Around the year 2225, retroactively noted as the end of the Age of Corporations' infancy, New Washington is a fully established City-State and is recognized as an independent government by most other such entities on the face of Varius. Easily the largest city in the world, New Washington is inhabited by approximately 10 million sentient creatures and has a wider variety of races than any other single country in the world.
Like its predecessor, the United States of America, New Washington is a Democratic Republic. Its true government, however, is much nearer to a Corpocracy. While there is a Federal Government, its purpose is primarily that of funding and structure; the actual governing of the populace and enforcement of law and policy is accomplished by Corporations. The Federal Government only involves itself directly in the City's matters when circumstances become quite dire.
Corporations in New Washington are not unlike ancient Warlords of an ungoverned land when viewed from a military standpoint. They are constantly competing for power, performing both overt and subtle attacks on one another. All major corporations employ militia and have Corporate Knights (known as CKs) who accomplish the task of maintaining that corporation's military might and to defend it from hostile action.
Sometimes corporations actually do go to war, declaring a state of inter-corporate animosity known as Official Opposition. This action legally legitimizes the use of a corporation's military forces against another, and can mean very bad news for employees of a company and residents of the areas near it.
Law Enforcement is a matter entirely separate from that of corporate infighting. Corporations fund, staff and manage regional Law Enforcement and the numbered precincts that divide the city's law enforcement areas. The purvey of these precincts and their control is another matter over which a great deal of strife arises, but the police force is never involved in such struggles. Moreover, the operation of the police departments is completely independent of corporate authority; in an ideal situation, the corporations would have absolutely no authority over their police precincts.
Naturally, New Washington is not exactly a cornucopia of ideal situations. Many corporations have developed effective strategies to seed their police precinct with officers and administrators loyal to them, then finding ways to dodge the periodic Federal Audits to which all precincts must periodically submit. Just as the United States before it, many of the police of New Washington are corrupt.
There are two arms of Law Enforcement that, through all, have remained largely loyal to their cause and to the Federal Government. REACT is a modular defense system of operatives placed in a grid around New Washington. When a direct threat to the city is noted, all nearby operatives are notified and spring into action, instantly forming an emergency fighting team. The other force is that of the Guardians, possibly the most feared and respected position in New Washington. Guardians are law enforcement agents funded by corporations, then built and trained by the Government. They are heavily augmented by magic and technology and are capable of feats that humans and elves could not dream of accomplishing.
The divide between law enforcement and corporate militia, Government involvement and corporate control make for a great deal of the conflict in the city during the Age of Corporations. Life for its citizens is exciting and dangerous; they are living in the midst of a war called New Washington.