Trope-a-Day: Law Enforcement, Inc.

Law Enforcement, Inc.: Given that there are so many private corporate habitats out there, not to mention outposts and some entire colonies, like the corporate research colony on Wynérias (Imperial Core), the conlegius statutes allow corporate security – often outsourced to Ultimate Argument Risk Control, ICC, et. al., who already have the necessary charter and bonds on file – in those places to function as law enforcement.  Saves having to put a governance cadre out there, you see.

And they can also be hired to provide additional private security/law enforcement anywhere, just like a PPL albeit without choice of judges, because, after all, the job of the Watch Constabulary is merely to do full time what every citizen-shareholder is entitled to do in their own right, when they see a crime being committed.

Of course, that’s not strictly this trope, because they do have to obey all those letter-of-the-law procedures and suchlike in order to operate within the bounds of said statutes, and therefore legally according to the Imperial Charter (which forbids any delegation of powers to people who aren’t themselves bound by it).

If you want to stretch a point, you might include in various Fifth Directorate cells, which need to generate money off the books because even if they existed, which they don’t, they wouldn’t officially exist either, and so don’t have a budget.  But they wouldn’t be in the private sector if they did exist, so they wouldn’t count, anyway.