What law enforcement roles could super-powered humans play in a grounded/realistic setting? [closed]

Question

Imagine an alternate version of 2021 where there are humans with special abilities. There exist those with super-strength, flight, pyrokinesis, your standard comic book powers, but semi-grounded in reality. I would imagine most people, even with incredible abilities, would choose to lead normal lives. But what about those that wish to use their abilities for the good of others? To fight crime?

A vigilante hero is just as likely to get arrested themselves and face jail time. Unless they have an ability granting them invulnerability, they would be likely to get shot in the back if attempting to evade police capture.

If a legally sanctioned super-powered team were formed, how would they operate? Would they be small strike forces put together to assassinate super-powered dictators? Considering the fact that being super-strong means that you could toss henchmen around like ragdolls but it wouldn't prevent one of them from popping you in the back of the skull, would they carry firearms to support their ability? Would they be decked out in full protective gear like a soldier?

Or maybe they wouldn't fight crime at all. In a semi-realistic setting, would it be better to use powered individuals to act during natural disasters? Maybe someone who could fly would be used to carry people to safety during hurricane? Would a pyromancer be used to make controlled fires to fight against forest fires?

Answer 1

Super-powers are so different that answers could easily become opinion-based. I suppose that right answer would be it depends.

1. Depending on how many (and how often) 'evil heroes' choose to commit clear crimes, you need squad of 'good heroes' (in each continent/country/state/city) or don't need at all.
2. Depending on how often evils become dictators, you need 'anti-dictator squad' ( - New dictator alert. - Yeah, second this month. - Let's go) or do nothing just because it would be intervention to another country. ( UN released 4th sanction against evil dictator)
3. Depending on super-power nature, hero could be effective as support, as assault squad, as detective, as interrogator or as legitimate killer (because power is too powerful).
4. Depending on public attitude to different aspects (super-power in common, violence and super-power, individual hero) it could be clear positions like 'junior hero policeman' or hero could be undercover agent only.

And many other "Depending on".

Answer 2

A Few Good Men:

I'm going to guess that the biggest use for supers with unsubtle superpowers is to recruit them as special forces for the military and the CIA (or the equivalent organizations). Both of these kinds of organizations would have the need to insert a huge amount of force into a somewhat unpredictable environment to perform tasks needed by the government. From capturing or killing terrorists to clearing a fortified beach ahead of an assault force, they would have the perfect advantages. Their weapons would be undetectable, and they could appear completely innocuous. They could maneuver freely without the need for heavy equipment. Yet at the moment of need, tanks and jets, bunkers and squads of troops would simply and inexplicably die, explode, go insane or be crushed.

To do this, they would need the same kinds of skills and talents special forces operatives use. Despite special powers, if you can't fly, you'll need to be inserted by espionage or stealth. If you can get to someplace due to powers, you'll need the firepower of advanced weapons or bombs. And being able to turn your team invisible (even for short periods) would enable strategies that would otherwise be impossible. And the terror of strange attacks will be greater than any mere smart bomb blowing up a safehouse.

Being able to subdue people would be possibly the greatest power of all for this. Why destroy a tank if you can make the soldiers inside fall asleep? Paralyze everyone in a building, and spec ops troops WALK out with a living Osama Bin Laden, ready for interrogation by your mind readers. Teleport air bubbles of inside an enemy Leader, and he dies with no discernable cause. Stroke? Heart attack?

This doesn't even cover the spying potentials of people who have super-hearing, can teleport, read minds, or turn invisible.

The exact form would vary depending on the ability. But the CIA and delta force want you.

Answer 3

Match existing modern day roles with superpowers which would aid those roles.

The best way to explore that question is to list out roles that normal people already play in modern day police forces, and then to cross-match that with superpowers of the power ranking desired that match well with the role.

