US Law Enforcement Response, Time, Scale and Coordination (Galveston, TX)

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

~20 minutes is probably a good response time for most urban police unless the local police were already on alert. If the victims are high profile or other police, or if the incident is in a downtown area, you can probably halve the response time. If the police are on alert for a potential atrack, you could halve the response time again.

Well, Galveston PD are probably not specifically on the alert for a paramilitary ambush of an ambulance and the police squad car (or cars) escorting it. They and the Galveston County Sheriff are engaged in a huge investigation, kidnapping and six murders, which has been ongoing since the night before, but the kidnapper and his suspected accomplice are already in custody. There are other persons of interest in the case, an unknown male and the woman Gwen Delvano, but they might be only witnesses or tagentially related. At the moment we are, in play, the police have no special reason to assume that anyone connected to the murders is at all likely to attack police.

The person of interest they've just arrested, Gwen Delvano, is unarmed and has not been tied to any violent crime. At the moment, she is suspected of having a connection of some sort to Janus Eremus, the probable killer (already in custody), but she might as well be a potential victim as an accomplice. As for a possible third killer, his existence is purely hypothetical, based on eyewitness testimony of the probable killer having been seen with another man on the day before the murders.

Basically, Galveston PD and the Sheriff's Office are working overtime collecting evidence, formally identjfying the victims, chasing leads and trying to track down everyone who might have seen the killer around the period when forensics estimates time of death for the six victims, but most of them believe they already have their man and any other persons of interest will primarily be useful as witnesses (who might otherwise catch accessory charges).

Only those officers who think they are living in a movie would seriously expect that a squad of paramilitary sicarios would ambush them as they transport a person of interest in the case to a hospital. Frankly, the NPC in charge of the sicarios considers the idea insane, but given that he was told in no uncertain terms what his fate would be if he does not bring that person to his superiors, he is weighing the certain, grotesque doom that his mysterious masters visit on those who displease them against the almost certain death or imrpisonment that he invites by attacking US law enforcement in such a dramatic fashion.

As the NPC is smart, cool-headed, used to thinking on his feet and has relevant skills like Intelligence Analysis, Streetwise and Tactics, I wanted to see if there is even a practical way to escape to the mainland before the way is blocked by police roadblocks. If there is no way to escape, the NPC will try to flee from his vengeful masters rather than go through with a plan without any chance of success.

Obcious negatives include the stations for Galveston PD and the Sheriff's Office (as well as the County Jail) being located right next to Harborside Drive and any place chosen for the ambush probably being within a mile or two of these two police stations. Also, there doesn't seem to be any other way off the island that is practical for a group of strangers, just after midnight, than driving out over the causeway. Which pretty much makes it a race between the paramilitary shooters trying to get over bridge and leave I-45 on the mainland, where there are options for alternate routes, and the police response attempting to set up a roadblock at the exit to I-45 and the causeway.

If the sicarios do execute this ambush to rescue their target from police custody, the victims will include more than one EMT and more than one police officer. Gwen Delvano, removed with force from police custody, would also go from 'person of interest' to 'prime suspect' in not only the six outstanding murders and the kidnapping, but also of the homicides caused by the firefight where she escaped. It would obviously be a huge deal, a suspected mass murderer / serial killer escaping from custody through a paramilitary / terrorist style attack on an ambulance and police vehicles, complete with multiple officers down.

But no matter how important, it would still come as a shock and coordinating the official response would be harder, not easier, at least at first, by the numbers of responders wanting to contribute. Sheriffs and local PDs often do not share tactical radio frequencies and risk blue-on-blue incidents if everyone simply barges into a firefight at night. Adding several state and federal agencies to the mix will not help in the first few seconds and minutes, not until a chain of command, communication network and liason protocols are worked out.

Working out the distances, the shooters can make it over the causeway to the mainland in about ten minutes. Is that fast enough to outrun a police response to block it?

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Closing an connection to an interstate road is a completely different story. That usually requires permission from the governor of a state, as it could potentially be interfering with interstate commerce. At the best of times, you are probably talking an hour (local and state roads can be done with a call to the mayor/county comissioner, probably ~15 minutes). A blockade is a different story, as that assumes a temporary interruption of travel, and could be a reaction to a pursuit in progress).

I-45 is completely within Texas, but, of course, it is probably used for all sorts of interstate commerce.

It's a Friday night, actually just after midnight on the Saturday of December 29, 2018, and it's possible that residents and tourists staying in the Houston metropolitan area are still returning from bars and other entertainment on Galveston Island. The Moody Gardens close at 22:00, with their Festival of Lights, but there are no doubt entertainments which are open longer on the island. Most tourists probably stay in hotels in Galveston but Texas City and various suburbs of Houston might offer cheaper Christmas rates for hotel rooms or Airbnb.

Of course, if Galveston is like most harbors, road transports to and from the port mostly happens at night, so there might be significant truck traffick over the I-45.