith in us. If we lose their trust, we just might lose our next paycheck too.

Cost	Status Increase	Level of Corruption
0	none	You're straight.
1	+1	You collect a certain amount of money for overlooking parking tickets and misdemeanors.
2	+2	You're not beyond letting people get by you when you're guarding a warehouse, or deal drugs on your watch.
3	+3	You shake down small businesses and citizens for money. *
5	+4	You're thoroughly corrupt, and you probably pilfer from the company armory, too. *
8	+5	You're an organized crime mole sabotaging our operations and reporting our actions. *

* While any level of corruption will, if detected, result in fines and punishment for the offending officer, these levels will result in especially severe punishment up to and including shooting on the spot.

Equipment

You've signed in and gotten your badge and uniform, so come along and let's see where you'll keep your stuff.

This is your locker. You'll keep your standard issue here, when you're not on-duty. If you need something heavier, you'll need to requisition it from the armory.

Standard Issue

Light body armor. You put this on over your uniform. This here's your breastplate and shoulder pads, you slip this on first. Feel that belly plate? It'll hurt if you get hit here, but not as bad as it would if that shot penetrated. Then suit up with your arm and leg protectors, and tie this groin protector on. You don't want to go down 'cause you were kneed by a perp, believe me, you'll take a lot of razzing from your buddies.

Your handgun. You've got your choice of a Capitol M-13 Bolter, a Mishima Ronin, a Bauhaus MP-105 machine pistol, an Imperial Aggressor, or a Brotherhood Piranha. You'll be issued clips for it as well. Watch your usage; if you use more than your quota, you'll be charged for it. Me, I carry a Bolter, it's good solid Capitol gear, and those big shells have a little more stopping power than the pansy Mishima bullets, especially if you load it with dum-dums.

Your police baton. This here's official issue, if you don't know how to use it, you should learn. You can't just use it like a club, see here, you can hold it like this, protects your arm when you're fighting. Got it? Good.

Your walkie-talkie. Be careful when you're talking over it, it's not got that good a range and it can only be set to so many channels, so while you're talking to your partner with it, some perp could be listening in and getting the good.

Your air filter. It'll clatter and get in your way. Keep it handy. If you or your partner has to unleash some Boke in a close space, you'll be glad you have this.

Handcuffs. These here're solid steel, they'll hold most humans, but they aren't meant to hold anything more dangerous, if you get my drift. If you, Cardinal forbid, manage to subdue something that looks like it came out of the Dark, you'll have to radio to headquarters for better containment gear. Let's hope you won't need it.

Gloves. They're latex. Dispose of 'em after each shift, or after you've been touching stuff that looks like it's plague-ridden, you've got spares in this pouch here. You don't want to be frakked because you helped some poor sod out of a ditch and he turned out to be a Darker.

Flashlight. This here's impact-resistant, it'll hold up to a little bouncing, but if you've got to subdue someone who's getting a little cybered, well, that's what your baton's for. This here's just for lighting your way.

Boke can. Point this away from you-- it's one-shot pressurized Boke. If you can't reach your baton, this might help give you an edge on some low-life punk that's trying to rip your nose off.

Utility knife. Your basic Bauhaus army knife. Unfolds a knife blade, saw-blade, and several kinds of screwdrivers.

Utility belt. This here's where you stow all your gear. You've got attach points here, and here, and this pouch comes in handy for the little fiddly bits you pick up that you're meaning to take back to headquarters.

Squad Car

If you're out on roaming patrol, not just walking a beat, you'll probably get assigned a squad car too. We assign these out from the vehicle pool. Most of these are bulletproof; if you have any questions about your car's make and equippage, just ask the tech on duty. Right, John? Yeah. I know, I always bring them back, don't I?

Here's what you've got:

Radio. This is in the middle between you and your partner, here. Like with your walkie-talkie, be careful what you say, it's harder to get police radios but there're still a lot of wackos out there who have one.

Siren and lights. Use the siren if you want people to make way while you're on your way to a crime scene, but remember that a lot of people don't pay that a lot of attention. You'll have to get real creative if you want to make it across the Perimeter in time for the party.

Log book. Use it, if you wind up fragged, we'll want to know where you were and what you did to get the crazies upset with you.

Megaphone. You'll find this handy when you're trying to wake up a bunch of sleepy-heads and get them out of a burning building.

Let's pop the trunk now:

Capitol-make M516S shotgun. A nice, solid model, it'll put a nice cloud of pellets in your perp's face, or you can load it with slug rounds for a little more stopping power. It's locked down, but you can release it like this, see? And the bullets are underneath. We never carry these loaded, so you'll have to load them by hand when you need them.

