[bigity]

Which either means they temporarily brought in alot of officers from other regions, or they are dreadfully undermanned while those new hires are spun up.

[CanRay]

Probably an accelerated brainwash...  Er...  Intensive Training Course for former Lone Star officers.  Just teaching them the Knight Errant Way after all.

*Blam-Blam*  "Stop or..."  *Blam*  "I'll shoot!"  *Blam-Blam* doesn't cut it any longer. 

[Joush]

Two years is kind of a lot.. in real life, basic police training is done in about 2 months, (8 to 10 weeks) with a long sort of apprenticeship period after that while a new officer works with an experienced one on the job.

[Crash_00]

Well Knight Errant is not supposed to be your average law enforcement program. That would be closer to Hard Corps Inc. (The lower cost Ares security corp) Knight Errant has been elite since they started (Damien Knight spent the first year and a half that he owned Ares solely working on Knight Errant and personally making sure that it got that reputation), that's been their main selling point ever since.

Knight Errant also seems to train more rounded personnel. Sure their officers will have a designated area to be skilled in, but they generally make sure that their officers are trained at least minimally in several areas. Hard Corps generally gets the people that couldn't hack it as KE officers.

With the emergence of AR and general advancements in technology, I would imagine that the training would have to take longer than it does today. I would wager that between the advancements and KE's more expanded curriculum and stricter pass requirements at least 6-8 months and closer to a year before the officers graduate the academy. To further complicate matters, you have the standard post-academy on the job training which usually takes 3-5 months now (I think 16 weeks is most common). I could see KE pushing this up as well just to insure that they manage to keep their reputation as the best of the best.

After all, with Seattle being a major corp (and deniable asset heavy) city, it is highly in the best interest of Ares to keep their subsidiary in a position to uphold the law (or fail to do so if their competitors are getting hit).

That said, KE was a private security force beforehand and they did have to juggle around a lot of personnel. I believe one of the books mentioned them letting the LS officers requalify in waves to relieve the low man power. In addition I know I read somewhere that they've been hiring temporary workers as well until they get everyone trained up to their liking. Also keep in mind that a lot of LS officers just up and quit when asked to retrain, especially the veteran officers that felt insulted by it.

While any given officer probably wouldn't spend 2+ years in retraining, I could see the whole process of retraining/dropping the unworthy taking that long. Especially when you add in that they are still having to maintain all of their private contracts around the city and most likely shifting around (and possibly training/promoting) Hard Corps Inc. agents to assist with things as well.

Here's my standard Knight Errant officer template (Using the previous one as a base).
Knight Errant Patrol Officer
    * Armor: Patrol Armor (Includes Armored Patrol Jacket, Patrol Helmet, and Armored Skin Lining) (9/9)- Treated as 8/8 for encumbrance
    * Weapons: Ares Predator IV [Electronic Firing, Biometric Safety], 2 Clips Stick-n-Shock, 2 Clips Takedown* (+0DV/-2AP)
    * Commlink:  Novatech Airware with Emerald City OS^ (F: 3 R: 3 Si: 3 Sy: 5) with Basic User+, Encryption 5, Scan 5, Noise Analysis 3, Weapon Watcher 3.   ^Custom KE Operating System
    * Peripherals: Patrol Glasses [Image Link, Smartlink, Flare Comp., Visual Enhancement 3], Patrol Earbuds [Spatial Recognizer, Audio Enhancement 3],
AR Gloves,
    * Gear: 2 doses of Jazz, Flashlight, Gas Mask, 1 Trauma Patch, 1 Stim Patch (Rat: 4), 1 iBall , Biomonitor, Handscanner (Cyberware 6, MAD 3, Olfactory 6), 2 metal restraints, 10 plastic restraints, Chisel, Maglock Passkey Rating 3.
    * Vehicle: 2 beats cops share a GMC Calvary^ w/ 1 Medkit, built in Commlink (same model), 1 MGL-12 (24 CS/Tear Gas Grenades), 1 Enfield AS-7 (2 Drums shells, 1 Drum APDS slugs), 1 HK-227X (3 clips of Stick-n-shock), 1 Parashield Dart Rifle (10 Darts of Narcojet)
^GMC Calvary is a a slightly slower but more heavily armored patrol car when compared to the Patrol 1.

