Law & Crime

The Worst Place to Live in America, Or the Best

The American cities that survived the fall of society, the corporate wars, and all the other turbulence of the last fifty years are now lonely islands of relative law and order on the ocean of lawlessness and chaos. Still, within each of those cities there is an ongoing war for dominance between agencies of law enforcement and various criminal organizations.
Night City is no exception. Civilian and police casualties continue to rise as a result of this conflict. Over two hundred people die in confrontations with the police every month, and an unknown number die every day in gang skirmishes and unrecorded combat sweeps performed by private corporate forces. For every ten criminals killed, one NCPD Officer loses his life in the line of duty, but the situation is no improving despite those officers’ sacrifice and dedication. Homicides, armed assaults, robberies, drug dealing, human trafficking, and residential burglaries are an everyday reality, as are violent feuds among mobile, well-armed, and cyberaugmented gangs. Add to that a countless number of petty crimes, and you’ll have a good idea of the city’s street life. To say that the crime rate is tremendously high is an oversimplification – and the depressing level of poverty is not making things better. Now, in 2077, Night City firmly holds the title of ‘the worst place to live in America,’ and its not going to give it up without a serious fight.

The Law

Let's start with the cops (which is the first thing you're gonna need to know in the City). First of all, most are now called Lawmen, since their ambit covers a lot more than the old school City Beat. The Lawmen of the Time of the Red are organized much as they were during the 20th century with Homicide, Vice, Burglary, and Traffic Squads; about 5 men each.
The most recent addition to police organization has been the addition of the Cyberpsycho Squad (also known as the Psycho Squad), whose main job is to deal with cybernetic criminals. While the average beat cop hits The Street in an armoured squad car, wearing an armour jacket, helmet, and carrying a smart-chipped Minami-10 sidearm, the Psycho Squad detail employs aerogyros, AV-4s, miniguns, assault weapons, and Stinger missile launchers.
City cops can patrol all areas of the city. Corporate Cops are deputized to patrol only corporate facilities. However, in areas where a large number of office areas are huddled together, this effectively can turn an entire downtown region into Corporate Cop territory. Corporate Cops are usually better armed and armoured, and often have full Trauma Team medical coverage. They are also more vicious, sadistic, and likely to shoot first—after all, they know the Corporation can cover up any incidents.
There are also Lawmen on the open highways as well. Since a lot of new Reclaimed Cities don't have police forces set up yet, these wandering marshals are much like the range-riding Wyatt Earps of the Old West—hard riding, fast shooting—part of why they are colloquially all lumped under the Old Western/Roaring '20s tag of "Lawmen."

Firearm Laws & Pre-emptive Self Defense

Concealed carry has become the norm everywhere. Open carry is allowed outside city limits and is tolerated in most suburban areas.
As everyone nowadays is potentially equipped with offensive, lethal cyberware, most states have widely extended their interpretation of the right to defend oneself. Thus, the term “preemptive self-defense” was coined. According to this principle, if an individual is “provoked,” they are always authorized to use deadly force “to prevent the inflict of significant bodily harm or death.” Courts in different states may vary in their definition of provocation, but they usually aren’t very strict about it if the provoker had any visible implants that may have seemed suspicious or threatening. Unfortunately, “suspicious” and “threatening” can describe a wide variety of augmentations.

Justice, Army Style

During the martial law period that began in the late 1990s, the U.S. government looked to military regulations to replace the laws that had previously governed the nation. As a result, the Military Justice Code became the main rule of U.S. law.
The Code's draconian standards of crime and punishment served so well, in the eyes of those in power, that when martial law was suspended the government established a Uniform Civilian Justice Code in its place. Some loosening of restrictions was seen in the early 2020s but, in the aftermath of the 4th Corp War, the Uniform Civilian Justice Code is once again the law of the land.
Even Night City, which isn't part of the New United States, still bases what laws it actually has on the Uniform Civilian Justice Code. Of course, how much the laws get enforced depends entirely on what part of the City you're in and what your annual income is. Funny how, no matter how harsh the laws get, the rich still manage to get away with murder. Sometimes literally. Crime...

Bang—You've Got Justice

The simplest method of punishment is still execution. Most states have a State Executioner who administers justice with one well-placed .44 slug at point-blank range. They are also empowered to hunt down escapees from Death Row.