Dressed in a sharp, navy blue pin-striped suit, Captain Jeremiah Xuanzang of the Hathian Police Department appears to have no issue with commanding the attention of the room. By pure stature alone, the 30-year-old Xuanzang towers over most others in the room–or any room. Working from his second floor office at HPD headquarters on a recent Sunday afternoon, the HPD’s effective commander sat down with The Hathian Observer for an exclusive interview. While dining on a lavish spread and sipping on expensive champagne, Xuanzang discussed his plans for the city’s police force.
Hathian Observer (HO): “For readers who are unfamiliar with you, can you please provide your background in law enforcement?”
Captain Jeremiah Xuanzang (JX): “I started in law enforcement at the age of 19, when I was hired on by a private investigator back in New Jersey. We worked a great deal with a number of law enforcement agencies throughout northern and central New Jersey. Between the Trenton and Newark PDs alone, we were kept more than busy. It worked well with my studies in criminology, however.
After I graduated college I traveled to China for familial reasons, and took a job with the Public Security Bureau of Chongqing, the Chinese equivalent of a Police Department and a few other entities. I worked there for the next seven years, and achieved the rank of Inspector, 2nd class, before finally returning to the United States, and Hathian.
Once here, I started off how we all do, as a Rookie. I worked my way up through the ranks with solid police work, eventually receiving an assignment in the MCU where I could utilize my investigative talents and knowledge. With some hard work, and dedication, I proved myself an invaluable asset to the people in charge, and over the last couple of months I shot up through the ranks until attaining my current station.”
HO: “As the effective operational commander of the HPD, can you please describe what changes you intend to bring to the Department?”
JX: “Change has been a large portion of my discussions with the HPD Brass. The HPD is a fantastic organization, but as with most things, there are areas for improvement. For a start, I plan on taking the Hathian Officers Training Program, what we call H.O.T.P., and expanding it. More extensive training internally, from non-lethal methods to detain a suspect, crime scene processing, appropriate victim care, all the way to cross training with FDH on first aid and disaster preparedness.
I would also like to start a community outreach program, working with local businesses to ensure the needs of our community are being met. We’ve already started that one, actually, with a program working with Dean Inkpen of Columtreal University to provide protection to classes in session while they work to get their own security detail up and running. An important part of any leadership position is to make changes because they’re a benefit, and because they work… not because you can.”
HO: “In your view, what are some of the major problems confronting the city and how do you intend to contend with those issues?”
JX: “Hathian certainly has it’s share of problems. The recent upswing of violence on the CU [Columtreal] campus is one, certainly, but we’re working closely with CU to put a stop to it, as I mentioned a moment ago. The people of Hathian in general, though, are in a difficult situation. They’re faced, daily, with gangs and the whole range of crime that they bring with them.
The HPD is frequently attacked, verbally and via social media, by criminals and gang members dissatisfied with having been caught. Unfortunately for all of us, these individuals are often loud, or charismatic… and the confusion it brings up in the minds of the people of this fine city can lead them into trouble, and before long they find themselves shoulder to shoulder with the person who raped their sister and another that bombs innocent doctors and emergency workers. This, of course, is largely due to their lack of knowledge.
To combat that, we’ve initiated a campaign for all of the people of Hathian to soften the public image of the HPD, so that when someone has a problem, they know that they can come to us [and] that we care. And so that when one of those blusterous gang members starts spouting their nonsense, people see it for what it is, slander designed to confuse their minds.”
HO: “There are some individuals who have accused the department of corruption. Why do you think that is?”
JX: “This is, I’m afraid, a violent city, and while the HPD has no desire to meet that violence with even more, there are times when it’s required in order to maintain the peace. A large part, certainly, is that previously mentioned confusion cast about by the gangs, and even those unaffiliated criminals. No one likes to have their plans disrupted–it tends to make them angry–but believe me when I say that if their plan was for a friendly picnic, or to feed the homeless, we’d be right there, making them safe, or helping with the dishes afterwards. That’s never their plan, though. Generally it’s revenge for some minor slight, to prove themselves to their peers with a childish display of violence, or, as was the case recently, with lining their pockets by selling children…children…to the highest bidder.
Our track record speaks for itself, though. That human trafficking organization recently dissolved after it’s leader invited a member of the HPD to a meeting. In hopes of apprehending the individual, our brave officer went there with the best of intentions, and quickly found themselves in a shootout. Thanks to our rigorous training, however, he prevailed. The gang leader in question, however, was not so lucky. The end result in that instance was the freedom of some fifty children. I believe twelve of whom were infants, all of which were given treatment and exams by HGH, and have since found their way to a Half-Way house for lost children, and the search has begun for their families.
We’re a single entity. When faced with such deplorable crimes, it’s often easier for people to blame us for not stopping them all, than to find enough rage for so many depraved criminals. We certainly can’t blame them for that. All we can do, is try to help them understand that we’re not their enemy. We’re here to keep them safe, and whether they hate us or love us, the HPD will be here, doing just that.”
