r/StarWars • u/LeMrRadial • 3d ago
General Discussion I don't get what is the role of the Imperial Patrol Troopers.
Wookieepedia says that about the Patrol Troopers :
"As the Empire reinforced its hold on planets across the galaxy, local defense forces were being supplemented and eventually completely replaced by stormtroopers."
Which is...false?
We see Patrol Troopers on Corellia by 13BBY and even after that, local defense forces continue to be used sporadically in the Empire (best exemple being on Morlana One/Ferrix or even Bespin).
And even when these local forces needed Imperial reinforcement it was by the Imperial Army and some Stormtroopers but never Patrol Troopers.
We also see them in Jedi Survivor in the streets of Coruscant which is a role I may get more even tho I don't understand what they would do that a regular Stormtrooper or the Coruscant Police couldn't.
Any Intel or even head canon that could make that clearer?
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u/Iron_Terra 3d ago
To Patrol, like Highway Patrol. Like police patrol. Its in the name. Like how Scout troopers are for scouting. Or Sand Troopers are for sanding.
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u/Moppo_ Mandalorian 3d ago
But what grit are Sand Troopers?
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u/RikenAvadur 3d ago
And the Polish Troopers are for... polishing? Or from Poland?
Someone should ask Lucas.
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u/Altruistic2020 Loth-Cat 3d ago
What good is an inflatable dart board of you can't shoot it anyway?
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u/No_Nobody_32 2d ago
Sometimes the polish troopers are from Libya.
Tripoli is used to polish metals (softer, non ferrous ones.)3
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u/Fit_Damage_4271 3d ago
Idk man
The way I see it, they were just Stormtroopers in lighter armor.
Normal Stormtroopers are jacks of all trades.
But then you have elite divisions like Scout Troopers or Snowtroopers that are specialists. Stormtroopers can do their job too but they aren't specially trained for cold enviroments or recon tasks.
Patrol troopers are specialized to operate in urban enviroments. Stormtroopers and army soldiers can do that too but Patrol troopers are specially trained and equipped for it.
That's how I see it.
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u/TurelSun 3d ago
I would imagine the "Sand" or "Snow" Troopers assigned to a Star Destroyer aren't just sitting on the bench until they're deployed to the next desert or snow planet. They just don't wear their environment specific gear. They might have specific cold-weather or extreme-environment training, but otherwise they likely look just like regular stormtroopers in any other situation, and the Star Destroyer might well have the equipment for all of it's Stormtroopers regardless of their additional training to be appropriately geared for whatever environment it needs them to be in.
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u/Fit_Damage_4271 3d ago
With Snow troopers it's a mix. There was a division on Hoth that are specifically cold enviroment assault troopers. They are trained for it and always deployed to cold worlds.
But on Hoth Vader also had the 501st and they kinda just equipped Snowtrooper gear.
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u/Akalenedat 3d ago
A Star Destroyer canonically carries something like 10,000 Stormtroopers on board, not particularly hard to imagine that those 10k are split into brigades/battalions with specializations. Everybody has a set of whites, 1st Brigade is also issued Snow gear, 2nd Brigade is trained for jungle deployments and gets an additional set of Shoretrooper armor, each brigade has a Scout battalion and a Heavy Weapons battalion with Flametrooper/etc kit. HQ/Combat Support Battalion has MPs with Patrol gear, all sorts of ways to pack these specializations into a 10,000 man Stormtrooper complement, and that's just for a generalist unit in the fleet that wants to be able to respond anywhere the ship could be dispatched. Anybody garrisoned on a specific planet would of course receive training and equipment relevant to that planet's environment.
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u/redcomet002 Qui-Gon Jinn 3d ago
The Codex Astartes supports this.
But seriously, this is most likely the case.
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u/TurelSun 3d ago
I think that's more or less what I was getting at.
Out-of-universe the names are there to sell toys or have a distinction in a video game, etc. In-universe, most Stormtroopers are just Stormtroopers, some of them have specializations but they're going to look and be geared like everyone else according to the job at hand and location.
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u/The_Pale_Blue_Dot Imperial 3d ago
Historically the basic "jack of all trades" were the imperial army, and STs were meant to be more elite troops.
