020 The first exclusive police car

Jimmy collected his paycheck, headed to the equipment room to gather his solo patrol gear, a large bag and a shotgun. Taking the car keys, he went to the parking lot.

He glanced around at the license plates, found his patrol car, an 80% new Victoria Crown. The front bumper had a half-wrap design, extending to the sides of the vehicle. Underneath the bumper was the car-mounted loudspeaker, which could be used to hail the car in front using the microphone in the cabin.

The roof sported an old-fashioned tube-style police light, a model that had become rare by 2022 and could only be seen in American TV shows or movies predating 2010 for a more immediate impression.

Mounted on the A-pillar of the driver's side was an adjustable spotlight, with the control handle on the inside of the A-pillar allowing for easy access from the driver's seat to turn the light on or off and rotate it to illuminate more than a 180-degree area in front of the vehicle.

The car door bore the emblem of Plaskey County Police. Jimmy checked the car inside and out, placed his gear in the trunk, loaded the shotgun, and he was ready to go.

He drove out of the police station and first familiarized himself with the car's handling on the less-trafficked country roads of West Suburb, then started his first solo patrol.

County police patrol within a defined area. Due to historical reasons, some areas near the West Suburb of Little Rock overlap between the county police and the Little Rock City Police, usually based on the dispatch center's arrangement.

In principle, policing jurisdictions in the United States do not overlap, such as rural police only being responsible for law enforcement within rural areas, city police handling the matters within their city limits, county police taking care of public security cases outside of the city and rural police's zones, and State Police dealing with cases beyond county jurisdiction and inter-county cases, among other duties like highway patrols. The Federation Police only handle federal matters and cross-state affairs.

Beyond these, there are also police forces dedicated to specific areas, such as school police, park police, and congressional police to name a few.

The area Jimmy was patrolling originally fell within the jurisdiction of the city police; it's a suburb of Little Rock. Due to staff shortages at the police department, part of the area was under joint patrol with the county police. For overlapping cases, it was no problem to ask the dispatch center to hand them over to the city police if one wished to avoid them.

When it comes to numbers, city police make up the largest portion of the American police force, accounting for over two-thirds, with some statistics indicating up to three-quarters. In contrast, county police departments, responsible for wider areas, often face staffing shortages.

Take the Little Rock City Police Department and the Plaskey County Police Department for example; the city department employs over 700 people, including more than 500 police officers, whereas the county department is relatively pitiful with only dozens of staff, managing law enforcement for the entire county outside of a few larger cities, including some security duties within the scope of the county government, such as the Court Police at the County Court.

Of course, county police do not intervene in every location. Towns and villages under the county elect local rural police departments, which are small in size, ranging from a dozen officers in larger departments to just two or three in smaller ones.

Officers for the county police and rural police departments are usually recruited locally, generally from retired military soldiers or members of the National Guard. Not all recruits necessarily need to attend police academy training and assessment; they can be directly hired by the local police chief and trained according to internal programs.

Jimmy was unlucky or perhaps lucky, unlucky because the police chief, elected locally, promised to elevate police quality during the election and required county police hires to meet POST Commission standards, recruiting graduates from police academies. This directly resulted in not hiring a single new officer during the chief's first year. Jimmy joined in the second year of the chief's term. Without the police academy requirement, just the chief's approval would have sufficed for his immediate recruitment.

Luckily, for reasons yet unknown, Jimmy had acquired a new identity, which had already completed all the prerequisites for joining the county police; a slight manipulation was all that was needed to finalize his employment. With some objective, the chief let Jimmy undertake the identity switch and join up. At least for now, it seemed to Jimmy's advantage, especially considering his soul had come from another place and he felt no particular attachment to his body's original identity, thus it could be said he hit the jackpot.

During this period, Jimmy had familiarized himself with some matters at the county police department. The chief had two more years in his term, and it seemed unlikely anything would go wrong during that time. All Jimmy needed to do was firmly secure his new identity, which was fully documented; in principle, he could always switch jobs, joining a large city police department willing to take him in. However, having not been in this world for long and not knowing much about the outside, he decided against heedlessly moving to a big city, where unpredictable things could happen, opting to stay put as a county officer for the time being.

"Adam28, armed hostage taking at the University of Arkansas Little Rock campus. The caller reports a black man at the school entrance is having an altercation with a female student and has taken her hostage with a knife. Campus police have him surrounded."

"Adam28, copy."

Though it was a bit of a distance, Jimmy still took the call and headed towards the University of Arkansas.

Upon arrival at the school entrance, Jimmy noticed LRPD (Little Rock City Police) cars already on the scene. Exiting his vehicle, he greeted them, "Plaskey County Police here, brother, need a hand?"

"My colleague has gone inside; it should be handled," the officer by the police car turned to look at Jimmy, shook hands, "Sorry to make you come out for nothing."

"As long as the situation's resolved, I'm heading back."

Jimmy turned back to his patrol car, reported the status, and drove away from the school.

He hadn't gone far when dispatch informed him, "Adam28, Adam36, State Police highway patrol reports a suspect involved in a high-speed chase is currently heading west on I-630. Please convene at the Collegiate entrance ramp to I-630 and stand by."

"Adam28, copy." "Adam36, copy."

Jimmy drove to the highway entrance, and soon Mason arrived too. They waited at the ramp for instructions and, after receiving the notice, both officers entered the freeway, driving normally, waiting for the suspect's vehicle to pass.

Mason, a veteran officer, located the suspect's vehicle and the State Police cars, flicked on the police lights, and merged onto the track. Jimmy was slightly slower, and by the time he sped up to catch up, he found himself as the last police car in the pursuit.

The suspect was weaving between lanes at speeds exceeding 120 mph, the equivalent of 192 kilometers per hour, a figure that was staggering for Jimmy. He could only follow behind, taking advantage of the path cleared by the police cars ahead. The thought of changing lanes at 190 kilometers per hour was daunting and could probably result in a crash or rollover.