The STAR Squad

One of the first programs started by Commissioner Kane is the STAR—Superhuman Tactics and Regulation—Squad. These officers are specially trained and equipped to deal with super-criminals. High-tech companies like ASTRO Labs often give the squad experimental prototypes for field-testing.
The FCPD STAR Squad works in cooperation with superheroes like the Freedom League to handle superhuman threats in the city. Officially, City Hall and the Commissioner expect STAR to yield to heroes like the League, since they have powers of their own and a greater expertise in dealing with super-menaces; in practice, however, there is a professional rivalry between STAR and the city’s superheroes.
STAR takes great pride in its ability to handle supercriminals on its own. Likewise, STAR jealously guards its bailiwick against intrusions from AEGIS, even though the federal agency and the police department often work on similar cases. The general view is the feds are glory-hogs who arrive after STAR officers have already done all the hard work. For their part, AEGIS agents think of STAR officers as “small time” and “not aware of the big picture.”

Assets

There are three main teams in the STAR Squad, Team Ripper, Team Mad Dog, and Team Crusher.

Team Ripper

Team Ripper (the “A-Team”) is led by Hank Warren, an old, tougher-than-shoe leather vet who still walks with a limp, courtesy of a beating he received from dirty cops during the Moore administration. He was formerly with internal affairs, however he has put that role behind him. He’s even more hardcore military than Maddicks, but he prefers to cut a man down not with words, but with a graveyard stare.

Team Mad Dog

Team Mad Dog (the “B-Team”) is led by Hector Molina, a former Olympic middleweight boxer who took up the call to become a cop when Mayor O’Connor called for honest citizens to take back their city. He’s a Southside native and doesn’t tolerate disrespect toward minorities or women. His men respect him for his bravery and toughness, but bemoan his lack of a sense of humor.

Team Crusher

Team Crusher is in disarray following the death of their captain, Britt Daniel, who sacrificed his life to buy time for the evacuation of a building filled with innocent people during a Talos attack. The team expects to be reorganized under a new captain in the near future.

Other Personnel

In addition to the STAR Squad’s three teams of officers, the division also has a small support staff of technicians and office personnel. The squad’s technical staff is top-notch and a plum assignment for anyone in the FCPD’s Technical Services Division, even if it does mean working with “the Bulldog.” STAR Squad techies get to play with all the best toys, including experimental equipment from ASTRO Labs and items impounded from super-criminals. Naturally, instances of on-the-job injuries, fatalities, and mysterious transformations are fairly high. STAR Squad’s small office staff is kept busy handling paperwork, filing reports, doing research and, most often, fielding calls from the Commissioner, the Mayor, city officials, and concerned citizens. The staff does its best to insulate Commander Maddicks from these sorts of things, since they’re only likely to set him off.

Ironjaw, STAR Squad Mascot

A mutant German Shepherd rescued from a dog fight ring by STAR Squad officer Orlando Baker, Ironjaw was successfully rehabilitated and is now a STAR Squad fixture, often running alongside their cars or vans on their way to stop a crime. As intelligent as any human, Ironjaw does a better job of following verbal instructions than many human members of the squad.
Recently, Ironjaw fell in love with expensive show dog Wilhelmina, a German Shepherd, and the champion of last year’s North Bay Kennel Club dog show (in the working dog category). Despite being from the “wrong side of the tracks” (the non-purebred side), Ironjaw has managed to become part of her life, and she is now expecting a litter of puppies. Whether they will inherit their sire’s abilities is yet to be seen.

History

Freedom City’s history of war on super-powered crime dates back to WWII when Commissioner Bachle’s Special Committee Against Sabotage aided the Liberty League against saboteurs and criminals like the original Crime League. This included a small band of cops who called themselves “the Science Brigade,” former adventurers of the 1930s who hadn’t quite abandoned their old habits (they field-tested a number of special weapons that were developed by Dr. Dingle, one of Freedom City’s great eccentric inventors). Both the Committee and the Science Brigade were disbanded at the end of the war (though a few of the inventions, now long forgotten, still sit in the basement of FCPD headquarters).
Over the years, several attempts were made to put together a unique squad of cops to battle super-criminals, from Mad Dog Rae’s “Dog Pound Squad” in the 1960s, to the infamous POF-SWAT (“Price of Freedom” Special Weapons and Tactics Team) during the Moore administration. The latter was a bad time for superheroes and the FCPD, as Mayor Moore’s corrupt regime took its toll on local law enforcement as it did everything else in the city; from small malignancies do terminal cancers grow, and the POF-SWAT was a tumor, giving the city police a well-deserved reputation for excessive violence. Sadly, as crime rates hit record heights, so did public tolerance of police excesses.