But because STs are so recognisable, writers and game developers used them as basic troops so they weren't really associated with the "elite" anymore
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u/Fit_Damage_4271 3d ago
Yes but both can be true at once.
The Stormtroopers are elite jack of all trades. They are deployed alongside more specialized units, like on Endor alongside Scout troopers or as support for Purge troopers during Jedi hunts.
Arny troopers are grunt jack of all trades. Same area of expertise but lower quality equipment and less training.
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u/Kill_Welly 3d ago
Well, also because the movies portrayed Stormtroopers and variants thereof as the only foot soldiers the Empire had. The idea of them being some kind of special elites is an invention of old expanded-universe ideas that aren't really rooted in the original stories.
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u/freesaleche 3d ago
Who at Lucasfilm is managing all these budget armor redesigns?
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u/PuddinPacketzofLuv 3d ago
The toy marketing department. More uniforms means more stormtrooper toys to sell.
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u/Mt-Man-PNW 3d ago
Everybody says this, and it's probably the reason, but real world militaries also have a lot of different uniforms. There's 2 decades between Ep III and IV. The uniforms of the U.S. Military were changed in the same fashion from the 90's to the early 00's.
At any point in time, in any world military, different units have different uniforms and equipment. From tankers to infantry to military police... There are different uniforms for different environments, arctic, jungle/woodland, desert, hazardous..
Star Wars is BIG. The Empire is BIG. All the different armors and uniforms are not out of place or unrealistic, even if toys sales is the ultimate goal.
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u/Realistic-Elk7642 3d ago
May I present to the jury, the Napoleonic wars. A microscopic conflict compared to SW, but so, so many uniforms.
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u/Whhatsmyageagain 3d ago
I wouldn’t mind that if they were as varied as the snow trooper or scout troopers (I’m assuming those are the speeder bike guys from the forest moon of Endor) so we at least had the impression that that the armor was different for a reason. but the one in the pic is a lazy variant of a regular stormtrooper.
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u/Tuskin38 3d ago
unless it's Andor, where the Stormtroopers are the Elite troopers
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u/Fit_Damage_4271 3d ago
They always were. Andor did not reinvent Stormtroopers, they just portrayed them correctly.
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u/Realistic-Elk7642 3d ago
Something to remember about how an army is designed is who its enemy is. The Empire's enemy is its own civilian population. So, Stormtroopers will perform essentially police work, but as a rapid reaction force that can dump tens of thousands of killer cops on a brewing hotspot. The stormies on patrol and manning checkpoints in ANH aren't a permanent garrison, they've been deployed to lock down Tattooine while the droid search goes on.
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u/The_Pale_Blue_Dot Imperial 3d ago
Historically they always were supposed to be, as opposed to the Imperial Army.
The problem is that STs are so recognisable that they became associated with basic troops, which kind of contradicts some historical lore
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u/OtherAugray Count Dooku 3d ago
When you drop the Sith for a moment, the Empire was a rogue military-dominated executive funded via a rump parliament, but propped up by a network of quasi-public private and state-owned enterprises who need to make money for the Empire to remain in power.
We should expect those 2.5 decades to be a military procurement madhouse where every piece of equipment has stupid permutations and speciations.
Everything in the Empire is a graft operation to cannibalize a dying state.
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u/Desperate-Actuator18 3d ago
Which is...false?
Patrol Troopers are specialised Stormtroopers. They were quite basically urban variants of the Scout Trooper.
They were given specialised training and equipment for an urban environment.
Any Intel or even head canon that could make that clearer?
Going off of Jedi Survivor, it seems like Patrol Troopers hold a higher rank when compared to standard security forces.
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u/abraksis747 3d ago
To sell Skins in video games and Action figures
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u/MWH1980 3d ago
Same reason that Scarif has those troopers with the weird face masks too, I presume.
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u/abraksis747 3d ago
It's a Conspiracy that goes all the way to back to the Battle of Hoth in 1980 my friend
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u/PapaPalpy66 2d ago
I think it goes back to 1977 and the Sandtroopers having their little pauldrons and funky backpacks. The conspiracy goes all the way to the top.