Grenades. Unsnap these racks like this. There's always supposed to be two explosive grenades, standard frag, four of the crowd control grenades, for laying down a wall of Boke when you want to stop a riot, and two smoke grenades if you need to get some cover. Scruddy techs don't always reload them when they're supposed to, so you should make a point of checking before you leave headquarters. After's the wrong time to find out you're not stocked.

Riot shields. These're latched to the trunk lid, pop them like this. They're called that 'cause we use them to form a police wall to contain riots, but when it's you and your partner by yourself, you'll find they come in awfully handy when you're dealing with a perp who's got his hands on some heavy weaponry. They're easy to use, just duck and cover behind one while you're moving to better cover. Don't treat 'em like tank armor, though, they're not that strong. Your body armor isn't, either.

Unfolding barricade. This here looks like a pile of sticks, but it'll unfold wide enough to block one lane. Set 'em up like this-- it's really a two-person job, but one person can do it-- and flip this rack out and lock it in place and you've got your basic stop sign, net fence, and tire-rippers to discourage any runaway cars.

Magnesium flares. These are your basic snap'n'light types. They'll give you a nice bright light for about an hour. You can use them to mark off accidents, or signal your position if you're in the dark and needing a pick-up.

Pry-bar. This end's bent; you can use it like your regular pry-bar. Other end's a hex wrench. Comes in handy from time to time.

Special Assignment

If you're slated for special duty of some sort, you can pick up additional equipment on a case-by-case basis. We don't use these as part of standard issue because there's the danger that if an agent is captured or robbed, all his equipment might go into the hands of criminals and, frankly, we don't want our agents to engage in trigger-happy behavior.

This here's the Armory. You'll have to sign out equipment from the clerk here. For the lightweight stuff, you can just sign a form and it'll be issued on your recognizance, but the more expensive gear might require a call up to a sergeant to authorize. A lieutenant, if you're asking for something that might raise eyebrows up in the Old Town.

Pass me up a few samples, would you, Mister? Ah right, here we are, some of the likely bits of equipment you can requisition. If you need something a little more exotic, you can always ask the clerk, but chances are that it might take a bit of time to get ready.

Capitol CAR-24 sub-machine gun. This here's your basic SWAT weapon when you're going to go into a tight spot or doing some gang-busting action. It's got an integral grenade launcher; load it with Boke gas and you've got some crowd-pleasing goodness there.

Mishima Tambu M-11 "Kensai" light machine gun, rubber bullet load-out. It's not quite as heavy as the M606 the CAIPs use, but it's adequate for crowd-control use. It includes a bipod so you can rest it on your squad car, and you'll want to have your partner help you feed the belt in, so it doesn't get tangled.

Bauhaus AG-17 Panzerknacker assault rifle. This here's what you'll use for heavily armed opposition. Ask for one with the grenade launcher attachment, then you'll have a weapon with take-down capability against both men and vehicles. We keep pretty tight controls on these babies, so don't let yours walk off or it'll be coming out of your paycheck.

Capitol SR-50 sniper rifle. If you're dealing with a hostage situation, you'll want your partner backing you up with one of these. Make sure the tech gives you a bipod and a nightvision scope for it, that'll boost your friend's accuracy.

Full medium body armor. You'll feel like you're ready to be a Doomtrooper in this gear, kid, it's bulletproof on every point, and once you snap down the visor, you're ABC-protected-- atomic, biological, chemical-- but once you try to move, you'll realize why we don't use these for standard patrol duty. It won't stand up to heavy weapons for long, either, so don't try and play tank.

Training

Now, this is not an inclusive list of the equipment that may be issued you by the agency. If you're going to go into action, we'll try and make sure you have the right stuff for the job. It's your responsibility to know how to use it. There's a company firing range, and we'll pay for your training if you want to go to night school.

If you're a technician or medic, we expect you'll stay out of the line of fire-- we'll send someone along to ride shotgun for you-- but you'll still want to pick up some training with a handgun.

We advise our patrolmen seek out training in hand-to-hand combat as well. Remember, not everyone is a perp-- if you're dealing with a citizen who's had too much to drink, he's still one of our paying customers, so if you can disable and restrain him without killing him, then you'll be doing us credit. Shooting him just opens us up to lawsuits and claims of excessive force.

Remember, kid, Dawn Alert's here for the peace and order of our community. It's not about body count or fragging them before they frag you. It's about keeping our customers paying for our service.

Protect, serve, and get those perps. Got it?

Police Procedural

So what's a typical workday going to look like for you?

