McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Police Organizational Question(s)

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Ren:
I don't know if anyone on the board is a police officer of any kind or has working knowledge of Police Organization.
So I've started working on a new story that is a Detective-series set in Miami but with a supernatural angle. The main character is a Miami PD Detective who works in Special Investigations, though in his case he is regularly assigned to investigate the really "Special" cases i.e. the Supernatural Stuff that no one believes in or wants to believe in. This is a world in which the Supernatural World is still unknown and the mortal world prefers it that way.

Now my questions(s) stem from his Particular role in the Department. As a former Oceanographer and Scientist he has a certain very unique skill-set to bring to the job, but I don't want to make him a lab-geek as I'm not up on CSI terms and lingo etc...and figured SI would be the best fit for him.
The question is, given that unique skill-set and duties, would he have a partner? For that matter do all Officers and Detectives have Partners? If so, what kind of partner would he have?

I eventually plan to have him team up with a local National Park Service Ranger (Assigned to the Everglades Primarily) and future love interest. which brings me to my next question; would it be within the realm of possibility to have an SI detective, or any kind of Detective, team up on a long-term basis with an NPS Agent? I'm trying to work out how and why the characters meet and start to work together, whether he should have an assigned partner and what their relationship would be like and such to make their working together more believable.

Paynesgrey:
Might want to make him Dade County sherrif's department, he'll have a wider jurisidiction rather than being confined to the city limits he'll be dealing with stuff anywhere in the county.  Or, if you put him on some sort of interdepartmental cooperative task force, then that could loosen up jurisdiction issues while giving him teammates and assets from various departments, some of which might have varying  levels of cooperation.  That would also be a handy device to make him get saddled with the weird stuff that everyone wishes was someone else's problem. 

"Did you hear about the guy with his head chopped off last night?"

"Yeah, but I figured 'so what, that's Jersey."


These days it seems cops typically don't have a specific partner unless they're beat cops, and even that's iffy with budget cuts.  A detective is more likely to be on a team or task force, and assignments will float around depending on who has what on his plate.  "Johnson, you still working those smash and grabs?  Oh, court date?  Alright, Jones, you help out Todd here with these warehouse breakins."  You'll have guys who habitually team, but formal "partnership" seems more to be a training device for rookies to learn the ropes. 

Ren:
Hrmm Sheriffs office is possible, maybe a government agency? Oh heck...I could just make him a Ranger himself...that would make more sense...just wonder if they have different departments as well...have to go research that!

On second thoughts I like having him with some concrete authority, or at least with the authority to investigate crimes against humans. FBI may be a possibility though the X-Files has been done. Dunno what other agencies would be appropriate. Though about having him be a consultant as well, but that smacks too much of the Dresden Files and I like to at least try to be original...8P

Paynesgrey:
Making him part of a state's "Fish and wildlife" would give him statewide authority, although the limits vary greatly from state to state.  Some states have them pretty much hogtied in what they can't doe, others not so much. 

In pennsylvania, for example, there was a major stink a few years ago when it came out that Fish and Game regulations gave them (or so they thought) a ridiculous amount of extralegal power.  Agents were conducting midnight, warrentless searches with no probable cause, random and arbitrary confiscation of goods and property, "indefinately detaining possible witnesses by locking them in cars in august with the windows rolled up", shooting people's dogs because "it looked like it might possibly be a wolf hybrid" without actually proving the animal was a hybrid.

By the PA legal code they actually were granted, or, more accurately, not prohitted from thos actions due to sloppy, sloppy wording.  Meanwhile, representatives of the agency actually claimed that they were exempt from not just the State but also the Federal Constitution because neither referred directly to that agency specifically.  (Let's just say there have been some reforms in recent years.)

Point being, in a statewide agency, you could invent a lot of wiggle room for jurisdiction and authority for him if he's in a state wildlife, environmental, or "land management" agency.  You can splash around an awful lot of grey paint without hitting the sides if you go that route, particularly if it's a slapped together, "interagency task force".

Don't forget that indian reservations will fall under the Federal government's jurisdiction. BLM and FBI.  Florida also has a goodly number of old military installations and training ranges which while abandoned, are still DoD property.

Ren:
I did some looking into the Department of the Interior in general and the National Parks Service in particular. I think it will be fine if I leave him as an MPD Cop and have him acting as a Liaison to the NPS Ranger character so they can cover each others keisters in a variety of jurisdictions. DoD stuff he likely won't get involved in though I may add an NCIS agent or some other former of Federal Agent (Possibly US Marshall?) at a later date to cover some of that if needed. But it won't be needed for the first story.

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