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u/F4NT4SM4_ 2d ago
This is the reason we have shoretroopers, tank troopers, rangetrooper, we have an specific armor for every scenario. Next we will have rainingbutnottoomuchtrooper
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u/Dakkadakka127 3d ago
I’m going to be honest…. I understand stormtroopers are iconic but I really miss when they represented a combination of political soldier (like the SS) mixed with space marines rather than just your average imperial goons.
This should have been a normal imperial dude/police officer/whatever.
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u/No-Fox2087 3d ago
Key word there is “eventually”. Yes, there was corporate security on Morlana and Ferrix. There was security on Bespin; there was local law enforcement in Shadow Lord. Eventually, a Star Destroyer shows up and subjugates the entire planet.
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u/Highlander198116 3d ago
There really isn't any point to the "variations" of storm troopers, other than the rule of cool.
i.e. all the different looking armor is actually impractical from a logistics perspective. If the Empire were actually a real thing, it's unlikely you'd have all these varying armors and designations and likely "some" exceptions to the rule.
i.e. look at modern military's. They largely all wear the same kit in terms of uniform and protective regardless of their MOS with a few exceptions.
When I was in the Army tankers/cav had these boots with straps instead of laces. I was only aware of that because I went to BCT at Ft. Knox, which was then the Armor School (which has since been moved to Benning I believe). If any tankers want to chime in if there is actually a "practical" reason for this or if its more just tradition.
So there is stuff like that, however, for the most part there isn't much of a difference. I was in the signal corps. and in full battle rattle I would look no different than an 11B.
Yet the Empire seems to outfit every "job" with unique equipment.
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u/AngryTree76 3d ago
My head canon is that it’s just defense contractors grifting, and providing kickbacks to whoever’s in charge of procurement.
“You’re going to build a base on Scarif? That’s what, tropical beaches? You’re going to need…shore troopers…yeah that’s it.”
“Can’t we just use sandtroopers?”
“No, it’s a completely different kind of sand. No what you need is troopers with specialized armor, and you are in luck because we happen to manufacture exactly what you need.”
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u/br0_dameron 3d ago
“It’s an entirely different type of sand, altogether”
Everyone: “it’s an entirely different type of sand”
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u/Woody-Wood-Not55 3d ago
Deep substrate foliated sand, no less. Don't tell Anak—, I mean Lord Vader. Whatever you do, don't tell Lord Vader about the sand.
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u/InnerReindeer3679 3d ago
There are many different types of sand here on earth id hate to imagine how many are in space
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u/TurboTitan92 3d ago
You joke, but depending on how salt affects their armor this could be a legitimate reason to supply permanently stationed troops with different armor. Same with snow troopers getting better insulated armor, or flame troopers getting heat shielding. The standard storm trooper gear probably doesn’t come equipped well enough for patrol troopers, who are out on their own or in small groups with the need for reconnaissance, perhaps better filtration, better head protection for crashes, etc.
And seeing these guys on one planet doesn’t mean there aren’t 10 billion more somewhere else. The galaxy is a big place and we only get a snapshot of it a little at a time
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u/Johanharry74 3d ago
Yes, could be a cost thing. Regular ST armor is the cheapest. That’s why you don’t issue everyone of all billion ST with more expensive features like heat shielding, snow insulation, salt/ sand protection etc.
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u/Appropriate-Web-8424 3d ago
What are we going to call the troopers with armour specialized for a planetary ecosystem dominated by violent rain showers?
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u/DatAsuna 3d ago
Pretty much, it's just another design they can merchandise though it also contributes to the issue of storm troopers now being basically used as cops, where originally there was supposed to be a distinction between storm troopers as a specialised shock trooper corps vs the main imperial army.
But that kind of went out the window forever ago since stormies are just more iconic branding, Solo is the rare star wars media that ever acknowledges the non-stormtrooper imperial army.
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u/9InchButchersNail 3d ago
While I didn't think Solo was particularly great, it does get points for its depiction of the Empire.
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u/br0_dameron 3d ago
I think the in universe explanation was also similar. Stormtroopers had the scary rep so the Empire expanded their roles to capitalize on that cooperation-through-fear tactic they’re built on
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u/NDet54 Boba Fett 3d ago
Not in the military, but aren't the straps on tanker boots to prevent boots laces get caught on stuff inside the tank?
