Policing the underworld levels of Coruscant was among the most difficult tasks the planetary
government had on its plate throughout nearly its entire existence, an issue that continually
got worse as the lower levels descended further into poverty and crime.
In some of the lowest levels of the city planet, it was so bad that the only evidence of there
even being a government was the presence of the Underworld police officers, as every other
supposed public service was nonexistent.
The only consistent government service the poorest of the galactic capital received was
a force of fully masked, cybernetically voiced officers of the law.
So exactly why were the underworld police fully disguised and required to wear voice
changers when on duty?
Well it had to do with the cultural divide and deep hatred among the numerous groups
of species and clans that lived within the lower levels of Coruscant.
The masks and voice changers helped disguise the identity of the officiers so that they
wouldn’t be targeted or have the appearance of being an unfair intimidation force due
to their alien species.
Historically, Coruscant was always viewed as the galaxy’s beacon of opportunity that
anyone, regardless of where they came from, could find success in if they were to move
there.
This of course led to tens of billions of beings, all across the galaxy, to migrate
to the city planet over the centuries.
Unfortunately for a majority of the immigrants that came to Coruscant, the dream of opportunity
was generally replaced with misery as most of them were quickly forced to live within
the lower levels of the planet where housing was far cheaper.
Initially when immigrants settled within the lower levels, life wasn’t terrible as they
usually received some services from the upper surface government since they were not too
far down from the surface.
However, as more and more immigrants kept on coming, entire city levels were built over
already existing ones in order to accommodate the increasing population.
This of course reduced the opportunities and services to those who already lived there,
as Coruscant’s planetary government was both too incapable and corrupt to properly
invest in its citizens that lived within its deep underbelly.
Overtime as things started to get too miserable for the citizens of the lowest levels, entire
neighborhoods and city sectors began to be divided into gang like territory, where those
who didn’t belong within these areas tended to get regularly harassed and sometimes even
killed.
These divisions generally were based on species races or cultural clans from distant planets.
So for example, a district on underworld level 12 14 could be entirely closed off for Rodians,
while another district was closed off for Humans that originally came from Corellia.
Rivalries and gangs among these communities were formed that made their living off of
hard crime, as well as deep hatred and distrust drastically increased among specific groups
overtime.
When things got really bad, the government on Coruscant actually considered completely
abandoning the lowest levels and just letting them fend for themselves.
But concerns over powerful crime syndicates taking advantage of the vacuum of power and
the threat of possible united revolution among the displeased citizens led officials to agree
that some form of policing was necessary to ensure continued stability on the planet as
a whole.
As a result, special underworld police divisions were created to secure order and to keep hard
crime from ever reaching the surface levels of Coruscant.
However, top officials quickly realized that the deep divides and distrust among the many
groups of the underworld made it impossible to have a task force made up of various species,
as specific ones would be targeted based on where they were stationed at.
Additionally, it could have made some communities feel like they were being attacked if they
were being policed by aliens or clans that they considered to be rivals, which could
of led to more chaos than less.
Proposals of using police droids were put in place, but they were quickly shut down
due to costs and the risks of them being destroyed for their parts which could then be sold within
black markets.
It was finally decided that the Underworld police would wear special uniforms that completely
disguised the officers.
Long, trench coat like suits were developed to cover as much of the physical bodies of
the officers, along with masks and helmets that disguised their heads.
Voice changers were also implemented as a means to further disguise the species of the
officer, as some aliens had distinctive sounding voices and speech patterns.
While this did greatly reduce any targeted attacks on officers due to their alien species,
it did further divide the citizens of the lower levels and the surface level government
on coruscant, as they were now being policed by an inhuman appearing and disconnected police
force from the upper levels that barely cared enough to provide anything else to them in
terms of public service.