Interpol

**Dev. Status** | Conceptual

*"Yes, as through this world I've wandered*

*I've seen lots of funny men;*

*Some will rob you with a six-gun,*

*And some with a fountain pen.*

- "The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd", Woody Guthrie
Interpol is a tech faction that can be utilized once their building is captured. Unable to provide the cheap support of International Inc or the aid of the International Aid Association, Interpol instead provides heavy debuffing effects to enemy units.

## At a Glance

 **Motives** | Law Enforcement, Vigilantism, Public Safety

## Background

### To Catch a Thief

The origins of Interpol stretch back to the earliest days of police work. In the earliest days of civilization, jurisdiction ended the second you left sight of the city's watchtowers. With the countrysides filled with bandits and the cities overrun with petty thieves and the first criminal organizations, the city watchmen would be unable to track their quarries to distant cities. The criminals would slip in and out of sight before anyone would know where they were. Slowly, the concept of transferring criminals between nations was formalized as empires formed in the ancient world. The concept seemed simple at first, of simply handing over criminals to another nation when it was requested. The problem was that this was often seen as treading on another power's rule, and since criminals are criminals, few really cared who held them in prison.

Unfortunately, as criminal organizations started to form, nations realized that they needed a greater deal of cooperation between each other to bring such groups to justice. Again, the problem was trying to control how these actions were carried out. Men can be corrupted, bought, and turned for any number of reasons. The reality was that nations didn't trust each other to actually have the ability to perform as the national authorities. Even as relations between nations formalized beyond royal communications into ambassadors and departments of state, the idea that a nation would let another power's police onto their territory was perceived as a slap in the face. In fact, such a request was one of the conditions that Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary tried to force onto Serbia shortly before World War I.

Still, progress was slowly made in this regard as well. The most famous is the abilities of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who are able to traipse across all number of international borders thanks to various extradition treaties made by Canada with other former British colonies. Eventually, other nations started to work with each other on forming similar treaties, but still with the intent of keeping their own sovereignty intact.

### Putting the Pieces Together

Many politicians realized that for the criminals of the world to finally be brought to justice, they needed a force that was above national borders. An investigating group that would be loyal to no single nation but able to move through them all. Two attempts were made in the early 20th century to form such a group, but without success. The conference in Monaco was filled with legal eagles and attorneys that didn't understand enforcement, where the conference in New York City didn't draw any attention because it was full of regular beat cops trying to work together.

The first actual success came with the conference in Vienna in 1923 that formed the first forerunner to Interpol. With the formation of the Allied Nations shortly before World War II, Interpol was quickly folded in as a sub-branch of the greater AN organization. The idea was that where ACIN would handle the political and intelligence matters of the Allies, Interpol would handle the more "mundane" problems of organized crime, human trafficking, and public unrest in the countries of the Allied Nations. As the founding charter of Interpol prevented the organization prevented them from interfering in political, religious, and military matters, Interpol was found to develop methods of handling their problems relatively non-violently while leaving the spy rings and Allied traitors to ACIN.

Post-war, Interpol was granted an expanded remit by the Allies. Allowing them to operate anywhere and everywhere the Allied Nations considered member-states, Interpol suddenly had an exponentially expanded budget and a windfall of new manpower. Quickly, Interpol set up offices in the major cities of the world and started investigating along the national authorities. What they found shook the group to the core. Not only was organized crime running rampant, it was in every Allied member state peddling drugs and human beings. Constantly raiding criminal safehouses and arresting the middle-men wasn't getting them anywhere, and casualties were mounting. Deciding to take of the kid gloves, Interpol armed up.

In the lead up to World War III, Interpol became a name to dread in the underworld. Interpol officers were suddenly armed with guns capable of knocking you down long enough for you to be arrested and tried to rot in a cell. Their vehicles were fast enough to found you up and armored enough to stand up to even military-grade weapons. Their helicopters could spot you from a mile away, then report on your position until you were surrounded. Even if you found the odd station chief who could be bought, good luck keeping them around long enough to be useful before they were kicked out and replaced with an even harder leader.

### Cool Your Heels in the Tank

After World War III, the Allies have been left with an Interpol more than capable of taking on small rebellions on its own but without the authority to do so. Interpol has even stated repeatedly that they're police, politics is something they have no stake in outside of the funding. The fact is that no one wants to remove that remit, but the reality is that even Interpol knows they can be valuable on the battlefield.

So officially, Interpol only gets involved when there is some kind of criminality involved. Which can liberally be stretched to using Interpol resources to ensure that an invading force doesn't succeed and use the victory to loot and pillage their new territory, or even to help defeating a defending faction to make sure that local public resources aren't destroyed to ensure that local populations can consistently receive the things that keep them from becoming criminals.

Interpol's leadership realizes that this is a dangerous road to walk down, but all the arrests they've made over the decades won't mean anything if they can't get the money to do their jobs. Of course, there are those that Interpol consider well within their purview. The Continentals are a faction that willingly associates with admitted criminals, utilizing thieves and modern-day highwaymen to carry out their missions. The actions of Margaret Thatcher have started to take the political aspects away from the Phoenix Front's fighting, making them well within the jurisdiction of Interpol. The fact that drug trafficking and the sex trade appear to experience an uptick near sprawls brings them into frequent confrontation with "former" associates of Legion Security. Even with new nations opening to the ideals of the Allied Nations, actions of groups like the Yakuza and the "officially-sanctioned" Penal Divisions rapidly blur the lines between the political and the criminal.

As time goes on, Interpol's leadership hopes to eventually return to their roots of simply being a means to ensure that all nations are able to clamp down on criminality and criminality alone. Someday, that can be real. Unfortunately, they need to force through the madness of 1969 before they can even hope to see the new decade that awaits them.

## Resources

*"Look, these Interpol guys don't understand how it is on the streets. They come in like they're [CENSORED] invading, and then think people will help? Those idiots couldn't find a dope pusher if you lit them up with a neon sign. They want to help, have them work with us first, not come into the Bronx with enough force to demolish Yonkers!"*

- NYPD Commissioner Howard R. Leary, after an Interpol raid on a mafia drug den

### Deathmatch Reinforcements

**Special Response Unit**

***"WILL* DEFINITELY *USE FORCE"***

- Caption of an Interpol cavalcade
The best-trained Interpol forces only called in for heavy riots or military invasions, the Special Response Unit *is* armed with lethal weaponry, but can also debuff the enemy as well when commanded.

 File:IconInterpol.png | Goshawk | A heavily armed (by Interpol standards) helicopter

### Behind the Scenes

Interpol is based on militarized policing combined with classic and sci-fi detective fiction.