Operations Division
Operations is responsible for dealing with immediate arcane activities that represent a real or potential threat to the empire. In practice, while the empire has greatly expanded in size and complexity, Operations is perpetually understaffed and underfunded. This leaves it always running from one crisis to the next.
Organization
The current Director of the Operations Division is William Gonson. Gonson has held the position for seven years. Before that, he was Section Chief of Exploration for five years.
Investigations
The Investigation Section deals primarily with unexplained occult and inexplicable activity within the empire, although occasional excursions to other countries (or more rarely, to other realms) are sometimes necessary. Most investigations are unspectacular in nature, but of course no one remembers those. It's not unfair to say that the investigations that are remembered have earned their reputations.
The section has an allotment of ten investigators, but hasn't been at that level for more than a decade. As recently as three years ago, there were only two active investigators available. Recruiting investigators has always been challenging, as the role requires intelligence, courage, certain esoteric knowledge, and the capacity for independent action. Outside of the Investigations Section, investigators are viewed with considerable respect and, frankly, awe. Within their own circle, most investigators show the comradery and morbid humor that professionals in similar positions, such as firefighters and soldiers, often possess.
Russell Wynter is the current Section Chief. He's been in the role for two years, following a legendary career as an investigator.
Exploration
The smallest section in the Operations Division, Exploration has always suffered from what one Section Chief called the "national dilemma": almost all exploration was conducted in pursuit of merchant trade. To date, no valuable source of trade goods have been discovered within the purview of the Service and given the secretive nature of the Service, no one is likely to fund efforts to find any. Royal support for exploration might have been forthcoming had the Service been around in the Tudor era, but George IV and William IV had different interests during their short reigns, and Victoria has been conservative about drawing the attentions of other realms.
As a result, Exploration has never had any staff actually exploring other realms. Instead, it has served primarily as a repository for information brought back by independent adventurers. Exploration's researchers have made great efforts have to identify the locations of gates between the realms, along with whatever measures might have been put in place to secure them. The two most significant sources for this information are the Service's investigators and historical records. The latter includes folklore and religious records.
The current Chief of Exploration is Ellen Cartwright, who has held the position for seven years.
Housekeeping
The Housekeeping Section is by far the largest in the Service. Tasked with the responsibility for cleaning up evidence of extranormal activities before they attract public attention, the hundreds of men and women of the section are located in dozens of cities around the empire. Priding themselves on efficiency and unflappability, they will normally be found wearing the non-descript clothing of the working class.
Picking up the occasional artifact for study and storage is generally a low-profile affair. Cleaning up after an exotic incursion or occult activities can be another matter entirely. In most areas where they work, Housekeeping works closely with the Service's Domestic Liaison section to put arrangements in place to deal with the dead or injured. Housekeeping also has the responsibility for removing participants and witnesses from the scene and either delivering them to the authorities or getting them cleaned up and calmed down before returning them to their daily affairs. As a local Housekeeping supervisor once said, "It's amazing how a wash up, a nice cup of tea, and some biscuits can make someone forget about what they just saw."
Housekeeping's Section Chief has been Arthur Harmon for the last dozen years.