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

[Varyon]

A problem I see with the TASER suggestion is timing. You need all (both?) EMT’s out of the ambulance, as well as all (up to 6) police officers out of their vehicles, and not actively talking to dispatch about the situation. You then need to incapacitate all (up to 9, although the EMT’s are lower risk) before any of them are able to radio for help or get a shot off (which the officers still at the crime scene are likely to report). I suspect OpFor doesn’t have that sort of coordination, particularly as it sounds kind of thrown-together-at-the-last-minute. And it may be SOP to have one officer stay in the vehicle in contact with dispatch in such a situation, which throws another wrench into things.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by hal

Icelander

How wedded to the idea of this shoot out are you? I can't help but think that the bad guy, if he has any intelligence, will go about the task entirely differently, and have a very high probability of success as well as doing it quietly enough that he can escape from under the noses of the police by moving at a sedate speed.

I'm not, at all. Raul, the suave leader of the OpFor and the representative of some mysterious Consortium, is aware that if he does not bring the woman using the name 'Gwen Delvano' to his masters within two days, unharmed and in good spirits, he will be hunted down by dark occult forces and killed in a terrifying, excruciatingly painful way.

As a result, Raul has been doing numerous things entirely foreign to his careful nature, simply because the risk of arrest after this is over is preferable to the near certainty of a horrible fate at the hands (tentacles?) of inhuman forces. He was always planning to rescue 'Gwen Delvano', but initially hoped to be able to use bribery or stealth. The sicarios were insurance, not the preferred solution. At first, Raul tried to reason with the PCs, offering them about twice the weight of their captive in gold for releasing her to him. The PCs, much to Raul's consternation, proved unwilling to entertain reasonable terms.

Upon discovering that the yacht where the PCs had 'Gwen Delvano' had security clearly beyond anything his men could deal with (more like a presidental security detail than anything else), Raul was forced to resort to desperate measures to prevent the PCs from simply sailing away with 'Gwen Delvano'. Raul determined that only by reporting to the police that 'Gwen Delvano', a person of interest in six murders committed the day before, was aboard the yacht Penemue could he ensure that the PCs had to relinguish her.

Now, Raul is aware, though the police are not, that 'Gwen Delvano' is a false identity, a name on a bank card. He also knows that the woman using the name is actually an accessory to multiple murders and clearly guilty of a kidnapping, even if the police are at the moment not sure whether she is victim, witness or perpetrator. So, Raul is aware that once 'Gwen Delvano' is arrested, she is not likely to leave custody for a few decades. Bail is unlikely in a serial killer and kidnapping case, especially once it becomes clear that the woman is living under a false identity and is, in fact, not a US citizen.

So Raul knows that what he did was desperate and, in fact, if he cannot come up with a plan for a rescue and escape with a 50% chance of success or better, he will simply leave Galveston, Texas, the US and probably civilized society, trying to find a way to avoid the doom his occult masters would visit on him. If I, after evaluating the facts that Raul should know, determine that there is no practical plan open to him, I will have him decide to have 'Ms. Delvano' take her chances.

Originally Posted by hal

Questions that need to be answered: Is Gwen, as a target, willing to cooperate or is she a hostile? If the former, life just got easier. If the latter, well, then it gets a wee bit harder, but since it is night time, it won't be impossible.

As far as Raul knows, she should be cooperative, if she is responsive. After all, in police custody, she can expect a chance at capital punishment and probably most of her life in prison. She should assume that Raul, whom she knows, is there on behalf of their mutual masters.

Originally Posted by hal

Is the knowledge of the path that Gwen's transport team having to travel known with certainty, or is there the potential that the transport team might miss the ambush point? If there is a certainty to where the ambush occurs, then the Bad guy who is leading all of this can do it quietly, use the EMT's habits against them, and overcome the Police escort with little in the way of a blaze of gunfire.

There's a 90-95% chance that anyone picking 'Gwen Delvano' up from the Penemue will choose this route, going up to around 98% or more if they are law enforcement or EMTs, because any alternate route would illegal as well as taking longer.

However, Raul has no way of knowing until just before the ambush whether his target is transported in a squad car or ambulance, if she's headed for the County Jail, UTMB TDCJ Hospital or some other ER, nor indeed whether whoever transport her is planning to continue down Broadway Street after the ambush site, if he means to merge onto the I-45 or if they will turn left on the 71st Street at the ambush site intersection.

