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From: masticol@paul.rutgers.edu.UUCP
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk,rec.arts.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Future Police Speculations Needed
Message-ID: <1824@trex.rutgers.edu>
Date: Fri, 23-Oct-87 15:35:09 EST
Article-I.D.: trex.1824
Posted: Fri Oct 23 15:35:09 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Oct-87 11:40:53 EST
References: <1463@haddock.ISC.COM>
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 74
Xref: hoptoad alt.cyberpunk:121 rec.arts.sf-lovers:8041

In article <1463@haddock.ISC.COM> laura@haddock.ISC.COM (The writer in the closet) writes:

> What will a police station/police fortress be like in the 2030's?

Likely prepared for a small-scale war, but operating under an uneasy
truce with the major vendors of organized crime. Murder-for-organs
will be acceptable to the police, as long as it doesn't happen in the
wrong place or to the wrong person. The police may be financed through
a protection scheme. (Pay up or fight 'em yourself.) Police and the
big organized crime syndicates will co-ordinate to eliminate the small
guys. In this way, a semblance of order is maintained for those who
can afford it.

The baddies may have anything up to fission bombs and
(genetic-engineered) viruses, and the police will realize this and act
accordingly. There will be a perpetual game of "push-me-shove-you"
between police and the crime syndicates.

Smart bullets and lasers will replace "dumb" handguns as weapons. Cops
will augment their own senses with cybernetic devices, which the
crooks will also have.

The ability to interface electronics to the brain implies that
machine-assisted telepathic (MAT) communication will be possible. The police
will use this to communicate with each other and to extract
information from unwilling informants. (The latter practice will be
_highly_ illegal, but its victims will be ordered to forget it ever
took place.) 

Police may work under direct interface to an "intelligence
augmentation system." The cops will likely be very suspicious of AIs
in their heads, and will not accept MAT communication with them.

> The world the story is set in is darker than this one, but not
> thoroughly hostile yet.  Society is affluent enough that computers
> are all-pervasive, and most learning and working is done while
> jacked in.  

Then it's likely the police will work while jacked in, or will at least
make extensive use of softs while on the job. The cops will have to
have some people who can catch the cowboys, i.e., their own cowboys.
If they're lucky enough to get people skilled in that sort of thing
who want to do police work, great. Otherwise, they will have to bribe
or blackmail (possibly in the same way Case was blackmailed) illegals
to do police work, a very dangerous proposition (since they'd be
letting criminals into their own system!) Either type of cyber-lawman
would be a high-profile target for the bad guys.

> Organ theft is the major crime, along with the usual
> mugging, murder, robbery, etc., not to mention electronic crime.

So they'll have to get some geneticists, too, to trace stolen organs,
or have gadgets that can be used for this purpose. (DNA type
matching.) Other than this, I'd think police action against
organlegging would resemble action against the present related crimes
(murder-for-hire, fencing, medicine-w/o-license, etc.) Tests for
bootleg organs will be required along with by-then routine mandatory
testing for drugs and disease. Citizens may be required to carry
embedded chips identifying them and all organs they have (legally) had
transplanted. Forging these chips (and altering databases to
correspond) will be a lucrative sideline for the bad guys.

By the way, here's an additional new type of crime (akin to cyanide in
the Tylenol, or mabye subliminal advertising): suppose someone starts
putting viruses in the softs that allow hypnotic control of the
affected party? Even if the softs can't control the user, they
may cause the person using the softs to act on advice harmful to the
user or beneficial to the criminal. (Personally, I would be hard put to
trust _anything_ that gets plugged into my brain.)

Good luck on your novel - I hope this stuff isn't _too_ sinister for
your purposes.

...-.- Steve