Detective

The hallmarks of a planet’s Arbites presence are all too
obvious---the grim black block of a fortified Courthouse
rearing up among hab buildings, a column of stark black
Rhino and Repressor tanks rumbling down a thoroughfare, or
the expressionless, mirror-visored gaze of an Arbitrator over
the top of their suppression shield. A Precinct relying only on
their paramilitary might would soon fail, however, able only
to react to the most open and obvious signs of criminality. As
well as warriors for the law, the Arbites must be hunters of
the lawless. Refusing to rely too heavily upon the Inquisition
or the planetary Enforcers, Lord Marshal Goreman expects
each precinct within the sector to train and maintain agents
specialized in investigation. Pulling heavily upon old favors
owed and new promises made, Lord Marshal Goreman,
worked tirelessly to build a cadre of Detective-Arbitrators,
trained in a variety of pursuits and esoteric knowledge. Their
red collars mark them amongst their peers, although the
wary glances of their fellow Arbitrators and shrewd minds
are almost as clear a marker of their skills. The Detectives are
the Arbites’ eyes and ears out among the populace, gathering
up the whispers and clues that would scurry into hiding at the
first sight of an Arbitrator uniform, coldly bearing witness for
the day when the hammer of judgment falls.
Lord Marshal Goreman is content to let the existence of
his spies be an open secret in most Imperial societies, since the
nagging fear that someone is listening becomes another tool
to help keep the citizenry in line. The specifics of Detective
operations, however, are scrupulously protected from view,
even that of most other Arbites. A Detective command will
attempt to insinuate information gatherers into every corner
of its jurisdiction, through infiltration, surveillance, and the
use of outside spies. These are not simply different techniques
but time-honored specializations with their own rank
structures and formalized operational dogmas.
The Detective-Surveillor specializes in direct observation
and recording of lawbreakers and suspected lawbreakers
(two categories which between them cover practically every
person in the Calixis Sector). Surveillors are the most heavily
technical of Goreman’s Detectives, adept with the use of
concealed pict arrays, vox-thieves, pheromone and chem-trackers,
and subtle devices with cunning machine-spirits to
intercept transmechanical communications. Surveillors’ work
can be more direct, sending them out among the crowds to
eavesdrop on their targets or tail suspects. Sometimes they
must even slip unnoticed into homes, vehicles, or places of
work or worship to pick up conversations, plant devices, or to
steal biological traces to add to a suspect’s dossier. It can come
as a great and terminal surprise to a lawbreaker who thought
their tracks were covered when they are hunted down by a
cyber-mastiff working with a fragment of hair and a scrap of
undergarment that a Detective-Surveillor stole from their hab
weeks, months, or years before.
Detective-Espionists preside over webs of spies, informants,
and agents-provocateurs, some of whom may be fellow
Detectives but most of whom will be outsiders who may not
even know it is the Arbites to whom they are passing their
reports. Informants are recruited through trickery, through
their sense of Imperial duty, or most frequently, through
terror. When the case against a suspect becomes substantial
enough for action, Detectives will make an assessment of
that person’s worth as an informant, and what leverage they
have to force them to become one. Calixian procedure has
been authorized (and duplicated) by Inquisitorial powers
and includes making a showy example of one of a group
of arrestees in order to spur co-operation from the others,
and Espionists are not above manipulating a potential recruit
into a compromised position from which the only way out is
onto the informant register. In target areas or organizations
where the Judges’ suspicions are strong, he may have whole
webs of informants, none of whom know of each other, all
informing on one another. The Calixian Precincts are not
concerned with the duplication of information; by checking
and comparing reports against one another they can monitor
their informants for reliability and signs of treachery.
Detectives have no problems with employing outright
agents-provocateur to stir up trouble. Entrapping a suspect
has shown remarkable success on the outlying worlds of the
Calixis Sector---if a citizen engages in disloyalty, crime, or
sedition, then they have exposed themselves as weak, flawed,
and unworthy of the privilege of even the limited freedom
that Imperial daily life allows. Notably, more than twenty
noblemen were arrested and sentenced to death after Judge Harmahk convinced them to turn against the Barsapine
Planetary Governor in the wake of massive damage to one
of the world’s most beloved Cathedrals. Whether their crime
came of their own behavior or through the efforts of an
Arbites provocateur is irrelevant and, in fact, an accused who
claims otherwise is simply adding a self-confessed count of
culpable moral weakness to their roll of charges.
The Adeptus Arbites make use of assistance or
information from other Imperial organizations as well.
Investigators utilize Adepts (both within the Precinct Fortress
and those serving the Administratum) to pore over mountains
of data. A detective may spend months within the Precinct
scouring statistics and legal actions looking for patterns or
odd behavior. Astropathic or similar assets are rare and
carefully-controlled. When psychic abilities are required,
agents look to the Scholastia Psykana who have shown an
aptitude for psychometry or cognito-mnemonic drilling to
lend aid.
The Detectives’s work crosses over into many other
specialties---with Chasteners as they handle and break
captives and with Verispex as they compile their dossiers of
evidence. It is common for Arbites to cross-train and straddle
these specialties, ranking in one and acting in another. Arbites
who transfer into the Detective specialty will often use their
old rank and position as a cover so that they can blend in
with Arbites operations and not give away their presence.
Detectives have no distinct uniform of their own; when they
wish to, they signify themselves with a red collar or lanyard
worn over whatever uniform they wore before they began
Detective work.