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Hiring police providers privately

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Charasanya

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« on: <12-04-12/0411:45> »
aka. Lone Star / Knight Errant

Lets say a city has one of those companies under contract. Would a relatively well-to-do, but private person in this city be able to legally hire them for additional personal security, say to accompany/safeguard you during some sort of meeting in an A to AAA safety zone, if you feel you may be in danger? For a certain service fee per hour, of course.

Or would you be required to hire a different company, because they "need to maintain their independent status" (or somesuch bull)? If you are able, how about relatively ridiculous things like taking a sight-seeing tour through the Warrens?

Those questions came up in a recent game of mine, and I was relatively unsure how to handle them.

Black

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« Reply #1 on: <12-04-12/0447:42> »
This actually came up in one of the Denver books.  You can hire these companies for your personal security.  Its actually in your (if your a dodgy corporation) best interest not to.  After all, one can assume they will share info internally and if your up to something dodgy, you can expect trouble if your ever try and cancel your contract.

Lone Star Private Security Consultant 'oh Mr Company Man, you didn't renew our contract.  Hey, it happens, no hard feelings'


... two hours later....

Lone Star City Security Detective 'Oh Mr Company Man, we have a permit to raid your facilities for the following list of breaches of local and federal law'
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raggedhalo

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« Reply #2 on: <12-04-12/0500:13> »
The Corporate Security Handbook for SR2 has a whole section about Executive Protection Teams that you can hire to look after yourself.  Plus local security by Knight Errant in a city patrolled by Lone Star was a big deal way back in the day and likely still is.  I'm not certain about Lone Star, but Knight Errant certainly take on contracts below the municipal level, covering facilities, buildings or even just people.

They are not cheap, though.
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Charasanya

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« Reply #3 on: <12-04-12/1119:56> »
Thanks a lot for your answers! It's more or less what I assumed, and how ended up handling the situation.

Good to know I didn't bend the company ethics... :)

farothel

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« Reply #4 on: <12-04-12/1212:57> »
There are a lot of rich enclaves and companies which hire additional security.  It can be the same or a different one as the city wide one.  The same one has advantages and disadvantages.  One of the disadvantages is already mentioned, but an advantage is that they have more people present in the city so depending on your contract, they can use those to reinforce the people at your own facility (they are fighting crime after all, and for them it doesn't really matter where they catch a criminal, as long as they do and look good doing it).
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Prodigy

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« Reply #5 on: <12-04-12/1635:24> »
Also, lots of police take extra jobs after work. My company uses off duty police every day.

Crimsondude

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« Reply #6 on: <12-04-12/1933:39> »
There's a whole chapter in Lone Star about the Corporate Arm, but as other have said, yes. You can hire extra security on top of the local cops for extra muscle and access to backup.

Sturmlied

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« Reply #7 on: <12-05-12/0426:30> »
As far as I understand it (and please correct me if I am wrong) there is a minimal difference between a Knight Errant Security guard and a Knight Errant Seattle Police officer.

They both work for the same company but have slightly different authorities. But they are still the same corporation and can ignore most red tape.

I am currently playing in Hong Kong and we are playing with a HKPF that is staffed by Knight Errant and a sometimes Knight Errant Security as two separate entities.

Nath

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« Reply #8 on: <12-05-12/1612:02> »
I'm feeling lazy today, so I'll just copy what I wrote on a similar topic a while ago on Dumpshock.
Quote
It depends on the Seattle police contract terms, if and how the Seattle administration has a say on the personnel Knight Errant use for law enforcement. It's unlikely they would have none at all, at least if the government wants to avoid ex-convicts and Sioux spies patrolling the streets, investigating crimes and accessing federal agencies files. I guess the Seattle administration either does a vetting on every Seattle police officer, or the contract sets requirements (such as US or UCAS origin, speak English, no conviction, etc.) and Knight Errant perform the background check. In the later case, any Knight Errant employee fulfilling the requirements could become a Seattle police officer almost instantly if needed.
The same goes for private security contracts. Except that most small companies wouldn't care about the personnel assigned to their facilities. Those who would have reasons to do so wouln't hire Ares in the first place.

The problem with moving personnel between the two activities is the outside hierarchy. A Seattle police officer has to obey the district attorney. A private security guard has to obey the client corporation head of security and top management. If a Seattle police officer enters extraterritorial corporate offices as "reinforcement" for the security service, he would have to obey the corporation management, even if they ask for illegal acts. And if a private security guard follow intruders in the street outside the building, he would have to read them their Miranda's (no, just kidding, he can shot first, but you get the idea).

According to Seattle 2072, Ellen Ward, vice president of Knight Errant Seattle, is Seattle's Chief of Police Services. Thus, the same person oversees both police and private security activities. They likely share training facilities, and maintenance and support services. But law enforcement in an area the size of Seattle is too much business not to be its own subdivision. So you would probably have three "subdivisions" within Knight Errant Seattle : Seattle police force, private customers security, and Ares Group security.

The rest depends on how VP Ward and the people heading each subdivisions, and the people below them, each manage their respective career. Seattle police contract is one big contract to be renewed in ten years, while private security is hundreds of yearly contracts, and Ares Group security would have to answer to Ares Seattle division head Karen King directly, as well as the Ares head of security in Detroit. And let's not forget Hard Corps, the other security services company in the Ares group, which is separate from KE and thus are not under Ward authority (but still answer to King).

Crimsondude

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« Reply #9 on: <12-05-12/1618:40> »
They're pretty much interchangeable.

The benefit of entities like LS and KE is, though, that you can occasionally throw a Seattle beat cop at the PCs who happens to be an Adept—one who just came off a counterinsurgency tour, Desert Wars, or a Hong Kong antiterror mission and is in Seattle because of glorified office politics or just because he wanted to go home, but still be "on the job." :D  (Yes, this really happened.)

JustADude

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« Reply #10 on: <12-05-12/2106:05> »
They're pretty much interchangeable.

The benefit of entities like LS and KE is, though, that you can occasionally throw a Seattle beat cop at the PCs who happens to be an Adept—one who just came off a counterinsurgency tour, Desert Wars, or a Hong Kong antiterror mission and is in Seattle because of glorified office politics or just because he wanted to go home, but still be "on the job." :D  (Yes, this really happened.)

I like it.

I could also, perhaps, see a Firewatch operator whose last psyche eval says he needs some "decompression time" after one too many trips down the rabbit hole, so they put him in KE as a "working vacation."
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