Law Enforcement in Mechyrdia

Unlike most other nations in the Milky Way Galaxy that centralize or standardize their police forces, such as the Niska Republic or Isarnareyksk Federation, Mechyrdia allows its constituent planets and sectors to determine for themselves how they enforce law. While this has the downside of planets occasionally ignoring Imperial law, it also grants local governments greater freedom in solving problems in a way that best fits the planet's local culture.

Local systems of law enforcement

Militia systems

Neighborhood Watch

The neighborhood watch system puts law enforcement directly into the hands of the people. Typically used on libertarian or anarchist planets with high weapons-per-household numbers, the neighborhood watch allows anyone with the ability to enforce law the power to enforce law. While it sometimes results in chaos, surprisingly to many, it more often results in peace and order through decentralized, popular enforcement. A major downside of the neighborhood watch is that courts of law tend to be based more on popularity and fame than on discovering the truth.

Volunteer Militia

The volunteer militia system is more organized and centralized than the neighborhood watch. However, unlike most other organized law enforcements, the volunteer militia allows anyone who wishes to join the militia to enforce law. These systems are characterized by having very lenient requirements to join, as well as being mostly demilitarized. Some volunteer militias pay their members, while others do not. Unpaid volunteer militias tend to be the least stable, as most of their members join solely to have power over their peers (much in a similar manner to Internet forum janitors).

Conscript Militia

The conscript militia system is similar to both the neighborhood watch and the volunteer militia systems. Every able citizen of the locality is obligated to enforce law, like in the neighborhood watch, but instead of law enforcement being a normal part of life, citizens are required to serve a minimum amount of time in the militia, and instead of providing their own equipment, members are given equipment by the enforcement organization, like with the volunteer militia. This solves the problems of the neighborhood watch being too unaccountable, and of the volunteer militia being full of petty dictators who still resent their grade-school bullies.

Organized systems

Standard police force

The standard police force is the most common system of law enforcement. It's treated as a career in the public sector, where government employees in law enforcement are given uniforms, weapons, and vehicles to deal with crime. In recent years, many planets have begun to militarize their police forces, much to the chagrin of both libertarians and leftists.

Robot police

In an attempt to solve problems of human error, many planets have shifted to using robots, such as the Securitrons first used on the Alpha Lyrae Habitat Station, as well as security cameras and biometric trackers in public places, to enforce law. Most notably, the Imperial capital of Mechyrdia uses this system. The capital's Securitrons are controlled by a simple heuristic program and combat algorithms, which can have its directives overridden by the capital's mayor.

Military police

Some sectors or planets use military troops to enforce law, such as the Miliciastaþem sector, or the planet Brotweralþ within the Texandria sector.

Authoritarian systems

Political police

A political police force is a police force that enforces compliance with political opinion, instead of compliance with law. The most notable example are the Frumentarii from Olympia. Originally created to protect the Optimates' hold on power, now they're an instrument of Marc Caton's Front Catholique to maintain public order and peace between the two religions of Olympia. Normally illegal under Mechyrdian law, Olympia is allowed to keep theirs because of the Treaty of Mundus Caesaris Divi, which gives Olympia more autonomy than any other sector of Mechyrdia.

Political credit

Political credit is a system of credit scoring that is based, not on financial reliability like most credit scoring systems, but on adherence to political ideology. They are illegal under Mechyrdian law, however it's rarely enforced due to Mechyrdian political culture's fear of centralization. King Karl XII of Karolina created one after he defeated the Carolinan Confederation and ended the civil war that had plagued his homeworld for decades, in order to prevent any rebellious speech or thought.

The Emergency Provision

In order to enforce Imperial law against sectors and planets that refuse to follow it, the Mechyrdian legal system has given the Chancellor of Mechyrdia (currently Marc Adlerówič Basileiów) the ability to declare that an insurrection, conspiracy, or any otherwise emergency is taking place and to use all available means, including military forces, to resolve the situation. This may be done in any of the following possible conditions:

When requested by any government subordinate to Mechyrdian sovereignty
When any subordinate government declares independence, unless overruled by treaty provisions (e.g. the Treaty of Mundus Caesaris Divi that annexed Olympia into the Empire)
When any subordinate government's law enforcement is at danger of being overrun by organized rebel forces or disorganized mass violence
When any subordinate government is engaged in unlawful conspiracy to either actively disobey or refuse to enforce Imperial law

Upon declaring an imperial emergency, the Chancellor is given all power necessary to end it. At the same time, the Senate is immediately convened to debate whether the Chancellor's declaration matches the required conditions of the Emergency Provision.

Comments

This page has been visited 5 times by 2 unique visitors, most recently at 1722001921403