Darkness Falls

The nadir of the FCPD was 1991, when POF-SWAT murdered a defenseless teenaged super-criminal, a street gang member called “Captain Blood.” AEGIS had captured him in a raid in Southside when POFSWAT showed up, took control of the prisoner, and he died, allegedly in an “escape attempt.” When secretly shot film footage turned up that showed the Squad torturing and murdering him, the members of POFSWAT were put on trial. They were eventually cleared of all charges; it is widely believed Police Commissioner Roy Alquist bought their acquittals, as Mayor Franklin Moore often used the team as his personal enforcers. Only an unlikely alliance between AEGIS, local vigilantes, and a few honest cops prevented a major riot in Southside.
Within twelve hours of Moore’s electoral defeat, POF-SWAT was officially disbanded, and the officers quietly resigned and slunk away from Freedom City (a common pattern with Moore’s stooges). The city still had to deal with a high crime rate and deep public cynicism toward local cops. It required a dramatic event to turn around this malaise, but then came the Terminus Invasion. It was (as one often criticized pundit said), “the wrong tragedy at the right time.”

Rising Stars

As the city rebuilt from the disaster, Mayor O’Connor was forced to take a good hard look at the FCPD. He uncovered much graft and corruption, but there were still many fine officers who were doing good work despite public distrust and potential abuse from their corrupt comrades.
One of the bravest of these officers was Barbara Kane, a police lieutenant who caught O’Connor’s eye when she led a squad of police against a pack of Omegadrones and kept them from panicking despite the nightmarish conditions. Giving Kane a long-deserved promotion to captain, he appointed her as the head of a task force to reform the FCPD.
One of Kane’s chief recommendations was the establishment of a new organization to directly confront supervillains. O’Connor agreed and immediately began to put together an elite team, but Kane persuaded him the city needed something bigger than just a squad like the old Dog Pound; it needed enough men and women that they could police themselves as well as the city. AEGIS objected to the idea; Director Powers told the mayor AEGIS could perform all of the duties proposed for this new squad, but Mayor O’Connor said he believed in local solutions to local problems. On July 4, 1996, Freedom City’s STAR Squad was officially activated.

Trial By Fear

The STAR Squad faced its first big test soon after its inception, when Fear-Master turned the population of Freedom City against superheroes. Using an experimental device to shield against Fear-Master's technology, the STAR Squad managed to rally enough of the citizenry to fight their fears that Fear-Master was forced to retreat.
The official complement of STAR Squad has always been twenty-three officers, including three squads of 6 troopers and five on-call specialists (a HAZMAT expert, a demolitions specialist, a psychologist/profiler, a communications specialist, and Gary, “the magic guy”). The original leader of the squad, Leonard Upton, proved one of Kane’s poorer choices (capable administrator, poor field commander), and Upton left the position after two years.

The Bulldog

By that time, now-Commissioner Kane realized she needed someone who would provide a shock to the system, and she found it in Bill "Bulldog Maddicks. Although Maddicks grated on everyone’s nerves except for Kane, he was the perfect man to shape STAR Squad into a fighting force that would rival the finest professional teams. He was assisted by ASTRO Labs, which loaned the team amazing pieces of technology like the STAR Squad Decombustion Cannon.
STAR Squad’s first big test under Maddicks came when they fought Hades himself. The dark god decided to celebrate the winter solstice by kidnapping Persephone (not the mythological Persephone, but a vapid pop star psychically linked with Hades’ beloved). STAR Squad couldn’t defeat the villain with force, but used cunning and psychology to hold him at bay long enough for the Freedom League to show up and drive him away.
Mister Infamy and the Game Master presented the team with its greatest challenge when the two wagered to see whether the STAR Squad could beat AEGIS’ finest agents in a fight. The STAR Squad won the contest and, though they later teamed up with AEGIS to turn the tables on Mr. Infamy, they’ve never let their rivals forget it.
The rivalry between AEGIS and STAR Squad—a polite tension in the case of Director Powers and Commissioner Kane, or unconcealed contempt between Commander Maddicks and Administrator Bonham (who’ve come to blows in private on three occasions)–is as intense as any rivalry in Freedom City. Maddicks’ style is responsible for most of these headaches; he never minces words: the press, the mayor’s office (though never the mayor himself), the Freedom League, and AEGIS are all frequent targets of criticism. Kane usually plays “good cop” to smooth over the differences, but quietly approves of Maddicks’ tirades and refuses to rein him in.
The battles STAR Squad has waged have not been without their casualties. Five officers have died in the line of duty: Officers Sutherland, Henderson, Daniel, Boielle, and Findley have all laid down their lives to protect the people of Freedom City. Additionally, six other men and women have received permanent injuries while on the job (one, Martin Ferris, still works for the FCPD part time as a computer consultant).

Today

Today, STAR Squad is on the front lines against supervillains in Freedom City. While the press sometimes characterizes them as loose cannons, most appreciate the important role they play in that most dangerous of jobs, safeguarding the city, and no one wants to go back to the bad old days of POF-SWAT.
STAR Squad can be hard to deal with. Their official motto is “We bow to the law, not to men or supermen,” a saying that concludes every daily briefing. The only authorities they respect are those in their direct chain of command. They are, despite their reputation, humble around the people they serve; it’s only when you try to order them around that their now-legendary contrary streak comes out. It has won them grudging respect.

Founding Date

1996

Type

Government, Law Enforcement

Leader

Bill "Bulldog Maddicks

Parent Organization

FCPD

Location

Freedom City