(A) would wear uniforms to and from work as well as on the job.
(B) would wear civilian clothing to work, change in locker rooms there and wear a uniform on the job.
(C) wouldn't wear uniforms at all and just operate in casual clothing.
Going by TV it seems to vary depending on where you live and what department your in but I thought I'd ask and see what people who know more about the police and how they operate have to say (at the moment I'm leaning towards the third one).
BACKGROUND
The setup is that in recent years there's been a marked increase in strange events and individuals (although there have been ones going back centuries of recorded history lately they've been increasing in numbers and locations where their noted). As a response the goverments decided to introduce a new special investigations department but they're not sure who'd be the best police to use.
The options are regular police (preferred choice but years of dealing with crime may have given them a mentality that's unsuited to dealing with strange or unique situations), maverick police (last choice but they're difficulty in fitting in to a regular department may allow them to work well with unusual situations) and new recruits (the PC's who have the potential to grow into good police but can do so dealing with strange situations giving them the right mentality to handle those crimes).
These new departments are scattered throughout the city with teams composed of these groups to see how they work out in varying concentrations. The Special Investigations departments will deal with all the more usual situations (homicide, narcotics, internal affairs etc) provided they have an unusual element (drug induced mummyfication, blood drained from bodies with bite marks on the neck, a person drowned in a dry locked room even though they were only out of sight for a minute or two and people outside heard no sounds of struggle).
Should the investigation reveal a normal cause (e.g. the bite marks are part of a syphon a madman used to drain the blood in anotherlocation believing himself to be a vampire) they'll be turned over to regular police. Similarly a crime commited by regular means for regular reasons by an irregular person who can be dealt with by regular means (a human/half-orc/elf/dark-elf slipped into this dimension using a gun to shoot someone so they could rob them) would also fall under existing departments juristidiction, on the other hand a human wizard using a gun to murder someone would come under the special investigations department because arresting and containing a magic-user would be hard to do for those not trained in such).
Generally, in departments where a marked vehicle is not driven home, you would not where your uniform in. This is sometimes different in small towns, where the facility may not have a locker room. Larger departments generally don't want you in uniform unless you are working.
These are by no means hard and fast rules, but general guidelines. I hope that it helps.
It sounds like the assignment your "officers" would be on is mainly investigations, which is traditionally a non-uniform position. Departments will often have dress codes (ie, coat and tie, collared shirt and khakis). If an assignment (like narcotics) would suffer from said dress code, it may be waived.
Generally, in departments where a marked vehicle is not driven home, you would not where your uniform in. This is sometimes different in small towns, where the facility may not have a locker room. Larger departments generally don't want you in uniform unless you are working.
These are by no means hard and fast rules, but general guidelines. I hope that it helps.
true to all above, Most investigations officers tend to wear a non-uniform attire when working a case, meaning casual clothes... the same for undercover narcotics officers/etcetera... don't forget about the watch houses, places where the newbies can monitor an area where an attack has happened on several occasions, i.e. the apartment overlooking the park wher 5 attacks took place..
The precinct building could be an old modified warehouse/industrial manufacturing building that has a reinforced armory, internal firing range, evidence storage locker, small motor pool outside, offices for the various units, small kitchen with amenities (fridge, stove, microwave), lounge,
All that I have right now
At an unimportant future date (10-20 years ingame longer than the campaign would run) the department will have established itself well enough and gotten large enough that it'll be divided up into various new deparments. Technical Crimes (say a string of deaths using state of the art animatronic toy's), Paranormal Crimes (Vampires, werewolves, magical killings), Special Crimes (need a better name but it covers things like drugs that cause the victim to turn to glass, basically non-supernatural/non-technical crimes of an unusual nature).
I'll try thinking up some other things maybe a few NPC's if I get the time to break myself in with my new books...