Originally Posted by hal

Can the bad guy get his hands on tasers? Can he get his hands on at least Five vehicles? If you answer yes to the questions above, the new revised plan might go like this:

As far as I know, TASERs leave behind distinctive forensic residue designed to identify the weapon used, which will be registered to someone or, with the new TASER Pulse, automatically contacts law enforcement when fired.

All the same, I expect Tomás and Eduardo have legal stun weapons purchased in Dallas, for their regular jobs, and would have been capable of buying any stun weapon commonly available there. Igor also has a stun weapon.

Raul has access to the four rental sedans or SUVs that the sicarios rented in Dallas (should seat four to five in comfort, not stand out in traffic and be fairly powerful and handle well, e.g. some kind of fairly nice late model sedans or SUVs offered by rental places), two of the most mundane used cars possible to be used as surveillance vehicles (bought with cash over Craigslist amonth ago and with paperwork not yet filed), Igor's 16' box truck and a non-descript truck of similar size rented just outside Houston.

Originally Posted by hal

Three vehicles are made to plow into each other MOMENTS before the ambush. This creates an accident scene where the EMT's will happen to pass - more importantly, it will induce them to STOP. Gwen is not in a life threatening situation, while the so called staged accident will have real life people in need of help. That means the ambulance stops. The escorting police stop (assuming they were behind the ambulance in the first place). The "onlookers" start telling the cops "We saw the accident - the truck driver entered the intersection without stopping". That's when the Tasers come out...

Now - take out Gwen, move her to a vehicle, and leave the accident site.

Nice sedate pace, no cops killed, no gun fire, and a nicely extracted Gwen on her way to her fated destination.

If you need real blood, knock an innocent out, maybe leave them in the seat unbuckled as you ram into a car yourself, and presto, one instant victim in need of medical attention.

In the meantime? On the expressway, you have a car driver with his flashers on, pulled over on the side of the road as if disabled. The Bad guys get up to where he is, move the car they used initially for the extraction, leave it by the roadside and leave in the second car. Heck, they might even pour gasoline on the car behind, and torch it. Emergency vehicles like fire engines and such will race to the scene. That spetnaz guy? He could simply open fire on the firemen and their engine, their hoses, etc - and draw ALL attention to the burning car, withdraw on his own and leave quietly.

Or - as I suggested earlier - simply torch the car and move on.

The second car gets off nearby, goes to a parking lot, and a third car becomes the final get away vehicle.

That is probably what I'd want to do in such a way as to keep it low key and successful.

Yes, but until 15 minutes or so before the time when the ambush would have to be made, Raul did not know if an ambulance and EMTs would be present or not. Until five minutes before the ambush time, Raul did not know if 'Gwen Delvano' was completely unharmed (just wrongly reported unconscious), awake and apparently slightly concussed or unconscious and possibly in danger. He assumed she was not seriously hurt, because the PCs would probably have done something if she was, but until just before he has to make a decision on whether to execute or not, he has no meaningful data on her health.

Raul's ambush site and his preparations have to work regardless of whether his target is a healthy person in the back of a patrol car being transported to County Jail or an unconscious person in the back of a speeding ambulance headed for the ER. Fortunately, with a .50 BMG rifle with NVD optics, two NVD-equipped AR-15 type rifles, a truck ready to ram and two cars available for blocking, as well as ten other AR-15 rifles, Raul has more than one way available to stop a vehicle at this intersection.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by johndallman

I think you're right. A question on Raul's priorities if the mission is a failure: Is he to let Gwen be recaptured, or kill her? Or doesn't he have orders on that?

Well, anything less than bringing her back to his masters would be unimaginably horrifying for Raul and if he foresees failure, he'll do his best never to face his mysterious employers again. Also, spend the rest of his life in terror, hiding somewhere.

See, this is why one should, as a rule, not work for bosses that are inhuman, evil forces, let alone a Consortium of occult figures. The money is good and having serendipitious good luck and oracular pronouncements on your side makes it much easier to run a criminal enterprise, but what are you going to do when the Stars Are Right and all your hard work in building a profitable business is irrelevant beside the necessity of having the Ritual be carried out on time, by the right people?

I suppose if Raul had to run for his life because he couldn't see a way to success, he'd prefer 'Gwen Delvano' survived. He likes her and I suppose he imagines she'd rather live as a prisoner than die. Also, while failing to deliver her on time would be cause for him suffering a horrible death, Raul strongly suspects than anyone who killed 'Gwen Delvano' would suffer a fate worse than death.

[hal]

Based upon everything that I've seen thus far?

