Where the wealthier districts of the city are concerned, it is Blackline — not any civic authority — that keeps the peace, its uniformed officers patrolling only those streets whose residents and businesses have paid for the privilege. The subscription model makes the protection explicit in a way most law enforcement would rather obscure; those who haven't subscribed are, by design, someone else's problem. Officers carry batons rather than firearms, a choice that reads as either reassuringly civilised or dangerously underprepared, depending on what trouble finds them.