Government

After the United States of America fractured following World War III, the entity that formed out of the largest remainder became the American Federal Republic. The AFR forcibly unified the remnants of the USA and Canada, and currently stretches from the Dakotas to Maine, north to Ontario, and south to Oklahoma and the Mason-Dixon. The national capital is Omaha, Nebraska.

The AFR's policies are rather fascist in nature, and the MegaCorps have thrived in this environment. As a member of the AFR, the government of the Administrative Metroplex of Greater Chicago (known informally as the Greater Chicago Sprawl) is a relatively complex mess of bureaucratic overreach and corporate self-interest, emulating the AFR perfectly.

Executive and Legislative

With nineteen zones covering thousands of square miles, the Greater Chicago Sprawl is a beast to administer. As the head executive body of the Sprawl, slaying this beast falls to the Metroplex Mayoral Council. Each of the administrative zones has a Zone Mayor, who sits the Metroplex Mayoral Council and legislates issues in the Sprawl. This Council is chaired by the Council Mayor, who is elected from among the zones. The Council Mayor is the Chief Mayor of Chicago and has powers similar to that of a Governor of the old USA. To complete the Metroplex Mayoral Council, a rep from the MegaCorp Council is also present, who has a full vote on all matters pertaining to corporate interests within the borders of the Sprawl.

Each of the Zones also has a Zone Council, which are chaired by the Deputy Zone Mayor and representatives of the sub-zones (divided fairly by population), including representatives from the MegaCorp Council for any corporations that reside within that zone. 

As the megacorporation that rebuilt Chicago after World War III, a representative of New Edison is the permanent chair of the MegaCorp Council. Corporations headquartered within the Chicago Sprawl get two full votes on the MegaCorp Council, while corporations who have subsidiary interests get one vote. The MegaCorp Council is also responsible for the Greater Chamber of Commerce, which is made up of all of the smaller business interests within the Chicago Sprawl. A representative from GCOC sits on the MegaCorp Council and receives one vote.

The O'Hare Military District (also called Fort O'Hare) is the only district of note to not fall under the control of the Metroplex Mayoral Council. Commanded by General James Cooper who answers directly to the Secretary of Defense in Omaha, the O'Hare Military District serves multiple functions after the events of World War III. A mainland Army base and supply depot, Fort O'Hare houses thousands of troops in the event a threat from the western reaches rears its head. The military also coordinates all air travel into and out of the Chicago Sprawl, as the O'Hare Air and Space Port resides within the district, in an area accessible by all but under tight military control. There are even rumors of a nuclear arsenal that lie within the restrictive borders of the Fort. 

Judicial

With Executive and Legislative functions given solely to the Metroplex Mayoral Council, Judicial functions fall to one of four courts within the Sprawl. At the top of the list lies the Metroplex of Chicago Supreme Court (MOCSC). MOCSC is the court of last resort for all civil and criminal matters, including questions of whether extraterritoriality can be claimed if a crime falls within corporate borders. There are eight associate justices and one Chief Justice that sit on the court.

The predominate court of Chicago is the Zone Court. A single Zone Court resides in the administrative complex of each Zone, usually near the meeting place of the Zone Council. The smallest Zone Court has over one hundred judges. Zone Courts handle nearly all matters civil and criminal and forward cases to the MOCSC that have appeals filed on them.

In the AFR, the Corporate Court has less power than in other parts of the world. Still, this arbitral body has authority over extraterritorial megacorporations and handles civil and criminal matters that arise within the territory they claim. As mentioned before, MOCSC has authority over whether extraterritoriality applies when there is an appeal to the authority of the Corporate Court.

A lower body to the Corporate Court, the Corporate Repossession Court handles all matters pertaining to ownership of property (including living beings and indentured servants). If a citizen of the AFR borrows money to purchase goods or services provided by a megacorporation (and to be honest, who hasn't?) and then fail to pay on that loan, the Corporate Repossession Court will evaluate the evidence and mete out equitable judgment (usually equitable to everybody except the citizen). While a citizen placed into indentured servitude does not lose their citizenship, they do become property of the corporation they are indebted to until a time the debt is paid off.

Public Services

While most Public Services in the AFR have been taken over by private interests, the Metroplex of Greater Chicago still provides several services to citizens to account for all of the taxes they collect. 

The sprawl contracts with three corporations to provide Fire Services to the individual zones. These Fire Services are all local Chicago corporations: Blaze Incorporated, Elemental Restoration Services, and Inferno Ltd. Each of these corporations are well equipped for dealing with the numerous high rises within the sprawl and provide a wide range of services within their contracts to the zones.