For example:

1. K9 officer - superpowers like Animal Empathy or even Animal Communication would work nicely. Not to mention if the officer themself had Enhanced Scent or was a Shapeshifter....
2. CSI officer - Enhanced Senses might be a boon or bane to this sort of position, but imagine if you have a Psychometric officer who can literally look into the past, or a Spirit Medium officer who can perceive and speak with spiritual entities lingering around the scene, or a Necromantic Enabler officer who can make the dead corpse speak.
3. Detective - an officer who can Tag and Trace suspects, Clairvoyant Senses to snese through walls (though getting a warrant for that is probably quite difficult), Spirit Companion to spy on or follow suspects are all possibilities.
4. SWAT team - officers who have great strength, defenses, ranged attacks, or crowd control abilities would be quite useful for this more offense oriented role.
5. Dispatcher - abilities dealing with communication or remote sensing would be well suited for this important coordination and information gathering based support position.
6. Intelligence Analyst - abilities relating to the memory or computer interfacing, as well as calculation and information processing would make for an excellent boost to this sort of position.

There are many more possibilities that would work well, as well as many more job types that law enforcement individuals are involved with than I have listed here.

Answer 4

Supers could be hugely helpful.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes

Not so much the supers with prehensile hair or the ones who can turn into laser beams. You want the really smart ones. The Sherlock Holmes stories are great (really great!) examples of how a superhuman intellect can perceive patterns that others cannot perceive, make connections, and solve crimes. This would especially be helpful with white collar crimes where law enforcement must have a large fund of knowledge, understand how the endeavor in question is supposed to work, know what questions to ask and how to ask them, and so on.

I get the impression that in law enforcement, a little brainpower can go a really long way. Or maybe that is because so many cop shows feature super insightful and perceptive cops. There are also some real life cops with super powers! https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/08/22/londons-super-recognizer-police-force

Answer 5

The big use of superheroes in policing would not be fights, unless you have some that can safely and swiftly stop fights.

Evidence is better. Your flying superhero flies over locations and reports back to HQ that he can see a fight going on here, and the police are on it. More valuable still are supersenses: I could smell blood, or arsenic, or what have you. I saw John Doe shoot Richard Roe even though I was a mile away. Telepathy would also be useful. Much consternation about how to handle reproducibility, no doubt.

Superheroes who can detect whether people are telling the truth would also be very useful.

Answer 6

Unless they create knee-jerk laws just for super powers, use of powers comes under a could pf different categories:

1. Use of force
2. Use of deadly force

The law is already quite clear on when those two are allowed: defense of yourself and of others.

Any use of powers will have to pass the "I felt my life was in danger" litmus test.

Any other authorized use of force obtained by various licenses (guard/security) and/or by being a member of some law enforcement organization (then they become responsible for your use of force).

Answer 7

The trouble with policing in the modern world is that even non-superhumans abuse their power and authority, often leaving people crippled or dead. The proliferation of SWAT teams and other heavy-handed tactics have made even once-routine-and-nonviolent interactions with cops a dangerous premise.

There is little use for heavily armored commandos to bust in some place and start screaming "DOWN ON THE GROUND NOW" and "DROP IT OR YOUR DEAD!". The scenarios where that's a valid or justifiable response are quite rare. Sure, if there's some sort of bank robbery with hostages it might be something you can support. Maybe. But those don't even happen all that much anymore (if they ever did). Haha, you'd be better off robbing convenience stores than banks (not alot of cash on hand in the age of the debit card). Things have changed.

But instead of seeing SWAT teams become part of history, we have more of them than ever. And they get used. To their full jackboot potential.

Only crazy people would want to add in laser vision and superhuman strength and pyrokinesis to that mix. It's already primed to explode with just rifles and body armor.

This is why we're starting to see quite a bit of the deconstruction of the superhero comics of the past. The Boys, Invincible, etc.

Heck, you even use the phrase "fighting crime"... what sort of psychopaths were our grandparents that they saw crime as some sort of war to be waged in our streets, in our homes? So many of these crimes are victimless, many more on top of those inherently non-violent.

You need to contemplate rather profoundly the premise of your question. Even if this is salvageable as a foundation for a story, the tone of it might need to undergo alot of work.