 | Enforcement Services (aka The Patrol). | | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| When the Global Civil War ended, there were over 500 agencies, ranging from full time professionals to part volunteer rank amateurs, that engaged in duties of Maritime Search And Rescue/Safety (SAR/S), Law Enforcement, Aid To Navigation ("AToN"), Marine Environmental Protection, and Ice Operations. There was only ONE that also carried her nations flag into battle, the American Coast Guards. With the majority of Erath's militaries turned over to the United Nations, it was thought the various coastal agencies would be left to their host nation as law enforcement and SAR; Cops and firefighters on the seas. However, in a rather cynical and clever move, the American representatives at the UN slipped the fifth Earth Defense Force into the proposal; All the worlds coastal patrols 'could' now be drafted into the RDF. It allowed the RDF to tap into this "second navy" for warfighting if necessary, but also to use it as a law enforcement agency for "the rest of the time."
When the Plenipotentiary Council was debating the question of using the militry for law enforcement, the subject was quietly shelved- The answer really was "yes" but nobody wanted to actually come out a say it in light of the ROBTOECH Master's abuses of the shear firepower they had unleashed; Whole cities would be destroyed to kill one man if he were speaking ill of the Tiresian Empire. In a move as deft as the UN maneuver, the PPC formed a "second spacy" along the model of the Terran Coastal Service, down to colors and sizes (scaled up proportionally). Second-tier T'sentraedi warships, such as the RINEUNADOU LOJMEUEAN-Class Monitor and LIEWNEUATZS-Class Shuttle Pod, were made available in seemingly unlimited quantities- But in poor condition, and utterly unsuited to any mission, let alone a warfighting one. These were towed to a Tiresian space factory (though not a ROBOTECH FACTORY, itself in no more serviceable condition than the ships it was to retrofit) and each was overhauled or rent down. After about a year, the first Spaceways Patrol And Enforcement Services "cutters" were on-line and on station, doing everything their forebearers had done, with the added disadvantage of doing it in space. Now the UGC can't imagine how it could have gotten by without a Patrol; It deftly sidesteps all the difficult and uncomfortable questions about appropriate use of force against civilian targets, even though the patrols' ships, pound for pound, are generally MORE heavily armed than their Spacy counterparts, if you discount the use of Reflex weapons. With the adoption of the Unified Training Model in the mid 2200's it was suggested the Patrol be formally integrated into the Spacy entirely. This proposal was eventually shelved, as the use of outright militry for law enforcement purposes was deeply frowned upon by the United Worlds Alliance. In the old American Empire the Coast Guards were used in exactly this fashion under "46 USC." The law in question was copy and pasted into UWA law as UWC 5355 (amended GC 5355) with only a few words changed to account for the new names, the boardings themselves still referred to as "forty one hundreds," a reference to the ancient "US Coast Guard Form 4100" that was used during these boardings. A century later, GC 5355 was amended to include the term "4100, forty one hundred, or any variation thereof" to removed ambiguities and expand the power to enforce the law to include deadly force if necessary as a last possible resort. GC 5355 provides that the Spaceways Patrol And Enforcement Services and local law enforcement agencies may board any ship within UGC and allied territories for safety inspections and inspection of cargo for the enforcement of trade and shipping laws, and that the Patrol may use deadly force if necessary. The original laws used did not clearly express this, leading to objections to said use force; This isn't a problem anymore, but it's not encouraged and the laws still explicitly state "using the minimum force necessary." SPAES Uniform: The Patrol's bright orange duty uniform was highly unpopular at first- It was described by some as "a clown suit brighter than the sun." However battle history and civilian rescues have made the Patrol's members quite proud of their 'clown suits' as every branch of the other services have acknowledged that importance of the Patrol. The orange color was selected for its extremely visible nature, absolutely vital during Search And Rescue missions- Before he became the Aero-Space Force's General and later Chairman of the UWA, then Lt. Drahal TULL (grandson of Breetia and Kazianna) was rescued from a certain death in the Atorian War when he was forced to eject from a burning VAF-6 right in the middle of a raging dogfight. General Information Name: UGC Spaceways Patrol And Enforcement Services Other Names: The Patrol, The Revenuers, Coasties, Space (from "SPAES," the official acronym). Director: Commandant, Spaceways Patrol And Enforcement Services (aka The Patrol) Size and Orientation: Army (300) Features: | ||||||||
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| 04 August 1790 to present. | ||||||||
| United Galaxies Council. | ||||||||
| Multi-Mission Service. | ||||||||
| Spaceways defense and law enforcement. | ||||||||
| Government (UGC). The Council fully funds the service, down to the last credit. | Open Wardrobe (10); Basic uniform with some specialty outfits, but nothing real special. There are nice uniforms (see Uniform Manual for more information), but not exactly whatever you want. | Unlimited Equipment (50). For the most part what they want, they get. There are some limits. | Commandant. | |||||
| Specialty Vehicles (30); Because of their L/E and SAR duties, the Patrol has gotten some equipment special to their needs; However, this is rarely the equipment they want so much as what the Council lets them have (lowest bid). | Extensive Weaponry (40). | Deluxe Communications Network (25) | ||||||
| "Coasties," "The Guard," "Spaes." | ||||||||
| Paranoid (40); They have to be, but it's easier because they keep to themselves so much. | Headquarters (10); The commandant of the Patrol's office is right across the passeageway from the Commandant of the Marine's, which is down the passageway for the Chief Of Space Operation's (the CSO). | Scout Detachment (5); However, they can tap into information generated by others. | Semper Paratus (English: Always ready) . | |||||
| White, CG Blue, CG Red. | ||||||||
| Small Potatoes (15). | Scrupulous and Principled (8). Not every single member of the organization is so upright and moral, but the entity itself seeks to maintain its overall high character. Those that can not or will not conform find themselves out on their ass- Without money, rights, or even citizenship. | None (0). No criminal activity is officially permitted, and very little unofficially permitted. | "Semper Paratus" (tune only). | |||||
| 07 August 2012 (official, 1789 unofficial).. | | |||||||
| Excellent Reputation (25) | Good Salary (10) | |||||||