Police Services are provided by the Greater Chicago Police Department, a force of thousands of trained officers. Still with thousands of officers, they only are able to deal with 23% of the calls that come in on any given day. Emergency Dispatch is handled at the GCPD Command building, and officers are dispatched from their various Zone Commands. In times of extreme violence or civil unrest (usually during riots or protests, but also during GCPD union strikes), the GCPD have a standing force multiplier contract with Ravenlocke Security to double the number of officers on the ground. The Council Mayor and the Police Chief both have the authority to activate this contract. On the waterfront, Port Wardens are a branch of the GCPD with drone boats and authority over the entirety of Lake Michigan. They also manage the non-corporate docks around the great lake. To combat Cyberpsychos, the GCPD also operates the Cyberterrorist Unit, providing them with the best equipment on the market so they can take out cyborgs and heavily cybered individuals.

In MegaCorp controlled zones, Corporate Police patrol various facilities and corp owned neighborhoods. Calls for assistance will go to the various Security teams in their employ and investigations will be handled in due course. Corporate Police are generally better equipped for dealing with industrial espionage incursions than the GCPD. Any arrests brought by Corporate Police are then handed up to Corporate Court for trial instead of the Zone Courts, unless the court ends up before the MOCSC. 

The AFR employs several federalized Peace Officers, called Federal Judges (or Judges for short). Admittedly, this is a bit of a misnomer as the Federal Judges do not sit a bench in the Judicial branch. They do wield some power in that effect though, as they are Elite Detectives and AFR law experts who can bypass regular and corporate courts to dispense justice, in some cases, by execution. When they call in for backup, any nearby units regardless of extraterritoriality or jurisdiction are required by law to respond. Judges can also deputize citizens in good standing (or poor standing, at their discretion) to assist in carrying out their duties. All Judges are full cyborgs and the Chicago Sprawl only has five in residence. Federal Judges hold jurisdiction over civil, corporate and military personnel and crossing them is not wise.

In the event of illness or injury, the Greater Chicago Sprawl also operates Emergency Medical Services. While each hospital is an independent (and often corporate) entity who hires their own paramedics and maintains specific health contracts, in times of need the Metroplex Mayoral Council can federalize all hospitals and medical companies into providing their services for little to no cost. The Corporations realize this is the cost of doing business in the Chicago Sprawl, and the terms of this arrangement have only been invoked three times, twice during widespread riots and a third time during a weaponized bacteria outbreak.

It is of note, that Armed Medical Intervention companies such as Trauma Team International, Dynalar Medical Services, Sarkissian Medical Intervention, and Chicago Area Rapid Medical Assistance also fall under the purview of this contract and if activated must act as directed by the Metroplex Mayoral Council or have their operating licenses revoked.

Government ID

By 2100, the AFR issues a universal government ID called the Unicard (also known as the Show-Me in Chicago, after a popular local TV show). This card is linked to your birth certificate, social security card, driver's license, voter registration, and passport. It also contains digital records of your finger prints, your retinal print, your criminal record, a list of your implanted cyberware and their associated serial numbers, and your DNA. The Unicard is a physical card that's usually carried around everywhere, although the information can be cybernetically implanted (usually on the wrist or behind an ear) or stored in your Agent (phone) so that you don't have to worry about losing the card. Failure to produce your Unicard in an approved format when asked by authorities is enough cause to get you arrested in Chicago. The address needs to be updated after every move, and the photo needs to updated every 10 years or after any major cyberware install or bodysculpt.

Unicard spoofing and forging is a crime punishable by up to 25 years imprisonment. That said, the best netrunners make a brisk trade by hacking into the AFR Citizenship Database to alter an existing record. Generating all new records for an adult will flag on anybody except through a granted citizenship request, which requires additional spoofed paperwork and money trails. The majority of fake Unicards are of newly minted AFR citizens or are just bad jobs that will get someone arrested the first time they are run. Deleting records is also difficult as they are regenerated from backup by Expert systems. The only way to delete a record is to pay a netrunner to hack into the local Citizen's Registrar network and create a certified death certificate, which will immediately invalidate the associated Unicard.

Unicard Ghosts are living individuals who have a certified death certificate on file but no replacement Unicard. These individuals exist and usually live in squalor as no bank, school, or authority recognizes them as citizens. Unicard Ghosts who are captured by local authorities get to go through the hassle of proving who they from inside a Federal prison. 

If you work for a Megacorporation with extraterritoriality, your unicard will have a holographic stamp and additional implanted records corresponding to your joint citizenship.