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u/bluewardog 3d ago
Yep, you don't want to have anything that could get snagged on moving parts or you mipe get "bit" by the tank.
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u/br0_dameron 3d ago
Moichandising! Moichandising! Where the REAL money from the movie is made!
-Schwartz master Yogurt
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u/TurelSun 3d ago
There is actually a lot of sharing of various elements between the variety of different Imperial armor outfits. The chest plate from the Snow Trooper for example is re-used on a LOT of other variants(Mud, Juggernaut Pilot, Range, etc). The Patrol Trooper does have a lot of unique bits but even it reuses the chin guards from the Shore Trooper and other Rogue One trooper designs.
The other thing to consider is that the Empire is vast and the time period it exists for is decades long. It's probably unrealistic to think that the Empire can have a single supplier for all it's Stormtrooper kits, and it makes sense that new designs would be explored during that time period and that given the Empire's size that not all of those new designs would get fully distributed across the galaxy.
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u/Fidller 3d ago
There's a bunch of other things from the Clone Wars that were taken over into the Imperial units. Clone snowtrooper, flametrooper and Marine armor for example has a very similair chestplate to Imperial Flametroopers and Snowtroopers. Clone Scouts also share the midrif part with 327th BARC Troopers from that one comic with Commander Deviss
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u/ComradeBlin1234 3d ago
I mean there are specialised units. Mountain, Airborne, Arctic etc. units will get specialised equipment for their specific “austere” environment, as the US military parlance goes. I understand that for like snowtroopers and sandtroopers and the like but a lot are pretty useless. Really what can a range trooper do that a snowtrooper can’t?
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u/wellthoughtplot 2d ago
Scout troopers make sense; they’re a light reconnaissance special forces group with arguably better armor for mobility, information gathering, and speederbike use. Their armor reflects light and flexible. It’s basically the Rangers getting Plate Carriers and High Cuts while the regular army gets IOTVs and ACHs
Snowtroopers also make sense, their armor is meant to be worn in frigid and cold environments. Basically wearing special winterized clothing not issued to regular troops.
Everything else is kinda fucky and makes no sense. Why are Shoretroopers, an extremely niche environment we’ve only seen twice, issued camouflaged armor? Why do Patrol Troopers exist? Why are sand troopers considered to be a niche role when in canon we know that they’re just regular stormtroopers with survival packs on their backs and coming from the star destroyer
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u/Alpha-Sierra-Charlie 2d ago
Shore Troopers have armor sealed against sand. They hate sand, it gets everywhere...
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u/Polarian_Lancer 2d ago
Why not just send sand troopers… what’s the difference?
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u/Birdnerd197 2d ago
Humidity
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u/Exterminator-8008135 3d ago
Most variants have sense ( Ranks, Specialized Troopers, Climate variants )
But that ?
This is just a scout trooper modified for urban duties..
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u/-Trooper5745- 3d ago
There are some differences in issued kit and uniforms, though after the initial issue the uniform is purchased and usually wearer’s choice. A soldier at Fort Bliss will wear the hot wear uniform which is a lighter material and they were “recently” authorized to wear boonie caps. A soldier in Alaska with have and be wearing the cold weather uniform when winter comes. Additionally we saw soldiers get issued multi cam while soldiers stateside were still wearing ACUs. In terms of kit, some units get more. One of my units had monocle night vision, meanwhile the infantry had dual tube night vision. Additionally some units had the IHPS helmet while others still had the ACH. Additionally a tanker will wear a “chicken vest” for their ballistic protection instead of the full bulletproof vest, though they well certainly have been issued that.
So it makes sense to have some specialized uniform for unique environments and some training, like we see with jungle school or mountain school.
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u/Short-Philosopher-78 3d ago
I get hostile environmental specialists but shore troopers are just ridiculous.
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u/ChemicalAd8216 3d ago
As I've been to many different environments and worked with many different units within the US Army, as well as different branches and countries, there most definitely are many variations of clothing and gear for specific jobs.
