The United States Police Force (USPF) is the American government's militarized federal-level police force, created shortly after a drastic increase in crime following a world war. The USPF is also responsible for imprisoning criminals in Manhattan Island Maximum Security Prison in New York and, later on, once the police state from the first film evolves into the theocracy seen in the second, deporting "moral criminals" to Los Angeles Island.
This federal law enforcement agency seems to have largely replaced the mainly local police system previously employed by the country. While local departments still seem to exist, such as the Atlantic City Police Department, the USPF has become prominently present throughout the country, operating as a middle ground between a police and military force. Their activities range from protecting the president and high-value figures, to guarding the city-prisons, and most prominently, to aggressively crack down on the rampant criminal activity that began during or shortly after the start of World War 3
Original logo of the United States Police Force
Logo as of 2013, Theocratic State.
USPF officers
History and Role[]
Escape From New York[]
The USPF was formed in 1991, three years after the crime rate had risen over four hundred percent during a war between the United States and a coalition consisting of the Soviet Union and China. In the first film, it is implied to have been founded as a highly militarized, highly centralized, federal-level police force, as a countermeasure to the deteriorating security of the United States. They are shown to operate nationwide, presumably assuming the duties of and replacing previous local and federal law enforcement agencies. However, their main role in the film is guarding the massive prison that New York has been turned into, patrolling its borders via land and helicopters and dissuading or neutralizing any potential escapees. They are also implied to be highly despotic, along with the government itself.
Escape From L.A.[]
By the events of the second film, the already-dystopian police state of the first film is suddenly transformed into an authoritarian theocracy, when a fundamentalist presidential candidate correctly predicts that an earthquake would strike and destroy Los Angeles and separate it from the mainland, claiming this to be God's judgement and using it to win the election. Upon assuming a lifetime term of office, for which the constitution was amended, the newly elected president-for-life enacts several strict religious fundamentalist "morality laws" forbidding several things, including, but not limited to drinking, smoking, profanity, atheism, premarital sex, or non-Christianity. The USPF, already wielding unprecedented power for an American law enforcement agency by the time of the first film, sees its role vastly expanded as it is now tasked with enforcing these morality laws, arresting violators and deporting them to the ruins of Los Angeles, which have been turned into a massive prison like those of New York. Their logo also changes by the time of the second film, being replaced by a more fascistic looking symbol of an eagle and lacking the red-white-blue color of the American flag. While they retain their vastly expanded duties as a federal-level nationwide police force, they are also implied to have a new role in as a sort of "morality police".
They are also shown to be quite brutal in their treatment of these supposed "moral criminals", violently herding them into the deportation processing center and forcing them to watch as inmates who choose "repentance" and death via electric chair over being deported to the Island are executed.
Appearance[]
The standard uniform of USPF personnel in both Escape from New York and Escape from L.A. consists of a solid black tactical uniform with black leather combat boots (or black leather and nylon canvas Jungle Boots as see in in Escape from L.A.). Rank and file officers and soldiers are issued the black uniform as well as a black bulletproof vest and a black riot helmet with a tinted visor. Other than high figures within the force, most officers wear this sort of attire.
Weapons[]
The weapons used by the USPF vary in both films. In Escape From New York, USPF personnel were armed with M16 assault rifles without the triangular foregrip or fitted with a slender plastic foregrip. In Escape from L.A., USPF personnel were armed with FN FAL battle rifles with M203 40mm grenade launchers fitted under the barrel.
Known officers[]
- Commissioner Hauk
- Rehme
- Strombaerden
- Commander Malloy
- Lieutenant Brazen
- Gerhard
Behind the Scenes[]
Creation[]
The USPF were created by John Carpenter.