Detective

''It was a quiet day on station, not much different than any other day, or any other week... but I could tell there was something wrong. There hadn't been a murder in a long time. Either way, I stopped over by the vending machine to take a pack of smokes, and after that I wandered back to my office. It was a quiet place. Too quiet. I glanced from my T.V monitor to my over-stuffed cabinet. Was there a hidden wall somewhere built by an assistant or the lawyer? There's usually a lot of that sort of thing happening on the station. People spreading disease, traitors, brain washed revolutionaries, mass-murdering wizards, or just plain whack-jobs with space madness. You never knew if you were going to get hit or be drawn to be the hitter. I drew a smoke, the only thing I knew that could make me relax. I took in a breath of that sweet death and looked to my beautiful .38. I knew something awful was going to go down soon. Too soon, I'd say. I loaded up my revolver and packed my forensic scanner. I'm going to find these criminals, and i'm going to find them before they find me.''



The detective's job is to investigate the remains of any crime, identify the perpetrator, and then ask Security to arrest them for you. That's right, you have limited security access because you're supposed to be an evidence collector and hunter of monsters, not a god damn beat cop or warden.

'''You are not security. You are an investigator. Your revolver is only for self-defense.'''

Problem Sleuth
As a detective, your primary duty is to go to crime scenes and find out who committed them. You can do this with your Forensic Scanner.

Your Forensic Scanner is located in your backpack. Go to the crime scene, take a picture with your camera, and then scan all the surfaces around the scene such as doors and walls. You should also scan (and collect using evidence bags) any evidence you see, as well as the bodies of any dead victims provided they haven't been dragged to genetics or the morgue already.

If the latter case is true, head on over to the morgue and scan the body. Hopefully the person who brought them in wore gloves, though unfortunately this is hardly ever the case. Make sure that you identify who brought them in and question them so that they don't get arrested for murder.

'''Remember to ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS wear your gloves, or you will record your own prints after touching a surface, body, or item. This will at best slow identification down, and at worst get you thrown into the brig for the very crime you were investigating or for just being incompetent.'''

Now, head back to your office. If you haven't already, print out the scanner results. Access the medical records computer, this is how you can identify the perpetrators of the crime. If you have fingerprint matches, you will have to compare the results to that of any suspects. For example, if the Captain was murdered in his office with no evident sign of a break in, try comparing the fingerprints you found to that of people who could freely access his office such as the Head of Personnel.

Finding fibers can either improve or throw off your lead. For example, if the Captain mentioned earlier was found to have yellow glove fibers and grey jumpsuit fibers, the chances that an assistant murdered him are much higher. However, if you find black glove fibers and nothing else, forensics can take you no further as black gloves can be traced down to anybody, including you.

If you get a single hit, you've got your guy. Make sure to set him to arrest and bring him in for questioning. Make sure you write down what crimes they actually committed in the appropriate boxes, and that you tell the rest of security over the radio to arrest them, otherwise nothing will get done. After that you may want to trail down the suspect yourself if you aren't otherwise busy and the case is of high importance. Being able to stop them from committing another crime can help you understand their motives and prevent theft and murder.

If the criminal is caught, they may have a trial depending on the severity of the crime and the willingness of the command staff to host one. As the prosecution, you must attend this trial. Bring all the evidence against the criminal including finger print scan results, pictures of the crime scene, and testimonies from possible witnesses.

Advanced Detective Work
If you have multiple suspects and matches, you're going to have to do some more investigating and possibly some interviews.

Crimes committed by groups of people provide some distinct advantages and disadvantages for both you and security forces in general. Group crimes are often easily noticeable to any bystander, and the interrogation and subsequent confession of one suspect can lead to a sting on the entire group. On the other hand, these pairs or triads or even larger groups can be difficult to take down without a lot of manpower and commitment on the part of security forces. Changelings and sometimes traitors operate in groups, so you'll have to exercise extra caution when investigating crime scenes you think they're responsible for.