Stats (All at 3 exc. Agi 4, Int 4, and Wil 4)
Skills:
Firearms 3, Unarmed 2, Running 2, Climbing 2, Dodge 3, Heavy Weapons 1 (Grenade Launcher +2), Exotic Ranged Weapon: Dart Rifle: 2, Negotiation: 2, Intimidate: 2, Leadership: 2, Pilot Ground Vehicle: 2 (Patrol Car +2), Perception 3 (Visual +2), Computer 1, Data Search 2, First Aid 2 (Gun Shot Wounds +2), Electronic Warfare 1, Hardware 1.

Their general tactics are to use the shotgun, tear gas, or SMG to suppress and area until a RRT (Rapid Response Team) can arrive to provide back up.

[Mystic]

Probably an accelerated brainwash...  Er...  Intensive Training Course for former Lone Star officers.  Just teaching them the Knight Errant Way after all.

*Blam-Blam*  "Stop or..."  *Blam*  "I'll shoot!"  *Blam-Blam* doesn't cut it any longer. 

Speaking from RL experience, pretty much yeah, Crash and CanRay hit it on the head. There has to be a clause in the contract that allows for the transition. It takes time to set up shop, do the re-training, etc. Likely was over the course of a few months. And as for training time, its very common for officers today to laterally transfer from one city/state to another with only a few weeks to learn new policy, procedure, law, and then re-qualify with firearms. 

But anyway....

As to keep track of initiative, I use a specialy made chart that I slip into a dry-erase plastic sleeve and use dry-erase markers to keep track of when everyone goes. PC/NPC names on the side with their initiative number and colums to check how many IPs they have.

For quick reference, I will either use my notebook or if I have extra time to prepare, index cards with relevent info. This works well for generic NPC types that I can use over and over again or need to pull out a quick encounter. If they need to be tougher, I simply make them better equipped or bump key status up a bit.

As for difficulity, sometimes it's as simple as giving NPCs slightly better stats or gear and or increasing their numbers. As for tactics, I dispel the notion with my PCs that security guards are idiots, that gangers are pushovers, and that a single screw-up can hose them.

I force them to pay attention to details, especially if they are trying something complex. For example, group had a great idea of posting as, yeah, KE guards to gain access to a prisoner as part of an extraction run. Got nice fake orders both on "paper" and implanted in the system. They even got KE uniforms. Problem was, they used their own personal sidearms. A guard realized that standard KE issue is currently a Pred IV, not a Warhawk or a Manhunter. That didn't blow their cover immediately,  but was enough for the guard to ask questions, double check things, and to alert the rest of the facility's detail. Long story short, it took them a little while, but they figured out something was wrong and the run got a lot harder.

Tactics are good, but so are details and even NPCs will follow their guts on occasions.

[Big_J]

where is it in the books when it describes Knight Errant winning the law-enforsement bid for seattle? Does Lone star do any law enforsement in the nearby area?

[Phylos Fett]

where is it in the books when it describes Knight Errant winning the law-enforsement bid for seattle?

Seattle 2072.

[Icarus]

I finished preparing the second part of On The Run (we'll do it next month, half the group couldn't make it this month), and I didn't even bother changing any of the enemy difficulties. When I was doing it, I was actually thinking through the characters, their tactics, things like that, and I'm really seeing ways to make it challenging without sending an army of tanks or something after them. We'll see how it goes, but I think it'll be a lot more interesting.

[Mystic]

I've used the same stat set for my opposition before. Only difference is packaging. Why go through the hassle if creating a generic low-level Halloweener from scratch when I have a low-level First Nation with damn near the same stat-set? I have notebooks full of generic stats where all i have to do is change one or two minor details, like say a weapon or add/subtract some 'ware, adjust a stat, and BOOM.

Most people say Im a bit lazy in that regard. I like to think of myself as being more...resource efficient.

 

[Phylos Fett]

I've used the same stat set for my opposition before. Only difference is packaging. Why go through the hassle if creating a generic low-level Halloweener from scratch when I have a low-level First Nation with damn near the same stat-set? I have notebooks full of generic stats where all i have to do is change one or two minor details, like say a weapon or add/subtract some 'ware, adjust a stat, and BOOM.

Most people say Im a bit lazy in that regard. I like to think of myself as being more...resource efficient.

 

If it's good enough for CGL, it ought to be good enough for us!