The moment he heard there really were "tricky matters" at this police station, Shiraishi perked up.
Seeing Shiraishi's expression of "I'd like to hear the details," Ebihara did not beat around the bush and explained directly, "The first matter... is the safety of the station's official vehicles!"
Ebihara's expression was extremely serious as he said this.
Shiraishi immediately took it seriously as well.
Police cars had safety issues?
Could it be...
The police cars at Beika Police Station had been fitted with bombs?
Hiss... truly worthy of Beika Town!
Shiraishi had been a police officer for six years, and bombs had been planted in his own car twice. Fortunately, his [Perception] had been high enough for him to spot them in time, and his [Mental Strength] had been strong enough for him to react swiftly and save himself calmly...
That was why he had survived unscathed!
Still, hearing about something like this left Shiraishi deeply surprised!
What kind of cases had those been when bombs were planted on him?
Back when Shiraishi had transferred to the Organized Crime Department, the Tokyo Anti-Boryokudan Act had just been introduced. The Organized Crime Countermeasures Section had only recently become the Organized Crime Department, and restrictions on Violent Organizations had grown stricter. Odagiri Toshiro had thought highly of Shiraishi and brought him over as well...
It could be said that Shiraishi's main career had consisted of dealing devastating blows to those Violent Organizations!
Especially during the first two years, there had been countless clashes. Those organizations generally had higher-ups backing them, while Shiraishi had been rather aggressive, often pushing his targets into desperate corners...
"Could it have been one of the groups?" Shiraishi's face darkened.
The Anti-Boryokudan Act had been in effect for years now. The major Violent Organizations had all shrunk in size, and few young people joined them anymore. Shiraishi had thought that in a few more years, those so-called Violent Organizations would consist of nothing but old men poking each other's urine bags...
Who would have thought that tiny Beika Town still had such militant factions?
The moment Shiraishi heard that, he was energized.
After all... he was a professional when it came to dealing with Violent Organizations!
But...
"A group? No, no... it's our own problem." Ebihara immediately shook his head.
"Huh?" Shiraishi froze—was the station's internal atmosphere really this bad?
"Those brats these days... especially those troublesome fellows in the Criminal Affairs Division, are always careless when they drive! The fines and repair costs are secondary. The main thing is... you're young, so you know how it is. This is the information age! Once an official vehicle breaks traffic laws, civilians will definitely film it and upload it online...
"As a result, not only do I frequently have to go to TV stations to record apology videos, but I also get scolded by the Area Chief Superintendent at the monthly chiefs' meeting. This old face of mine... tsk, tsk." Ebihara spoke with some resentment.
Shiraishi: ...
So the huge problem he had meant was that the station's official vehicles committed too many traffic violations?
Oh, what a coincidence. Another patrol car hit someone this morning...
After thinking it over, Shiraishi decided not to tell Ebihara that bad news just yet.
"Th-That truly is unacceptable... I wonder what the other two matters are?" Shiraishi asked stiffly.
This was unfamiliar territory for Shiraishi. A month ago, he had been fighting more than a hundred rioters by himself, and now he was supposed to manage the station's official vehicle violation rate... that was a little beyond his expertise!
He could only hope the other two matters would be different...
"There's also... sigh, a Police Dog Officer passed away last month." Ebihara's mood sank somewhat.
"Huh? Was he... killed in the line of duty?" Shiraishi froze. Though Ebihara had said "passed away," he still called him an "officer," which clearly meant he had been an active-duty member. It was just... a strange surname? A one-character surname, Dog?
But if an active-duty officer had died in the line of duty and the case remained unsolved, then this truly was no small problem!
"No, no, no. It was a natural death. After all, Police Dog Officers generally have much shorter lifespans than their peers..." Ebihara hurriedly explained.
Shiraishi: ???
"Oh, Chief Shiraishi may not know this, but we're used to calling police dogs Police Dog Officers... haha, they're all rather picky fellows, after all." Noticing Shiraishi's odd expression, Ebihara offered an explanation.