Edit: If you go with the renovated warehouse you could throw in little non-lethal problems that were overlooked in construction; a seemingly study wall falls down scaring everyone, an npc slams the door causing a ceiling tile to fall, etcetera to either party members or NPC's... a character turns the faucet to wash up, for a second nothing happens and they bang on the faucet causing it to spry them in the face... childish yes but funny
Its set in current day Tokyo offering a nice combination of high tech, old city (with hidden or forgotten areas) and some nice distinct cultural elements that can also be used to cover up some supernatural elements (at least till the players find out about it e.g a cat-girl cafe with real henegyoki cat-girls who's families have adapted to modern day life quite well [also offers oppurtunity at a later date for them to be called in to deal with protection of non-humans who are being attacked/threatened by violent "Earth is Humanities" groups.] or a villiage that was officially bought as a dumping ground for industrial waste [actually happened] is really being used to illegally experiment with a new series of battle drugs that have unexpected side-effects).
They aren't being set-up to fail but they'll have to deal with a degree of "I can't believe that's real, I thought it was just stories my dad told me" so they'll need to not only solve the crimes but take accurate documention to prove it was what they said and deal with the fact that just because it isn't human doesn't mean it isn't a nice, intelligent being in its own right (Do human laws apply to non-humans? What about a vampire that's happy to exist on blood aquired from a blood-bank if such an be set up? A hengeyoki for those who don't know in DND is an intelligent shapeshifting animal do they come under human or animal laws?).
Old parts of the city, say an alleyway could hold a spell that takes the player/npc to a pocket dimension where they encounter something case related or simplely 'Hey Ryu, weren't we in Akihabara/Shinjuku a minute ago... we passed those arched gates then we're here!' here being a wide expanse of farms/etcetera strecthed before them...
The Cat-girl cafe... nice :D , which could lead to being discovered by one of the girls swishing her tail up the backside of a player... or the magic catnip that the player from, see above, before happened to fall/rolled around in when they fought prior creature and never washed his coat... to humans not really noticeable, but to a cat-girl 'Hey Yusuke, why did that girl pounce you and is now rubbing herself against you... why do you get all the chicks... what a miinute, why does she have cat-ears and a tail!'
The dumping grounds is actually a US funded Black Ops Project titled and is secretly experimenting with Moreau soldiers/serums... 'Hey Takimura, you didn't drink anything in that lab did you?' 'No, why!' 'Cause you seriously have whiskers now!'
What I have off the top of my head...
> you seriously have whiskers now!'
Another reason for the cat-girl to be rubbing herself up against him (particularly if he's 19 and she's 17-18).:D
EDIT
Yep Hengeyoki are from Oriental adventures.
Other ideas (not really fleshed out yet) include . . .
A) finding a god of a local shrine really is their but due to shortage of worhshipers is limited in how much help he can give people (classify that one, grin).
B) Discovery a particularly popular brand of honey is made by bee people, not bee's.
C) Finding an elf fully armoured and weaponed (he was fighting a teratomorph) wandering around downtown and asking people (in a language they don't understand) where he is and where the nearest magic user is.
D) Discovering a corporations made an AI that's capable of learning and evolving (not necessarily a stereo-typical its out to destroy the fleshlings) at what point does it gain legal protection as a sentient being and how do you teach it ethics.
E) Is that young girl in a blue kimono at the park just old fashioned or a Zashiki Warashi (good luck spirit that plays pranks but brings money and prosperity) and if its a Zashiki who's it bringing luck too?
F) Do they look for the sparrow inn (a nice little folk-tale story about a couple, the old man takes care of the sparrow and is good and kind and winds up after visiting the inn with basket full of treasure, the old ladies mean, spiteful and cuts the sparrows tounge and after visiting the inn winds up with a basket full of monsters).
Another reason for the cat-girl to be rubbing herself up against him (particularly if he's 19 and she's 17-18).:D
I think everyone should try to have a conversation with a few police officers (it does a lot to remove most misconceptions about the police).
It will also make you more confident if you ever need to get a fix-it ticket signed.
Anyway thanks again for the help.
2) Middle and upper ranking officers, such as detectives (inspectors if you're in frisco), wear civilian clothes that adheres to departmental guidleines.
3) Undercover operatives generally dress like scumbags; so they wear civilian clothes too.
I would stipulate that this may differ with certain circumstances. If the department does not pay to have the uniforms laundered; it is likely that the officers just wear them home at the end of the day (and they may just wear them to work instead of changing there). I hope that helps.
I have to go to an open parking lot, collect a vehicle, then drive about a mile and a half to the police department to check e-mails etc. This is another reason why I wear my uniform to and from work. Don't want to be driving around town in my civies.