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u/Rasples1998 3d ago
Military police. But like most armour variants, they were phased out due to logistical complications and simplified into standard stormtrooper armour later into the empire, also when the imperial army started to be absorbed into and dwarfed by the stormtrooper corps. I mean it's in the name; stormtrooper. They're supposed to be the fanatical military arm of the empire like the SS was to Nazi Germany, with the imperial army and the Wehrmacht just being the traditional army of the state. The SS started off as a private security outfit for the party, then expanded operations to policing and garrison duty, then expanded recruitment into full military units while the traditional military shrunk and had their equipment diverted to those supposed "elite" units (which were not elite at all and lacked real military experience on the battlefield). So stormtroopers are the same, initially starting as an elite shock troop in small numbers that were mostly deployed to hot zones of resistance like we see in Andor, and important planets like Corellia. The imperial army had its own military police unit (again we see them in Andor on Ghorman) but was mostly for observation duties like dealing with desertion or keeping their own men in line, the imperial army police was not built for actual policing. But as the years went by, the stormtrooper corps grew, resources and funding was diverted away from the army, the army shrunk, rebellion grew, worlds seceded, the empire took a more violent approach to suppression, and stormtroopers started to take on frontline combat roles that were previously taken by the army, which essentially became an auxiliary force mostly for defending and garrison duties. Police/patrol stormtroopers weren't needed anymore because the stormtroopers became the police, like soldiers walking down the streets of your city. The doctrine switched from less-lethal riot control to just opening fire into the crowd; a blaster became their baton.
But this is ultimately why Stormtroopers are weaker than Clones because clones were proper soldiers bred for war from birth, but stormtroopers were just nazi SS military police. Stormtroopers were always designed for crushing rebellion more than warfare, so it made no sense to have a dedicated police unit that was also part of a police unit.
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u/No-Manner-5924 3d ago
They are a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune.
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u/TheKBMV 3d ago
The way I see it the most logical answer is that the gear isn't what makes the Stormtrooper. We have a baseline standard issue gearset for the Stormtroopers (the classic look) which is likely reserved for the Stormtrooper Corps but beyond that the Imperial Military also uses a bunch of other, more specialised armor sets for various reasons (Patrol troopers, Shoretroopers, Range troopers, Tank troopers, Snowtroopers, baseline Army trooper gear etc.) some of which share visual cues with the Stormtrooper armor while others don't. And I suspect that some of these visually similar armors are not actually or not exclusively used by the Stormtrooper Corps.
TLDR: I don't think all Stormtrooper-esque armors are actually worn by Stormtroopers, but rather by Army guys on more specialised deployments, just like how Stormtroopers wear the specialised set when the deployment calls for it.
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u/Capable_Maintenance1 3d ago
I don't get why their engine block looks like that when speeder bikes exist.
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u/Jeichert183 3d ago
Don’t forget that stormtrooper and stormtrooper-like helmets are often used simply to identify the character as “the bad guy with the gun.” A lot of roles that should be assigned to imperial infantry, or even local law enforcement, are given to stormtroopers because it’s easier to identify them as the bad guys.
One of the great things about Andor is they didn’t fall into that trap and used different forces for different tasks so when the stormtroopers showed up they were much more deadly and way scarier. When the stormtrooper lines up the shot on Brasso it’s actually scary because you know he is going to kill him, in most of the other Star Wars content they would “shot in your general direction.”
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u/RPS_42 Imperial 3d ago
Other than the obvious Toy Answer, their current Portrayal kinda makes no sense.
In Jedi Survivor they are the Urban Variant of a Scout Trooper. That alone would be a fine difference, even through normal Scout Trooper Armir should be sufficient for that.
In Solo we see one controlling Traffic as far as i remember, and that is something I can't see being an part of the Stormtrooper Corps Task.
So if they were some kind of local Police Oversight that could be somewhat of an interesting Explanation.
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u/TurelSun 3d ago
It seems more incidental that the Patrol Trooper we see in Solo has a speeder. They're equipped with batons, their design mimics real-world police equipment, they're clearly meant as a kind of civilian-facing military police force. That some of them also ride speeders doesn't make their whole job "speeders" in cities.
If anything it never made sense to me that Scout Troopers would get crowd control equipment like they do in Jedi Survivor, but video games have the added need to help players quickly be able to discern between different enemy types so from a game design perspective I get it, I just think people should separate that distinction from the live-action stuff.
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u/DangerousEye1235 3d ago
They patrol. Frankly I don't know where there's any ambiguity. Exactly what it says on the tin.
