Police in Vekllei

This article is archived, and is no longer part of Vekllei canon.

Hopefully you won’t have to worry about the police while you’re in Vekllei, but you’ll likely notice them. Police are everywhere — as an alternative to military (duoroten) service, conscripts can elect to enter domestic security (inroten). Most officers are young, bored, and live in the community they police. You’ll likely be talking to them at some point in your visit, even if it’s only to ask for directions — in Vekllei, cops are the bulletin boards of the community.

All beat cops are unarmed, and carry extendable truncheons that swing from their belt. Much more rarely, you’ll see professional officers — you’ll notice them, because they ride in cars. Professional officers travel in pairs, and the senior officer is known as a firearm officer, and will carry a sidearm.

Should you be detained by police, keep the following in mind:

1. Vekllei is a casual culture. Some officers will speak English, but the concept of ‘sir’ has never entered their vocabulary. They will approach and interact with you casually — professionalism operates differently here. Nor will they bow to you, except in stations. If you act hysterical, they will cease to take you seriously. Keep your cool, be friendly, talk clearly.
2. Vekllei is a physical culture. Police will touch, pull, and push you without communicating. This is not an intimate or aggressive gesture — they will just as soon pull you out of the thoroughfare of a sidewalk as restrain you.
3. Vekllei police do not heavily employ firearms, but are liberal with the baton. Only when responding to a firearm call will police approach with a firearm in hand. Otherwise, they will rest a baton on their shoulder and are trained to use it against you, should you attempt to fight them. In a country without currency, there is no such thing as ‘damages’. Public drunkenness is not tolerated in Vekllei and is not an excuse for fighting with police.

With all that said, Vekllei has an extremely low crime rate and it is very unlikely you’ll ever see cops responding to a crime. More often you’ll see them escorting other emergency service vehicles through pedestrian streets, arguing with locals and doing odd jobs around the community. Especially in rural communities, there is very little distinction between on and off-duty cops, and beat cops will often wear their uniform around town while unassigned to a shift.

In the picture above we see professional cops, or copa, watching a suspect from across the street. We can tell they are professional officers because they wear red and white uniforms, instead of the navy, red and white of beat cops. The woman is a firearm officer, and carries a revolver in her holster. The man is not armed but carries a baton on his shoulder.

The police car, a Model 10 (Special), sits low to the ground, weighed with a 60MWe Molten Salt Reactor where we’d usually find the trunk. The car has a theoretical top speed of 400km/h, but will never reach anywhere close to that — pursuits are extremely rare in the country, as almost no-one has a personal automobile. On its roof it carries two cherry lights and a single Dura wailer siren. The service number, 6, tells us that the unit is from the Montre region.

As for the suspect? A small domestic fight between a grocer and his daughter fizzled out and they both apologised to the officers and community for wasting their time.