ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE (late 21C setting) United States Federal Patrol...
Johnny1a
Patrol is the primary ‘law-enforcement’ organization in the United
States at the Federal level. It has absorbed many of the same
functions that were once performed by a variety of different Federal
law-enforcement bodies before the Third World War, including the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Postal Inspectors, the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Secret Service, and any
number of other smaller and more specialized services and groups.
Almost all Federal-level law enforcement in this time is handled by
the U.S.F.P.
The large variety of tasks and duties the Patrol undertakes requires
it to be divided into various branches and subgroups. In theory all
are part of a single mission-oriented system, in practice some of the
duties have conflicting requirements. At its best the Patrol is an
effective organization for reconciling conflicting duties and
requirements in an efficient and effective way. At its worst, the
Patrol can appear to be almost schizophrenic in its activities because
of its conflicting imperatives.
Though tasked in peacetime primarily as a law-enforcement
organization, the Federal Patrol is organized along paramilitary
lines, or more precisely, it has a dual organizational nature. The
uniformed personnel of the Patrol function for the most part in a way
similar to the uniformed State Police forces of the several States,
but their training and organization has some military overtones.
As with all U.S. Federal military and police organizations, the
command structure of the U.S.F.P. is headed by the President of the
United States, whose authority and legal orders supercede all other
sources of authority. Next in line is the Commissioner of the Patrol,
appointed by the President with Senate approval. The Commissioner is
often a former Patrol officer, but can not by law _be_ a Patrol
officer at the same time as holding the position of Commissioner.
The next step down are the Regional Commanders, who are Patrol
officers and each of whom supervises one Region. The United States is
divided into seven Regional Sectors, specifically East Coast, Midwest,
Southern, Great Plains, Rocky Mountain, West Coast, and Seventh
Region. Seventh Region takes in those areas not covered by the other
six and as such is somewhat non-contiguous. It includes within its
area of responsibility the State of Hawaii, the States of Alaska and
Nunavut, and the various dependent and semi-dependent United States
territories, dependencies, wards, and other special territories.
The Regional Headquarters complex for each region is the site of
central administration for the Patrol for that region of the country,
the six Regional HQs are in Baltimore, MD (East Coast), Detroit, MI
(Midwest), Montgomery, GC (Southern), Wichita, KA (Great Plains),
Denver, CO (Rocky Mountain), and San Francisco, CA (West Coast).
Seventh Region could be said to lack a central HQ, given its
distributed nature, the office of the Regional Commander for the
Seventh Region are in Saint Louis, NFD.
Within the ranks of the seven Regional Commanders, there is an
unofficial but universally accepted custom of ascribing rank by
seniority as an RC. That is, a Regional Commander in office for ten
years ranks one in office for five years in any dispute, though
ordinarily it would not matter since most such disputes at that level
would be settled by the Commissioner or the President.
The seven Regions are subdivided into Districts, each headed by a
subcommander appointed by the Regional Commander. There are some
special-case divisions and administrative commands and the like at
this level, also answerable to the Regional Commander. Unlike the
Regional borders, which follow State lines, the local commands within
the Regions sometimes overlap them. In rural areas a District might
incorporate tens of thousands of square miles, which a large urban
center might be a District on its own.
Along with the Regional and District levels of organization, there are
also special Patrol divisions and services whose area of authority
overlaps the Regions, answerable to the Commissioner directly. For
example, the Border Security Command handles the northern and southern
border patrol duties for the ‘lower forty-eight’ and Alaska and
Nunavut, in concert with the military, and the Border Commander is
answerable directly to the Commissioner and is considered a near-equal
to the Regional Commanders.
Likewise, the Technical Services Commander is responsible for
supplying technological and other infrastructure resources to the
entire Patrol, and answers to the Commissioner.
MORE LATER.