7 Police Cultures

1-Place of Torture

Here, the police are most certainly NOT your friend, and in some countries ruled by dictatorships, even the rich and powerful greatly fear them. Everything from brutal beatings to planting evidence on totally innocent people to outright murder is alarmingly common, although certain groups are targeted much more then others, because of their race, religion, politics or gender. The PCs are going to be in real trouble if they end up under arrest and in this police station. Think of a Gestapo or NKVD station for how things are.

2-Trying their Best

Here, although there are a few "bad apples", the majority of the police act "by the book." Torture of suspects and framing of suspects are both very rare, and when they do happen, the crime is serious, and often the suspect is genuinely guilty. The police have a good reputation with most people, and a quid pro quo-if the people don't cause trouble, the police will be professional and won't wade in with batons or get trigger happy. PCs who are arrested here won't be beaten unless they fight the police and are also likely to get bail in most cases.

3-Doughnuts

The police here are not so much evil or highly violent or corrupt as bumbling fools, like Chief Wiggum from The Simpsons or the Keystone Kops. Avoiding arrest is quite easy as long as the PCs are careful when they commit their crimes, and the police rarely go out on patrol, preferring to eat doughnuts in their police station unless a real emergency happens.

4-Fortress

Here it is a very dangerous thing to be a police officer, as a terrorist group is actively hunting them down and murdering them because they are police officers. They only patrol rarely in armoured cars, carry guns, and few people dare to report crime to them, either because they fear retribution from the terrorists, genuinely see the police as the enemy, or both. If the police get stressed enough, a Fortress culture can easily turn into a Place of Torture culture as the police strike back illegally against those who they rightly or wrongly think are targeting them.

5-Corrupt

Here almost every crime up to murder can be turned a blind eye to for a big enough bribe, although the more serious/shocking the crime is, the bigger a bribe is needed to be quickly released. If the PCs for example are arrested for grave robbing, they can buy their way out by giving a share of that Funeral Gold and Grave Silver to the police officers who caught them. Ordinary people despair of getting any justice and may be planning to turn vigilante to deal with the crime problem by themselves.

6-Wild Bill

There are only one or two police officers in this little town but they have a truely fearsome reputation, preferring however to knock people out with their gun butts then shoot and kill them. They will kill if seriously threatened, and only the bravest of bad guys dare to tangle with them, and they are popular with many people as they keep the crime down in their area.

7-Tackleberry

Here the police are very trigger happy and a spate of police shootings have happened, not always justified, causing a lot of fear and hatred of the police. If the PCs end up in a fight with the police here, it could easily turn deadly, turning the PCs into Public Enemies Number 1 so they have to flee there area or at least lie low for a while.