[lonewolf23k]

Was browsing videos off YouTube, when I stumbled upon the APB Enforcers Intro video, which inspired some ideas.  The Enforcer faction of the game are essentially vigilantes given legal sanction by the government of the game's city, a desperate move to deal with the ever-growing problem of criminal activity. 

Now, what does this have to do with Shadowrun, you ask?  Let's assume Governor Brakhaven decides to step up the fight against criminal activity in Seattle, by actively recruiting Enforcers right out of the Shadow community.  The City Security Act basically offers amnesty for past crimes to applicants, and grants them the same legal enforcement powers given to officers of Knight Errant. 

This doesn't mean a CSA-approved Enforcer can't run the Shadows of course, or that he has to be a shining paragon of virtue.  He just has to be careful to keep his Illegal Activities under wraps, or at least to keep the right people interested in protecting him.  And you can always make connections with different Law-Enforcement groups.  Just because Knight Errant is Seattle's official Police Force doesn't mean you can't instead make friends with Lone Star.  ...Or perhaps you prefer to make a deal with the Yakuza, to "overlook" certain activities in exchange for "favors"?

[Doc Chaos]

Interesting. Personally, I wouldn't base this in Seattle, there's just to much canon story about that city. But there are lots of other cities where that concept would be applicable

[Malex]

That would be pretty cool in a Russian setting.

[Billy_Club]

Even if seattle wouldn't be able to implement such a policy because of how deeply knight errant is entrenched there, the idea could make for some cool shadowruns. Say that a government official (maybe a future mayoral candidate) for one of the suburbs is planning on implementing such a policy and the runner team is hired to make it happen, perhaps as a trial run. There would be factions both for it and against it that the runners would have to deal with and all the problems and rewards which could spring from the chaos.

I like it. Might use this myself. Also, canon is what has already happened. The future is a blank slate. : )

[Charybdis]

I like the concept, but like others have said, not in Seattle.

Some of the less political cities would certainly be viable.... especially where tyrants are entrenched in power. It would take a particularly powerful leader to get this type of policy enforced, so any city where there is significant diplomatic opposition  would make this difficult...

[Rockopolis]

Denver, perhaps?

[Charybdis]

Denver, perhaps?

Hmmm, depends. Ghostwalker tries to stay out of the politics, saving such interventions for single, crushing blows where required. Of course, this could be one of those Crushing blows

Any of the remaining factions could certainly do so in their own quadrants though, I guess.

[Mystic]

Interesting concept. But I don't think this will go down well with whoever has the local Law Enforcement contract. A good twist for this in a campaign would be for the aforementioned contracted Law Enforcement agency to interfere. They could either A) Sue the city for breach of contract, siting that these "enforcers" are subverting authority, interfearing with official business, and the exceution of law enforcemnt duties; which by said contract is the sole pervue of the contracted Law Enforcement company. B) Try and arrest said enforcers for the reasons above. They can site that the enforcers are nothing but vigilanties (or scabs) because they have no legal authority and their actions violate a legitimate contract for Law Enforcement in the city. C) Fight fire with fire and hire anti-runner runners and try to take out the competition. E) Strike, leaving the enforcers to do ALL the work, thereby the city goes downhill fast and the LEO agency wont do squat until a new contract is renegotiated...likely with very beneficial terms to the company. Or D) an all the above approach.

[CanRay]

Why am I thinking of RoboCop 3 (Yeah yeah, I know, worst of the bunch) with the punks being hired to take out the cops and civilian resistance?

[Rockopolis]

Why am I thinking of Batman?  Or Interstate 76?

[thalandar]

Why am I thinking of Batman?  Or Interstate 76?

An elite group of quasi-law enforcement agents that hunts down a specific group of "people", operating along side but often outside offical channels-often working alone.  That's Blade Runner, the holy of holy, that movie which sparked forevermore the vision of the future.

[lonewolf23k]

Revisiting this idea, another idea came to me; has anyone ever run a game with a Knight Errant "Dirty Cop" who also runs the Shadows? 

[Fortinbras]

In the Sixth World all cops are dirty cops. Two of my players are playing former policemen, but I've never had anyone who who wanted to do both at the same time. I think it's because the police are seen as an inherently corrupt system in Shadowrun and most players would rather go to a gritty place than an evil one; fighting for justice in their own sick and twisted way rather than holding up the pretension of justice to make the blue bloods feel safe at night.

[CanRay]

In the Sixth World all cops are dirty cops.

*Looks at Fifth World cops*

Nah, there's still some decent ones out there.  The old Shadowtalker "SPD" was a decent enough fellow.  I miss him/her.

[Mystic]

In the Sixth World all cops are dirty cops.

*Looks at Fifth World cops*

Nah, there's still some decent ones out there. 

Thank you, we appreciate that.