National Police

There are fewer police services in the UK. England has a national police service overseeing specialist areas and cross border criminals. There are just over a dozen local police services across the country.

National police deal with organised crime, counter terrorism, cyber crime, immigration enforcement, border security, smuggling, armed response reinforcements, fraud, and diplomatic and royal security. They also have intelligence functions where they collate police intelligence and operate the central police systems.

Organisation

National police comprises a number of Groups each of which is lead by an Assistant Commissioner, one of which is the Organized Crime & Terrorism Group (OCT).

Commander Katy Coalfield leads the Counter-Terrorism unit (CT) which has a number of branches.

  • CT1 to CT9 each cover a defined geographical area (CT1 is London, CT2 South East, CT3 West Midlands, CT4 North West, CT5 East Midlands, CT6 East of England, CT7 South West, CT8 Yorkshire & Humberto, CT9 North East).
  • CT10 is a cyber support unit that provides intelligence as well as protecting critical national infrastructure from online attacks.
  • CT11 is an armed response unit for reinforcing regional branches when they need it. It also has specialist forensics and explosive ordnance disposal teams.
  • Superintendent Ray Hopkins leads CT12, the branch tasked with dealing with cross-territorial groups.

CT12G are the unit behind Operation Hawkeye which is the surveillance and detention of the genetically modified people in England.

Police Powers

Broadly these are similar to those currently being used. However technological capability is much higher, so some things are used a lot more often, especially powers of remote surveillance. Additionally there has been a requirement for Automatic Collision Avoidance Technology (ACAT) to be fitted to all vehicles manufactured since 2025. This ensures that vehicles are capable of monitoring the road area around them and avoiding collisions without driver intervention. One of the other features of ACAT is that the police can remotely control vehicles to bring them to a halt safely. This is used both as a police over-ride for dealing with stolen vehicles and also to enable smooth passage for emergency vehicles by making traffic give way. Most vehicles on the roads are used automatically, and since 2031 there has been no requirement to obtain a UK driving licence for operating self-driving vehicles.

National Police also have the capability to direct local police to assist them when required. National police officers have wider powers than local police as they also have the powers of both customs and immigration officers when exercising functions against suspected immigration offences or customs evasion (including enforcement of illegal drugs manufactured in the UK as well as those smuggled in). This means that they can usually enter premises without a warrant provided that they have reasonable suspicions.

PACE has been updated, and the replacement Regulations on Police Evidence were last revised in 2045.

Technology

Police officers on duty are routinely equipped with terminals that record and stream live what they are doing to control. In addition it uses a combination of facial recognition and registered terminal information to identify people that they come across and show the police officer anyone of interest.

This live streaming, and the associated recording process, make it very difficult to amend or fake the footage. Typically in major incidents there are dozens, if not hundreds, of similar feeds. Public order police tend to be very well behaved, having learnt their lessons from those unfortunate enough to be caught on camera and went to prison as a result. It also tends to lead to criminals being convicted for low level crimes committed in front of officers with a shorter time lag and less paperwork. Complaints against police officers also tend to have rapid investigation cycles.

While no-one really likes the police, the technology has improved the general level of trust in the police by society. There being less need to trust one person's word against an other's word.

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