The Galactic Police Initiative / GPI

Frustrated with the efficacy of the private police forces in Stanton and perceived lack of real aid in the system from the Advocacy, a collection of wealthy, crime-fearing citizens established what was then called the Stanton Police Initiative in 2949 on ArcCorp. Essentially a private military company, the stated mission of the organisation was to serve as a subcontractor for Stanton’s corporate police forces.
Elected as its first commissioner was a former Advocacy officer, but under his leadership SPI contractors were primarily selected from those that never made the cut for employment in the Advocacy or PMCs, and even officers terminated from duty for misconduct. Further training was put into effect, but the seminars encouraged fear and aggression towards criminals and the community. Stanton law enforcement began to shy away from using the Stanton Police Initiative to avoid courting controversy.
After two years the board fired the commissioner and in a controversial turn a Tevarin from Stronger Together was hired in his place. She immediately purged the SPI of any unsavoury contractors and sympathetic bureaucrats within the company, and instilled an ethos of accountability and community outreach. Mental health and vice support services were prominently established and holovids aired in the system were flanked by public service information courtesy of the company. Certification for contractors was made especially thorough and provided additional training, and hiring for permanent positions became a practice of sniping promising Advocacy recruits or even poaching from other companies. Over the course of a single year the SPI’s public and police force perception was turned around.
The Stanton Police Initiative was still a private military organisation at the end of the day, but with success combatting crime alongside Stanton’s police forces its agents began to enjoy a much better reputation with those organisations and the system’s community at large, culminating in a statement by the commissioner during a talk show interview where she derided police forces, historic and contemporary, as thugs providing security and maintaining the status quo for people in power. While this ruffled the feathers of police leadership and such implied powerful people, including the SPI’s own board, civilians and rank-and-file officers applauded the sentiment – even if it came from the beak of a Tevarin – cementing the SPI’s position in Stanton as a trustworthy force for the people and their allies in the field.
Despite their hesitation towards their maverick commissioner, once the board heard that she received promising correspondence from the Advocacy indicating potential work for the company beyond the reaches of Stanton, the savvy executives quickly voted to rebrand the business to the Galactic Police Initiative as it is known today.