Kyoto Prefectural Police

The **Kyoto Prefectural Police** (京都府警, *Kyōto Fukei*) is the primary police force in Kyoto, handling various crimes and cases occurring in the city. The organisation is comprised of several personnel, including detective inspectors, forensic personnel, and policemen. Each division is generally headed by an inspector (警部, *keibu*), though several other inspectors comprise the team; an assistant inspector (警部補, *keibuho*) is the second-in-command of the head inspector, sometimes taking the latter's place in times of absence or unavailability.

## Divisions

The organisation is divided into respective divisions, each befitting a certain task or role in investigating a certain case.

### Forensic Division

The Forensic Division (鑑識課, *Kanshiki-ka*) is in charge of collecting and preserving evidence left behind a crime scene, such as murder weapons, blood samples, and fingerprints. They also capture images of the crime scene and other essential elements within the scope of the crime's perimeter, typically through flash photography, and collect it as part of evidence. In order to find out more about victims (especially during murder crimes) and possible leads pertaining to their biography, killer, and the crime itself, members of this division seem to be allowed to search the area of the victim's death as well as the victim itself. Such vital information could be obtained from the likes of identification cards, subtle or explicit hints of the last thing the victim had done, or a possible signature message deliberately left behind by the culprit, especially in the case of a serial murder.

### Investigation Division

#### First Division

There seems to be a number of subunits in the Investigation Division (捜査一課, *Sōsa-ka*), given that one specific division is named (and the predominant team in the drama series) as the Investigation First Division (捜査一課, *Sōsaikka*). This division, in general terms, is in charge of investigating actual crime scenes in the field. Furthermore, this division is tasked to disperse throughout the city to collate possible personal testimonies, whether from witness passersby, people related to victims, and even suspected people, usually in an effort to get their alibi and, henceforth, confirm it or further deepen suspicions. In relation to the latter, this division is, therefore, also responsible for searching criminals or suspects.

The First Division specifically employs the help of the dyad consisting of criminologist Hideo Himura and mystery writer Alice Arisugawa during extreme cases that could not be solved with the sole intel of the police. As such, the two are given access to crime scenes, which is normally restricted to civilians like them. This gives them an amount of freedom to search and scrutinise the scene, the victim (if any), and evidence, especially during the moment of investigation.

## Alliance

In 2019, during the wake of the "ABC" killings with victims ranging from Hyōgo, Osaka, and Kyoto, the Kyoto Prefectural Police merged forces with the Hyōgo Prefectural Police and the Osaka Prefectural Police in order to search for the culprit behind the serial murders, establishing the **Hyōgo–Osaka–Kyoto Serial Murder Case Joint Investigation** (兵庫大阪京都連続殺人事件合同捜査, *Hyōgo Ōsaka Kyōto Renzoku Satsujin Jiken Gōdō Sōsa*). The alliance was led by the heads of the respective prefectural police, namely Hiroshi Shikata, head inspector of the Hyōgo Prefectural Police; Harumi Unabara, head inspector of the Osaka Prefectural Police; and Osamu Sokabe from the Kyoto Prefectural Police, an assistant inspector from the Investigation First Division.

## Known Members

### Investigation Division

* Hisashi Nabeshima: Head inspector, First Division
* Nozomi Ono: Assistant inspector, First Division
* Osamu Sokabe: Assistant inspector, First Division
* Keiichi Sakashita: Inspector, First Division
* Yanai: Inspector

#### Affiliates

* Hideo Himura: Criminologist; sociology professor
* Alice Arisugawa: Mystery writer; Himura's "assistant"