Well, you'll have to get to work first. This can be a bit of a struggle at the best of times; in the worst, it's Darkin'. If you take the Underground, they run the risk of having a breakdown that'll make you late for work, and you have to deal with crowds where there're always pickpockets and robbers looking to lift your money. Taxis are safer. I have a car of my own, the vehicle pool techs look after it for me, and I carry a gun in the glove compartment just in case.

Get in, sign the log, and you'll get your duty assignments. For the average beat cop, it'll be patrol duty, but once you get some experience under your belt, you'll start drawing casework.

Departments

We do a lot of stuff around here, and you'll probably be on loan to one department or another, but each department has its own specialty and way of operating. Here are some of our biggest and most public departments:

Public Safety Bureau - When you're starting out as a beat cop, you'll probably be assigned to these guys and put on patrol somewhere safe that just needs someone to keep an eye on them. There's no shame in it, you have to pay your dues before you can get assigned to one of the hot tickets. Besides, most of the time, you aren't going to be shot at on patrol.

Detective Bureau - This is where the majority of our investigative work gets done. We're the guys who go out and try to work out who did what, and stop those perps before they hit again. It's mostly sleuthing, except when we've tracked the perp down and we're in hot pursuit; that's when it can get exciting. We're divided internally into homicide, arson, anti-terrorism, that sort of thing, but there's a lot of overlap.

Organized Crime Control Bureau - These guys are the glamour boys. They get to stake out the glitzy bars and restaurants where the deals go down, and maybe taste a bit of the night life before they take down a boss. It's a pretty varied group, 'cause there're a lot of underground rackets and operations-- there's narcotics and vice and gang investigation, and then there's real organized crime, the people who're investigating thugs like the Triads.

Internal Affairs Bureau - You never want to hear from one of these, because if you do, they're probably after you to explain some innocent bystander's death. We call them the banshees 'cause if you've gone rogue, the scream of their sirens will be the last thing you hear before they put one through your heart. But that won't happen, right?

SWAT - If you're the gung-ho sort, you'll probably draw SWAT assignment. That means you'll be doing most of your work for Public Safety or another department, but you'll also be drawing training in heavy weapons, doing time on the firing range to stay in practice, and if something big comes up, we'll ask you to gear up and get out in the field. SWAT backs the rest of us up.

The Armory - These guys run the firing range we have out back in our headquarters and they keep and maintain our weapons. You'll need to service your own gun, so you'd better get a refresher course if you don't remember how it's done, but anything else they'll take care of. Don't get them upset with you. Remember, they know how to use what they service.

The Vehicle Pool - Hard-working, underappreciated guys. We buy them drinks now and then, especially if we've just dented a car on a high-speed chase forcing a perp over. They maintain our squad cars and if you give them a little money on the side, they'll do some work on your own cars too. We've got a few heavier vehicles, but that's the domain of SWAT. Usually detective work doesn't call for tanks, you know?

Forensics - These guys back up the Detective Bureau. Anything that might be interesting about a crime scene, we pack it up in these little bags and ship it to them and they'll run fingerprints aganst a central database, analyze the ballistics of any discarded shell casings or bullets found on the scene or ahem, in the victims, and conduct autopsies to determine cause of death before the bodies are either returned to their next of kin for a proper funeral or handed to the Brotherhood for cremation. Forensics guys are pretty good to know too, 'cause if we close a case and there's evidence left unclaimed and we can't determine a next of kin to pass them to, well... 'Nuff said, all right?

Clerical - the most boring part of the whole agency, but essential, all the same. They cut our paychecks, right? They organize our case records and when we need some research done, it's usually some poor sod in Clerical who sends the request on to the Stone Archive or wherever else we need info and picks up the data when it's ready. And well, they're sort of the 'lil guys-- we like to let 'em know that they can count on us if they need someone to give 'em a lift back home and things like that. Some of them live in some pretty dangerous neighborhoods.

Duties

Here're some examples of what your day might include:

Patrol - you'll be either on foot or in a car, cruising around your "beat". If you see a crime being committed, radio it in before you try and stop it; especially let us know if you think that you might need backup. We'll send someone down as soon as possible. You'll also be expected to note and issue tickets for misdeanors such as illegal parking, traffic violation, and disturbance of the peace.

Backup - if someone near you is having a problem and needs help, we'll radio to you on your own patrol route to go there and back him up. That's what the shotgun's for-- you've noticed by now it's not exactly the sort of case where you slap the panic button and an assault rifle drops into your hand, right? It'll do you, and if you need heavy weapons, we'll tell you to drop by headquarters and pick one up.