I honestly can't see there being an escort of more than ONE police car at that hour of the night. Again, why she's being taken into custody at night is something I don't know. But if she's deemed to be stable enough that there is no emergency, then any real emergency they happen upon, will likely be dealt with then and there. The police vehicle and its officers (at most, I can see 2, unless for some odd reason it takes more than 2 able bodied men to handle one woman?)

Blocking the way with an accident causes Gwen and escorts to very likely stop. If they fail to stop, then plan B is in place, and it goes from there.

In any event, the idea was tossed out there for you to use or not as you see fit. ;)

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Varyon

A problem I see with the TASER suggestion is timing. You need all (both?) EMT’s out of the ambulance, as well as all (up to 6) police officers out of their vehicles, and not actively talking to dispatch about the situation. You then need to incapacitate all (up to 9, although the EMT’s are lower risk) before any of them are able to radio for help or get a shot off (which the officers still at the crime scene are likely to report). I suspect OpFor doesn’t have that sort of coordination, particularly as it sounds kind of thrown-together-at-the-last-minute. And it may be SOP to have one officer stay in the vehicle in contact with dispatch in such a situation, which throws another wrench into things.

Just so.

Raul has to plan for anything from one Galveston PD patrol car with two officers transporting his target to the County Jail to a convoy of ambulance and several police vehices racing toward the ER with flashing sirens.

Granted, the odds favour either a single police vehicle or an ambulance escorted by a single police vehicle, but the point is, Raul can't confirm anything until 5-15 minutes before the ambush. And he has no way of knowing whether a police vehicle with a suspect in the back will stop because of a traffic accident. Likely enough, the officers would call it in, because they are already busy. The station is 1.3 miles away, another car, without a material witness in six homicides and a kidnapping in it, can be there once an ambulance arrives.

And even if they stop, where, exactly, do they stop? TASERs aren't guns. While 10-20 yards are point blank ranges with 5.56x45mm rifles, they are far out of range with stun weapons. Rifles shoot through glass windows, but TASERs don't. Basically, in order to get any benefit from the 'low-key' method, Raul would have to be confident in everything happening exactly to plan, law enforcement doing exactly what he wanted and his own men successfully executing a complex plan without a single failnote.

The kinetic assault Raul is considering has many flaws, but at least it can still succeed even if the occasional skill roll fails or someone does something unexpected. It's still far too risky under normal conditions, but given that Raul can expect horrible death if he doesn't rescue 'Gwen Delvano', he needs to explore every option and if he estimates a given plan has more than 50% chance of success, he'll do it.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by hal

Based upon everything that I've seen thus far?

I honestly can't see there being an escort of more than ONE police car at that hour of the night.

If she's taken to jail, only one car should go. If she is taken to hospital, the odds are that only one car will go, but given that Galveston PD and GCSO have vehicles at Penemue, there is a chance that both departments will want their investigators to get to talk to her, not to mention the credit of bringing her in.

Originally Posted by hal

Again, why she's being taken into custody at night is something I don't know.

Because even if she's perceived as likely to be a victim or witness, she's still someone who might have crucial information in the largest case Galveston PD and the GCSO have had in a long time, six murders and a kidnapping the day before.

Originally Posted by hal

But if she's deemed to be stable enough that there is no emergency, then any real emergency they happen upon, will likely be dealt with then and there. The police vehicle and its officers (at most, I can see 2, unless for some odd reason it takes more than 2 able bodied men to handle one woman?)

EMTs might stop at a road accident, but officers with an important witness/suspect in the car are not suposed to unless there is clearly some major danger they and only they can prevent. A fender bender won't cut it, it would have to be a massive smash that blocked all lanes and had someone seriously injured. Even then, with a suspect in the car, the officers aren't allowed to both leave it.

Unless police procedure is dramatically different, the answer I got from an Icelandic cop who has attended several training seminars in the US is that the patrol vebicle would keep driving if possible, but if not, stop without getting out, put on lights to prevent other cars from hitting the crash and wait for first responders who were actually free and able to act. Then drive on, hand the suspect over and after that, possibly go back.

Originally Posted by hal

Blocking the way with an accident causes Gwen and escorts to very likely stop. If they fail to stop, then plan B is in place, and it goes from there.

What Plan B?

If you crash three vehicles and injure several men, leaving the rest of them exposed on the street where they cannot carry visible weapons, you have much fewer resources in reserve to deal with unforeseen eventualities.

