The 23rd Precinct

The 23rd Precinct, covering the crime-ridden center of the Fens district, is
notorious as the spot of dirt that Commissioner Barbara Kane can't quite
clean from the FCPD's largely sterling reputation. She would like to put
exceptional officers in such a difficult area, but she's fighting a longstanding
precedent of captains transferring particularly problematic cops to a station
already known for being hopelessly corrupt.

The 23rd was a difficult post from its inception, but it truly earned its infamy
during the Moore Administration. The precinct was known as an area where
cops didn't have to hold back on the local "scum"; there was not only no
oversight but almost no chance of excessive force or corruption being
reported to a higher authority. Then-Commissioner Alquist sent his most
obviously amoral officers there to keep them out of the public eye.

Many of those officers resigned and slunk away along with their boss when
Moore lost the 1992 election, but the 23rd was adept at "losing" evidence
and official records, and much of the graft and abuse of power that went on
during those years was never proven. Commissioner Kane's task force to
reform the FCPD faced a truly uphill battle in the precinct, their efforts
continuously undermined by convenience transfers.

Today, the 23rd Precinct is an odd mix of canny, entrenched crooked cops,
officers disliked by their superiors, and the occasional do-gooder who wants
to jump into and help clean up the worst part of the city. Graft is quietly
accepted, with a "pad" to which most officers contribute and then take
their cut at the end of the month; many consider it compensation for
getting stuck in Freedom's most dangerous posting.

The precinct suffers from extremely low morale. It's partly because the cops
there are anything but a cohesive team; rivalries and outright hatreds
between various officers have tensions running at a constant high. It's also
stress. The vast majority of Freedom cops killed in the line of duty are killed
in the Fens, where organized crime is a serious threat and the effects of
drug abuse and trafficking are on constant display.

Dramatis Personae
Captain Dominic Stannard: Captain Stannard is, in the words of
Commissioner Kane, "the only decent man who wanted the job." A
longtime resident of the 23rd, he rose to the position from what was usually
considered a career dead end: a detective on the Missing Persons squad,
tasked with identifying bodies for whom no foul play was suspected and
looking for runaways. Both tend to pile up in the Fens.

Stannard was put on that squad mostly to get him out of the way, as he
refused to take part in the Precinct's rampant graft, but he took the work
extremely seriously and gained a reputation for being very good at it.
Nobody else wanted to head up the squad, so he made lieutenant within
eighteen months and held the position for the rest of the Moore years.

At first, Commissioner Kane brought in outside candidates to shape up the

23rd, but after two in a row were run off she decided to turn to inside
talent. Lieutenant Stannard received an unexpected promotion, and
immediately turned his efforts to reforming the precinct. But the quiet
empathy that had made Stannard so good at interacting with grieving
families and fuming teens didn't impress his fellow cops.

What did impress them was his sheer stubbornness. Stannard succeeded
where his predecessors had failed at removing loose cannons and cracking
down on open corruption. Yet the effort took its toll; he lost his marriage,
his children barely speak to him, and he's battling severe depression. Fallen
from his former uncompromising stance, he permits the "pad" in the
precinct in order to keep morale somewhere slightly above zero.

Aging but still sharp, Captain Stannard has developed a harsh pragmatism.
He knows he'll never get the 23rd to the bright, rigorous standard he
envisioned, but he also feels that there's nothing left in his life except his
work, so he throws everything he has into keeping the precinct running.

Leyla Jibrell, CSI: Born in Somalia but raised in the US after her parents
were resettled as refugees from the Somali Civil War in the mid 90's, Leyla
grew up in a one room apartment in a rough area of northern Bayview. She
was deeply influenced by her parents' stories of government corruption,
the crime and poverty she saw around her, and the bullying she
experienced because of wearing hijab.

An exceptionally bright child with devoted, supportive parents, she

channeled that discontent with the state of the world into drive to rise
above circumstance and accomplish something meaningful. Winner of
numerous state math competitions, she earned a full ride to Penn State to
study forensics. When she graduated, she was president of the Muslim
Student Association and had earned her degree summa cum laude.

When Leyla returned to Freedom City to enter the police force, however,
she found that her real challenges were only just beginning. She can't prove
it, but she suspects that it was prejudice that got her shunted into the
notorious 23rd Precinct despite her exceptional record. She never
complains, though, just like she never contributes to the pad or "loses"
evidence for a fee. She wants to rise through skill and honesty.

Which is exactly why she has a massive target painted on her back.