Shiraishi: ...
Indeed, Shiraishi was rather unfamiliar with this.
The Metropolitan Police Department also had a dedicated Police Dog Unit under the Security Bureau, Security Division 2, but... Shiraishi had rarely worked with them!
On the Organized Crime Department's side, the General Affairs Division was mainly responsible for Narcotics Countermeasures, and they often needed assistance from the Police Dog Unit.
As for departments like Organized Crime Unit 3, which handled direct confrontations, they rarely needed police dogs. Especially in recent years, even when they occasionally needed to search for dangerous items... Shiraishi's nose was more useful than a police dog's!
"Our station originally had four police dogs. They were all family. The one who died last month was the father, and now the mother, daughter, and son are all in low spirits... Ahem, of course, time can heal this, and it isn't affecting work for now." Seeing that Shiraishi was already speechless, Ebihara finally trailed off dejectedly.
Mm, even if it did affect work, there was nothing Shiraishi could do about a Police Dog Officer being depressed over a family member's death!
He could hardly sniff around personally as the station chief, could he?
"The last matter... Mm..." As Ebihara spoke, he glanced at Murasaki.
Vice Chief Murasaki stood up with a face full of guilt. "It is my failure!"
"Mm?" Shiraishi looked at Murasaki in confusion—he hoped the last matter was not something like Vice Chief Murasaki being depressed over hair loss.
"In recent years, Beika Police Station has consistently ranked at the bottom among the stations under the Metropolitan Police Department in arrest competitions and shooting competitions... especially in the arrest technique competition. Even those tiny stations rank ahead of us... It is my fault!" Murasaki was indeed deeply ashamed.
After all, Murasaki was responsible for physical fitness and martial arts training.
Yet Shiraishi was even more puzzled after hearing this—Murasaki seemed perfectly suited for this job!
And a major police station with more than five hundred people could not outperform small stations with only a few dozen officers?
By sheer numbers, Beika Police Station should have had an easier time selecting talented people, too, right?
"This matter cannot really be blamed on Vice Chief Murasaki." Ebihara spoke up to defend him.
Ebihara then explained, "I don't know what things are like over at the Organized Crime Department these days... but at local police stations like ours, officers tend to be quite rough when confronting criminals with force.
"Detectives also tend to rely on brute force. But this arrest competition is not an arena match—it tests skill in using Arrest Equipment. Shooting is even more so. I can't even remember the last time I approved the use of firearms. We simply do not use them in daily work. Many Detectives have only fired a gun at the Shooting Range...
"Whether one does well in these areas mainly depends on training time. The more one trains, the better the results will naturally be. And mobile unit members cannot participate, so it is not that Vice Chief Murasaki's training is flawed. It is that... Beika Police Station is simply too busy!
"Because our jurisdiction only has 320,000 residents, our station appears overstaffed. We were assigned so many people because of the pedestrian volume... but in reality, we still do not have nearly enough officers!
"Based on pedestrian volume, we should have another one or two hundred people. But because our jurisdiction has too few residents, they have never allowed us to expand our staffing. This means our officers often have to work overtime around the clock, especially patrol officers and Detectives...
"Although we arrange one session of Grappling Techniques and Equipment Use training each week for frontline officers, and also require shooting practice, it is still difficult to ensure effective training even after taking up what little rest time the officers have. We can't exactly demand that someone go through intense training immediately after finishing a night shift, can we?"
As Ebihara spoke, his expression was helpless as well—at its core, this was caused by insufficient manpower!
The problem was that adding staff was not something the police station itself could decide...
"Does Chief Shiraishi have any ideas?" Ebihara asked Shiraishi.
After a moment of silence, Shiraishi said, "So... can the station chief personally participate in this competition?"
Ebihara: ...
"This mainly evaluates the station's training conditions, so having the chief participate would probably..." Ebihara gave an awkward laugh—there was no explicit rule against it, but it would hardly reflect well on him if he competed personally!
"Then I have no ideas." Shiraishi shrugged.
Before you continue