While the government has sold out to the corporations, the average beat cop still tries to serve and protect the public. Is there still room for such idealists in 2027? They like to think so.
Unfortunately, this puts some good-intentioned people in a place where they have to serve the dictates of the less-conscientious people in power. The problem facing the cops these days is that the kids are disrupting the peace, although through no fault of their own, and the job of the police force is to keep the peace. There’s nothing like seeing a kid double over in the middle of the street and vomit up a stream of silvery lunch to disrupt the cheerful veneer that covers life in 2027. Watching the stuff congeal into a shiny pseudo-pod and reach back into the kid’s panting mouth is even worse. Whether a public menace, a threat to public health, children in need of medical assistance, or just an unwanted disruption, the result is the same —send the police to round them up.
So what do the police do with the kids? They do what their boss tells them to do. If the city council says all infected kids must be transferred to BuReloc, over they go. If they must be delivered to the NoAhme Caldewell labs for, uh, disease control studies, over they go. Fortunately, the corporations can’t flagrantly violate the law in front of the noses of the police. And even when all the paperwork is in order, the police generally pursue the apprehension and delivery of children with somewhat less enthusiasm than do corporate or private pursuers. The exception, of course, are those municipalities that have had problems with violent nanotech-enhanced juvegangs. In these cities the police are noticeably less tolerant and compassionate.
Over all, though, the police are not a bad group to get chased by, for the simple reason that they don’t like turning kids over to people they don’t trust. In other words, if they don’t give you a chance to escape, it ought to be pretty easy for you to make one.