Editing Supernatural Law: Main Page (section)

===Occult Crimes Division===

Not every officer in OCD is a mage. That will mainly be the player characters. But the division has a number of other officers, along with crime scene investigators, crime lab technicians, and other personnel, and even though they cannot perform magic they are aware of it. The people in the department are either ungifted relatives of mages, witnesses to a supernatural event, or just plain too curious for their own good. Either way, the department prefers to recruit from people already aware of magic. The people in the division are capable of handling supernaturally hazardous materials or evidence, detaining supernatural suspects, recognizing the signs of the supernatural at crime scenes, and supporting the mage detectives in their investigations.

The division has a fully stocked alchemy lab and a number of artifacts at its disposal, such as handcuffs that hinder the ability to perform magic. What they do not have is stockpiles of wands, amulets, magic potions, and other items of magic. The division has a budget and is subject to oversight, and magical gear tends to be costly and may look strange in bookkeeping. So the division prefers to keep such acquisitions to a minimum. In return, the division allows its mages to bring in just about any personal gear they wish, and cookings in the alchemy lab raise no questions unless they result in a huge mess.

OCD is part of Troop H of Massachusetts State Police, responsible for the metropolitan Boston area. Physically, the division is located in the Beacon Hill Barracks. Since Beacon Hill provides security for the nearby state capitol building and for the Governor, the officers there are used to discretion and do not poke their noses in investigations that do not concern them, so OCD can normally go about its business in peace.

OCD gets occasionally called in to help by other Troops, who do not have an entire department, but maybe one of two detectives specializing in supernatural incidents.

The head of the division is Detective Captain Kiara Graves. A fit, middle aged African American woman who normally wears masculine looking suits to work. She is not a mage herself, but possesses a good academic knowledge of the subject. To hear her tell it, she got involved with a wrong case, got drafted to the OCD, started educating herself and rose through the ranks.

OCD detectives are generally expected to follow and uphold the same laws as the regular officers. There are just more specific and not widely known laws and regulations defining how those laws apply to supernatural beings and powers. Vampiric feeding is not an assault if the vampire is a registered inhabitant and the person fed from did not suffer harm greater than minor blood loss. Love potions are illegal and their creation and possession are crimes. And so on.

But when dealing with supernatural powers and beings, the situation may come that seems to fall outside the normal laws. In such a case, the detectives are expected to use their own judgment. But when doing so, they are encouraged to remember the original, traditional principles that supernatural law enforcers worked by.

[[Supernatural_Law:Peelian_Principles|The Peelian Principles. ]]