Suranthi Law Enforcement

'T'ere be nae official name, or federal enforcement, not unless ye wants ta count t'e damned Kartheartian Church, or t'e bloody Iron Dragons. But ye nae need ta, unless ye tied up in somethin' far bigger and more twisted than ye t'ought ye were. However, t'ere be rather open communication an' a camraderie between fellows whom serve as law enforcement across t'e damned country. Its why if you end up on their desk for anythin' you can't bribe yer way out o', ya may as well flee t'e country. Cause someday, one o' em will track ye down. It be why we doin' t'is one an' t'en makin' for t'e Depen border. We make t'is score we all be richer t'an we ever imagined. We also very quickly be tops o' every damned cop's most wanted in t'e country inside 'alf a week. So nae damn mistakes, ye 'ear me? We got one shot at t'is."


Notorious bank and train robber Phillip 'Sun-eye' Gallagher's pep talk he gave his crew, according to their testimonies, before they hit the Bruachthoir branch of the Suranthi National Bank, getting away about three thousand Gold Suns in cash and valuables from people's deposit lock boxes. They were caught fifty kilometers out from the Depen-Suranthi border. Gallagher's crew opened fire on officers, likely not aware that among the twenty officers hunting them was a five man team of Iron Dragons, brought in on special request. Gallagher and eight of his ten gang members were killed in the ensuing firefight and skirmish, the other two badly injured, but survived. One of the Iron Dragons and two officers lost their lives, another four injured. Of the stolen money and valuables, two thousand eight hundred and sixty Gold Suns or so of it was recovered, including all the stolen property. The missing coin was used to pay bribes, hire smugglers, and even to hire an apostate to help cover their trail whilst on the run for the border, according to the two survivors.

An excerpt from a police report about the Gallagher Gang's bold daylight hiest in Bruachthoir on the 3rd of Menata, 1499.

It is of course important to note, recruits, that special exemptions can also be made under the Cod Dli, similar to the example above where a bank heist led to a small field team of Iron Dragons being brought in on a civilian case. But such an exemption needs to go before a provincial court, and be given a seal of approval. In the Gallagher case, it had a variety of circumstances that all helped contribute to getting that approval. First, the sheer value of the robbery. Three thousand crowns, that is more money than many of us will see in one place, at one time, likely in our entire lives. Hell that's more than some make in their entire working lifetime! Beyond that, Gallagher and his boys also killed two officers and a bank clerk on scene. We know they didn't intend to, just bad luck on their part that those two beat cops decided to detour and make a stop, likely so one of them could make a small withdrawal to get them both coffee and lunch at a cafe along their patrol route later that day. In fact it was doubly bad luck, because then these two officers decided to try and play heroes, and pulled their flintlocks to try and put down one of the robbers, likely not realizing there were eleven vicious armed men, cold blooded killers, in that bank. Best guess, they say Gallagher, saw him pull his revolver, and figured if they could drop him, given the bounty on him at the time, even if dead, they could be rich. Which leads to the third of the four reasons that exceptional request was granted. Gallagher and his gang had many highway robberies and murders under their belts. We couldn't prove it of course, they didn't leave survivors in any of the twelve they pulled. But the methods were similar enough to their two train heist to make that leap in logic, which clearly the judge agreed. Making it a serial crime, and a lot of blood spilled. Finally however, and this is the most important fact. One of the safety deposit boxes they cleaned out? Well I knew better than to ask, but the Iron Dragon boys went through the recovered loot before they'd let us catalogue it and yanked out some papers, a file and didn't even look at it. Just fucking torched it. Rumor I heard later was that box was a Wave-Runner dead drop. Meaning military grade intelligence was potentially compromised. The lesson to that? Realize its never just about the heinous crimes. If you get that approval on any case in your career, always assume there is something bigger than what you know at play.

Gustav Branson, Bruachthoir Police Commissioner, giving new recruits a lesson in a classroom about the utilization and operational truths of the 'military aid request' process, and the rarity, and severity of meaning if approved.

Structure

The police and sheriffs in every community in the nation, along with, in the case of the military, the Iron Dragons. Military law is far more strict, and the Iron Dragons also have far more...authority. They don't need a judge signed warrant to search private property, so long as that property is owned by a military person or their direct blood family. This includes spouses and children. All they need is an officer's signature on official orders, in triplicate. The individual in question must allow the search, or it will be done by force regardless. If they've any greivance, they are to take it up with the chain of command, or take it to court after the fact, but the search will happen regardless.

The police and sheriffs have less leeway however, needing to convince a judge that they've a reasonable amount of evidence to well....warrant a search warrant. The burden of proof is not guilt or innocence, it is less concrete than that, and can differ from judge to judge, as detailed below in an excerpt from Suranthi's legal code;

"In regards to searching property or persons under suspicion, civilian law enforcement must obtain a signed warrant from a sitting judge. They must first provide their case, convincing the judge that they have adequate reason for such a warrant and such an action. In this circumstance 'adequate reason' is not representing some defined minimum burden of proof or evidence, but moreso is entrusted as meaning 'at the judge's discretion' based upon the explanation offered by the law enforcement officer(s) as to why the warrant in question is a reasonable and necessary tactic at this time. Whilst at the discretion of a judge, it should be noted by all practicing and sitting judges, warrants are not to be issued in place of good police work. A warrant is meant to be the last step before charges can be laid, and a suspect apprehended, or failing that, strong enough evidence found to issue a nation wide arrest warrant for an individual. Judges will be held accountable and risk removal entirely from the bench should they develop a pattern of issuing warrants to allow law enforcement to dig or go fishing as are the common terms among officers of the law. Furthermore warrants can be challenged in post; meaning a suspect can challenge warrants executed against them or their property in court after the fact. If the challenge is found reasonable, the warrant will be revoked, and all evidence collected therein will be struck from the record of all active and closed cases. Should this effect closed cases, they will be subject to a judicial review and the suspect(s) may see sentence reductions or even release."

CÓD DLÍ, Criminal Codes and Legislation, Volume One, Chapter 7; On Warrants, Searches, Seizures, and Detainment of Suspects, Section 11, Page 399, Code 41.

Besides this however you do have the other sort of law enforcement, the one involving heresy and worship of the Void, or handling of those whom could be magisters or become apostates. In that case, the duties fall more or less directly to Sir Kartheart's church, and the cult's Witch-Hunter chapter. If less precision and more...brute force is deemed to be appropriate by the church than this duty may fall to the Crusader order within their faith. Further still if it is believed to dangerous and difficult then it shall be passed to the most holy Exemplaris, the Storm-Lancers. Unlike the afore mentioned above, where even the military police need permission from someone, and you need to at least be a direct blood relative to someone they are investigating, these sorts of authorities of the spirit, of faith, have no such...limitations enshrined in any sort of law directly. This is not to say it is a free for all. They are still subject to Suranthi criminal law, on paper at least. So if they for example, torched a family only to find out after the fact that 'whoops the witch was someone else.", in theory the Witch-Hunter, Crusader or Storm-Lancer in question whom made that call, and any of their fellows whom helped, should be subject to first degree murder charges.

Of course the reality of such things is very different. Whilst not free to do whatever they wish, or the military will very likely step in, they wield enough power through the church that it is exceedingly unlikely any sort of civil authority would ever attempt to level such charges.