Raul plans to leave two men at the extraction point, to mind the getaway vehicles. He might want to upgrade this to three, to have one driver per getaway vehicle, in case they are compromised by responding police on the mainland or just by curious bystanders, and have to relocate. Raul also needs eyes on the Penemue, which means a vehicle there. As he needs a vehicle there anyway, most people work better when not alone and it's a fairly convenient spot to have a reaction force to deal with anyone coming from the Penemue (like the several cops who will not be escorting 'Gwen Delvano'), it makes sense to put a fire team of four there.

So, out of twelve sicarios, two security contractors and a Russian Spetsnaz sniper, Raul needs to deploy about half in support roles. He'll have a total of two fire teams available to place somewhere, a logistics element at the extraction point (one of his men and two sicarios) and the following specialists; Alberto the truck driver, Igor the Spetnaz sniper, Morena the best sharpshooter among the sicarios and Tomás, his own driver.

Assuming he uses a whole fire team to keep eyes on the Penemue, Raul has only about five shooters at the ambush site, as the rest are driving or performing other tasks.

Originally Posted by hal

In any event, the idea was tossed out there for you to use or not as you see fit. ;)

Oh, absolutely. And I'm searching for any reasonable alternative for Raul, because he does not want to do this, but it needs to be an alternative where even several mistakes, errors or instances of bad luck can occur and Raul would still have options.

[Varyon]

Given Raul has up to two days to complete his task, how would he fare - or I suppose how does he think he would fare - at breaking her out of the hospital? Obviously, he’s going to have an ambush ready in case she’s going straight to jail, but he can always abandon that once he knows she’s going to the hospital.

Granted, briefly looking up said hospital indicates it specializes in handling inmates, so it may be too well-protected to expect springing her from there to work.

[Verjigorm]

Originally Posted by Icelander

To prevent the Russian from needing to stop in order to engage, it would be awesome if he could open the rear doors of his box truck and have a fairly stable firing platform for engaging anyone following him. Moving atound some boxes to make a sniper's hide inside the box truck is easy, but can someone with Machinist and Mechanic (Automobile) at 12-14 somehow fix rear doors so that once opened while at any speed, they fall away backwards, so that they wouldn't flap around and interfere with shooting?

If so, how long would it take and what tools would one need?

So, this is something I have a lot of practical knowledge on: i've spent almost half my life unloading and loading trucks for a living. Spent a lot of time inside trucks. The first problem is that almost all of these vehicles are not designed to have people inside the cargo compartment, and you can't open the doors from inside. If you've e er seen the american stoner comedy "Super Troopers", that's a critical part of the plot, where two of the Highway Patrolmen are locked inside a trailer by a drug smuggler.

The next thing: Most box trucks have switched to roll-up doors, rather than swing doors. I don't want to bore you, but there's all sorts of practical reasons why this switch has occurred. If you're not absolutely wedded to swing doors, I'd advise using a roll-up door instead: they're just more practical, and they're going to make adapting the doors to open from the inside and stay secured much simpler and easier.

If we go with a roll up door, then the simple solution is to remove the locking handle from the door, and mount three cargo straps to the door. Two are screwed down to the floor on either side of the door, and then screwed to the door itself. They secure the door and keep it from rolling up until needed, and you can do this from the inside. Alternatively, you could use a single strap in the center. However, by mounting them at the sides, you reduce the risk of jamming the tracks of the door, and you don't have a strap flapping down in the middle of the target area.

The third strap is attached to the top of the door, again, using screws, and secures the door so it won't roll down in transit.

Total time needed? Probably an hour or two. Tools needed? A good electric drill with the proper bits for the screws on the door handle, and whatever you're going to use to screw the ratchet straps down with.

A swing door operation is a bit trickier, but it's still going to hinge on removing the door handle, and straps. You're going to want a latch of some sort on the inside of the doors. The straps would be attached to the doors on the outside, wrap around the sides, and go into small holes you'd have to cut into the sides of the box. You flip the latch, shove the doors open, and then pull the straps tight to pin them against the sides of the truck. Still, it's less elegant than the roll door.

[maximara]

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.

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).

Interstate 40 is also U.S. Highway 87 so someone (especially if they are under pressure) could say it technically falls under the mayor/county commissioner for that stretch.

[Anthony]

Incidentally, bear in mind when trying to shoot a pursuing vehicle at night: everything but the lights (headlights and flashers) is functionally invisible, and night vision will not help. That's fine if your plan is to shoot at the lights or the vehicle body, not fine if you want to do anything more precise.