When you do have multiple suspects, it's usually because of inconclusive forensics results. Because you're going to have to figure out the crime using more traditional methods along the lines of interviews, you should make sure to bring your universal recorder with you. Note that a universal recorder also acts as a universal translator, so you should be able to collect the testimonials of sentient slimes, monkeys, and, in the most bizarre of scenarios, xenos.

When conducting interviews, make sure that you set out with a hunch. Only interview people and only ask questions that you think are relevant to the situation. However, in some cases asking a non-pointed question can throw a bluffer off and cause them to slip in their story. People who seem more friendly after moving on from a subject may be lying.

Your PDA comes with an inbuilt medical scanner that can be toggled on or off, and it works just like a standard medical analyzer. It tells you types of damage a person has on them, any advanced diseases, and most importantly in your line of work their time of death. Use this last fact to narrow down possible suspects.

Spare Time
Technically, the above represents the entirety of the detective's job. Despite this, you will rarely be called upon to investigate a crime, you will have to investigate crime scenes on your own initiative. Luckily, there are some other things that the Detective can do instead:


 * Snoop around. Unlike security officers, you have access to the maintenance shafts around the station, allowing you to find things they can't.
 * Be a general assistant to Security.
 * Be personal bodyguard to somebody, ideally a weaker head of staff like the RD. You're quite intimidating aesthetically, even though you're no more (and arguably less) dangerous than the average security officer.
 * Use the camera terminal in your office to scan the station - it looks like an old-fashioned TV. Look around for any crimes, then report it over the Security channel or head over there yourself. It's probably not a good idea to announce it over the general radio, or the criminal in question will usually realize that you're onto them and get away.
 * Update the security records. This is meant to be the Warden's job, but you'll be hard pressed to see him actually doing that.

Equipment
The detective has a lot of shit in his office, which might bewilder you. Luckily, the only absolutely necessary stuff that you don't spawn with are revolver and speed loaders for it.

Here is a list of stuff that the either Detective spawns with, or is in his office:


 * Cigarettes and Zippo lighter - absolutely necessary, smoking is cool.
 * A worn suit, coat and hat. Not only do these make you look cool, but they act as armor.


 * Black gloves [[file:BGloves.png]] - as stated above, NEVER take these off if you are planning on being an actual detective and doing your damn job, or you will get your own prints on the evidence and fuck up the entire investigation.
 * A security radio headset [[file:secheadset.png]], this gives you access to the security channel so you can tell the officers to arrest insert-criminal-name-here.
 * Your forensics scanner, found in your backpack. Use this to scan for fingerprints and trace fibers.
 * A P.D.A loaded with a D.E.T.E.C.T cart. This little thing gives you access to both security and medical scanners, and has a built in Med scanner.
 * A .38 revolver [[file:Detectivegun.png]] that fires rubber bullets that knock people down. Do NOT use this as a substitute for a taser unless you want to get in serious trouble. You can modify it to make it shoot .357's, but the revolver has a high chance to break for good.
 * Spare ammo for the revolver, you may want to put these in your internals box. You must deal with the Cargobay workers if you run out, God help you then.
 * A universal recorder recorder, for documenting interviews with suspects.
 * A hand labeller. In theory this is for labeling evidence.
 * A camera. This is supposed to be for taking pictures of evidence and suspects, but most of the time it is for taking pictures of The Owl.

If you're looking for more equipment, the Warden can issue you some more standard security equipment.

A good balance between cool and useful is a Stun Revolver. Go bother R&D for one.

Smooth Criminal
You already have a gun, but a handgun that can actually hit people with its bullets might be better, as no one will judge you for having one. Your position of trust on the station makes it easy to both fabricate and erase evidence. Play it cool, be patient, and safely abscond, just like countless noir heroes of fiction you're based on. Alternately, you could hack an autolathe and make yourself some .38-Special bullets if you don't want to risk being seen with a Syndicate weapon.