Pursue - sometimes it's a perp running that needs to be corralled, either on foot or by car. You should talk to the Sergeant, he can show you a few tips on getting the most out of your car in a chase; he used to be a humvee driver in Capitol, and I guess it never gets out of your blood after that. He only *wishes* that he could crush cars instead of having to get lift off a back bumper and driving on two wheels around 'em. The vehicle pool hates him. Anyway, usually perps that're running won't be too heavily armed, so your handgun should do for a case like this, but if they're fleeing in an armored vehicle, you might have to pick up something heavier and set up a barricade.

Emergency Response Team - if there's been a disaster-- a fire, explosion, or an unexplained collapse of some building-- we'll send an emergency response team down to rescue civilians. You might be on the ERT, or you might be there to provide cover for them. There always seem to be some people who're out to take advantage of misfortune, or who have a grudge against some of the people we're helping.

Crowd Control - Luna gets demonstrations just like everyone else, sometimes even strikes. Unfair working conditions, pfft, if they don't like it, they should quit and find something else. Be that as it may be, any time you get a large crowd, things can get volatile, so this is where we go to work setting up police lines, protecting the high'n'mighties or keeping the looters out of a disaster area. It can be awfully dirty work too, if you have to break out the gas masks and throw out the Boke.

Stake-out - we get tip-offs every now and then, probably from the competitors, that something's going to go down. When that happens, we try to station a few of the guys down by the scene and bring in the perps. The timing can get tricky, if you get 'em too early, they'll dump the evidence and claim you're stepping all over their legal rights. Move too late and you're looking at thin air where their getaway car used to be.

Undercover work - if you have the right looks for it and you can pass for street scum, hey, no offense intended but it's just as important a job as any other, we might send you in as a plainsclothes police. Keep your eyes open, your ears up, and let us know if you find anything. And don't wait too long to blow the whistle, either. We need our men alive, not twitching in the alley.

Bodyguard - this isn't a big line of ours, but it looks bad if someone gets whacked on the way to us, whether he or she was a witness with something to say, an expert, a courier with something valuable, or some Corp exec on a tour of our operations. Sometimes we want you to guard a prisoner, make sure he doesn't get away or signal someone on his way to Ryker's Mountain. Just stick close to your guy and keep an eye out and you should be fine.

Homicide - you might find one if you're a beat cop; once you make detective, we start sending you to these. Find out who killed who, and who owes what for the damages, and if the killer got away, try and get a make on what he looked like, and where he went so we can bring him in. Serial killers are the worst... We have to start looking for a pattern to the killings, and then you get the "copy-cat killers" who're imitating the original killer's MO -- that's "modus operandi"; it's Brotherhood for "how the perp did it". It's not often we get a serial killer, so when we do, the guy who shot him gets free drinks. Department custom.

Robberies, Arson, Hijacking, Other Crimes - every now and then, someone who's paid us dues gets his stuff lifted, or a warehouse burns down. Most of these we can't solve, the guy claims his insurance and his fees go up, but if you can track down the thief, it's a feather in your cap. What's a feather? Ah, I don't know, it's something like a medal. Figure of speech. Anyway, do a good job and you'll make Detective 1st Class in no time.

Gang-busting - we'll get reports now and then about large armed gangs moving out of the Fringe and into the civilized parts of the Perimeter-- those are the parts that pay our bills. Or it might be a shoot-out having to do with organized crimes. Either way, it's our job to bust them up and send everyone back home before too much incidental property damage and loss of life on the part of innocent bystanders takes place.

Scrubbing the Dark - this is what we call the dirty job of going after something that's infested with Dark Symmetry or the Dark Legion. It's a rotten job, you'll need the heaviest equipment we've got that you can handle, and you'll probably be in the Dark half the time, but some of our customers aren't too wild about calling the Brotherhood, so it's up to us to burn out whatever it is, discreetly, without too much collateral damage.

Organized Crime - once you're salted, we'll start putting you on our big cases. Now it's not just about tracking down killers, it's about getting the guys who run the real crime rings, like drug lords and arms dealers who put the heavy weapons in the hands of those who shouldn't have 'em. Those're the scum that make the Perimeter that much worse a place in which to live. You'll be working to pick up any evidence we can use to bring 'em down, and once you've got enough to hang 'em high in a Brotherhood court, you'll be conducting the operation to bring 'em in. Alive if possible, dead is okay.

Now that's not an inclusive list of your assignments-- basically, if someone pays us enough and it doesn't make us look like we're breaking the very laws we've set out to protect, we'll do it-- but you get the idea of what your workday's going to look like. By the end of it, you're going to be pretty glad to get back to the station.

Chin up, kid. Once it's over, it's over, and the next shift can clean up. We usually stand each other to drinks at the pub, and the guy who had the toughest day gets his drinks free. Then it's back home, kick off the shoes, collapse into bed, and when the alarm clock rings, it's up and to another day.

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