Making an arrest

Making an Arrest

Judges are not executioners. It is their role to police the
citizens of Mega-City One and root out the bad elements
that threaten life and civil order. To this end, a Judge may
not simply take to the street with his Lawgiver, shooting
every perp that crosses his path. A rigid system of law and
order has been devised to govern the city and the Judges
are the direct instruments of that system. When discovered,
a Judge must make every attempt to arrest, sentence and
arrange transportation of the perp to an iso-cube to serve the
punishment for his crime.
The imposing authority of a Judge in full uniform is usually
enough to make most perps surrender immediately, dropping
their weapons and ceasing any criminal activities, leaving
the Judge free to make the arrest. However, some perps
are truly desperate and are willing to risk even the wrath of a
Judge in order to remain free.
To successfully make an arrest without resistance, a Judge
must present himself to a perp and issue a verbal challenge.
Only one Judge may call upon a perp or group of perps to
surrender at any one time. A perp must be able to see or
hear a Judge in order for an arrest to be attempted. It also
needs noting that a perp must be able to both hear and
understand the Judge making the arrest – dumb animals
and many aliens will simply not understand what the Judge
is trying to do.

Holding Posts

Once a perp has been successfully arrested (whether he
surrendered or was subdued), it is standard procedure for a
Judge to handcuff him to one of the (literally) millions of holding
posts scattered far and wide throughout Mega-City One and then
call his Sector House to send a Catch Wagon to pick the perp
up for transport to the iso-cubes. Holding posts are made of the
finest plastisteel and are nearly impossible to destroy or escape
from. A holding post is considered be able to withstand 100 points
of damage and has integral armour protection of 12 points. They
may be found on practically every street in Mega-City One and
a Judge never has to travel further than 2d6x10 metres to find
one. A Judge may, optionally, choose to wait with the perp until
the Catch Wagon arrives. This can be time consuming and is
not standard procedure but may prove prudent in the event of
apprehending a particularly dangerous perp.
There are also those rare occasions, usually involving
incredibly remorseful perps (and those with positive
Desperation levels) where a Judge can simply order the
perp to find the nearest holding post and wait for the Catch
Wagon. This can be successfully attempted if a perp has
a positive Desperation level and if the Judge succeeds in
an Influence 6+ roll. Usually, though, no Judge takes the
chance and ensures that his perp is cuffed securely before
filing the sentence via his hand or bike computer.