You can

“I absolutely can,” you smile, “Thanks for confirming.”

You stay ‘in uniform’ and run to the local police station. Passing a school zone, the sign clocks you at thirty miles an hour; two miles and you're not even breathing hard on arrival. Super speed may not be your thing, but you're certainly fast.

The station itself resembles a small office building more than anything else: It's four stories tall and has an attached mechanics garage, an impound yard, a couple cop cars, and a visitor parking lot: A simple blocky building with a lot of concrete. You've studied how to do this, so know roughly what to expect… but as your Dad always says: “What the law says, what policy says, what the contract says, what the sales guy says, what the customers hear, what the workers do, what the inspectors do, and what the courts do don't always line up.” Study gave you some idea what to expect… but there's always going to be variation.

So you walk into the limited front desk area: A square room maybe twenty feet on a side, with the outside door, an inside door, several chairs, cameras and speakers in the corners, and bankers’ glass between the room and a receptionist in police blues in an adjacent room. He looks up as you approach, considering, and speaks up as you take a breath, “Hero patrol? I haven't seen you before.”

Real names are not legally required for this, so you answer with your chosen hero name, “Yes, and this will be my first. I'm Anvil.”

“No mask, a refreshing change of pace,” he doesn't seem to realize it isn't your face. “Okay, let's get you set up…” he pulls out a clipboard, attaches a piece of paper and a pen, and slides it through a pass-through box under the window, “Standard oath is on the page, sign it and we'll get you a recorder and radio. Rules boil down to ‘Obvious and serious crimes only, announce your intent clearly, give people a chance to surrender, no serious injuries, keep the camera running, and obey the operator.’ Someone screams for help, you see a **** or mugging in progress, or an armed robbery? That's your cue. Jaywalker, speeding car, improperly parked vehicle, B&E on a closed shop? If there's not an immediate threat to someone's life or limb, it's not your problem. Watch if you want, flag dispatch if you want, worst case scenario the guys reviewing the footage will look into it later… but it is not your problem unless we ask, and your involvement is strictly voluntary: Don't think you can handle it? Don't touch it. When you're done for the night, bring the camera and radio back here. Got it?”

“Yes sir,” you agree as you read and sign the oath with your hero name. The paper basically boils down to “I'm doing this of my own free will, I understand and accept the risks, and I'll be a good person.” You pass the clipboard back through the box under the window, the man looks it over, nods, and passes the gear through. You take a moment to look at it: A five pound black brick with an external antenna coated in some black plastic, an earpiece wired to the same, a harness, and something that looks like a mechanical eye stalk ending in a gamer's die where every other face has a camera lens.

At your look of confusion, the man speaks up, “New model, got ‘em in last week. The ‘eye stalk’ mounts to the right or left shoulder of the harness at your preference. It gives a three hundred sixty degree view from a point a little over your head. You'll need to duck a little more than normal when going through doors, but it's supposed to stay out of your way, more or less. The earpiece should let you hear without giving away that you're there. Dispatch gets a constant audio feed plus GPS updates, and can pull video live if needed… but video eats a lot of bandwidth, so they generally won't. Runs for sixteen hours on a single charge, which matches the recording capabilities. It's already on. At the end of the patrol, dispatch reviews the video at high speed, preserving anything they flagged earlier or that catches their interest. Rest gets archived for thirty days, then deleted. Oh, and don't worry about radio discipline, you're on a dedicated channel.”

“Thank you…” you nod and get started. It takes a couple minutes for you to figure out the harness… and it looks a little silly when you're done - a black brick at your waist, the wire to your ear, and the eye stalk sticking out incongruously, but it fits well enough over your uniform. You then leave to patrol, not having gone past that front room.

Your police handler speaks up as you do, “Anvil, was it?” A woman's voice, which moves on before waiting for a reply, “I'm Carla, your Jiminy Cricket for the night. Is this your first patrol?”

“Yes,” you consider, “So you're my conscience?”

“More or less, Sugar,” the voice chuckles, “I'm tasked with keeping you on the straight and narrow… which is particularly amusing as the best patrols take random routes.”

“So how does this work, exactly?” You ask.

“Oh, you just run around looking impressive and being very visible,” the somewhat southern voice on the radio responds, “taking a very different and unpredictable route each time, Sugar. If all goes well, it's going to be nice and boring.”

“Standard deterrence strategy,” the Ring whispers approvingly.

“Deterrence?” You ask.

“Ah, you know the word,” the radio operator answers.

“Yes, but I'm not clear on exactly how it works,” you improvise.

“Eh, it's not rocket science…” Carla chuckles, “All right, so… crooks don't want to get caught and go to prison, right?”

“Right,” you answer as you take off running at traffic speeds.

“Left at fifth, and slow down to a walk when you hit Alderbrook, please,” the handle chuckles, “so if you're thinking you'll maybe commit a crime, but you think you'll get caught, are you going to commit it?”

“Probably not, no…” you answer, considering as you run. Ah, there's fifth… left it is.

“All right… now, if you just saw a hero walk by, what happens to your estimation of your odds of getting caught if you commit a crime?” The woman chuckles.

“I'm then more likely to get caught…” you consider, “...so I'm less likely to do the crime in the first place.”

“Perfect marks, Sugar,” the woman's a little annoying… “now, which is better: Catching a crook in the act and taking them in, or preventing them from ever committing the crime in the first place?”

“Preventing them,” you answer easily, “no victim, the potential perpetrator has another chance to do something useful instead, no court costs, no jail costs… it's a win all around.”

“That's right sugar,” the radio operator chuckles, “And that's deterrence. It doesn't work perfectly, but when you capes run around and make yourselves seen, crime drops noticeably. You don't need to touch anyone to do good. Remember that.”

Ah, there's Alderbrook: You slowly down…