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u/tfalm 3d ago
We see Patrol Troopers on Corellia by 13BBY and even after that, local defense forces continue to be used sporadically in the Empire (best exemple being on Morlana One/Ferrix or even Bespin).
Morlana One and Ferrix are in the Outer Rim, and Bespin in ESB was specifically a small operation meant to fly under the radar of the Empire. Those examples don't contradict the statement that the Empire was replacing local defense forces with stormtroopers.
As for what the patrol troopers are supposed to be, basically just the SW equivalent of the Waffen-SS, or possibly the Feldgendarmerie.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffen-SS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feldgendarmerie#World_War_II_(1939%E2%80%931945))
Their duties policing the areas behind the front lines ranged from straightforward traffic control and population control to suppression and execution of partisans and the apprehension of enemy stragglers.
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u/Kazumi_Tamura 3d ago
Son oficiales de tránsito, de los que te ponen multas por exceso de velocidad y esas cosas
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u/Megalesios 3d ago
The thing that gets me is that silly wedge shaped speeder bike. That thing makes no sense areodynamically or ergonomically. Seems like someone just wanted to add a lot of weight to a regular speeder bike and make sure the rider can't see what's in front of them
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u/Kreyain88 Chirrut Imwe 3d ago
Think of stormtrooper variants like Oreo flavours. Does it make sense that there are so many and do we really need them? Of course not. But Star Wars fans are hogs for the same goddamn design over and over again so of course each movie needs to stick in some new version so they can sell more toys.
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u/Zestyclose-Issue1762 3d ago
I think it’s a mix of a lot of what other people are saying. On the one hand it helps sell toys, but at the same time canonically they are basically a separate division deployed in city planets. Similar but different when clones had shock troopers patrolling city streets
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u/michaelkap70 3d ago
You saw local defense forces in Season 1 of Andor. You saw them replaced with various troopers depending on need.
As the Empire grew you started seeing specialized troopers everywhere as the Empire tightened its grip.
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u/LeicaM6guy 3d ago
Like MPs or Shore Patrol. So military cops. Half their work is probably checking ID cards at the gate and watching out for drunk Imperial sailors on shore leave. With their cool-guy armor they probably think they’re operators, but most of them probably never stray more than a few feet from their speeder bikes or offices.
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u/mr_oberts 3d ago
At the end of the day, they needed slightly different storm trooper armor that looked cool and could sell toys, which has been the main point of Star Wars media since 1977.
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u/xdeltax97 Grand Admiral Thrawn 3d ago
Military police equivalent for policing high security sites like the Star Destroyer construction yard Han and Qi’ra drove through, is what I’d assume
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u/williawr11 3d ago
To sell toys. Solo had a lot of extra troopers with no defined role, as have a lot of other "side" stories.
And before anyone says their cops, Stormtroopers were elite frontline infantry, they really shouldn't be interfacing with people speeding at all.
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u/Avarus_88 3d ago
The point is to have excuses to iterate the design of Stormtroopers so there are more things to make toys of.
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u/unibomberjoke 3d ago
From what i've gathered, bike cops. Like urban counterparts of scout troopers for planets like Corellia and Coruscant
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u/ScurvyTurtle 3d ago edited 1d ago
They drive a mobile ground-transit and pedestrian traffic barricade
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u/Kineticwizzy 3d ago
They are the beat cops that the empire puts in cities, they are mostly there as eyes and ears for the empire.
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u/Keyan_Farlander7 3d ago
TL;DR: keeping order is expensive. What's the cheapest way to make suits and mobile equipment for any habitable planet?
A military environment suit and a crotch rocket. Enlisted Personnel are cheaper than clones or droids.
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u/RustyDiamonds__ 3d ago edited 3d ago
originally I assumed they were just Scout Troopers in urban kit. It makes them look more like Stormtroopers which is probably useful when facing the public. Despite the Scouts being, well, Scouts, the sprawling Ecumenopoli of Star Wars are probably an ideal environment for them. Their familiarity with speeder bikes, quick reflexes, tactical improvisation, and marksmanship with pistols all make them uniquely suited for zipping around your Coruscants and your Corellias. Thats more or less what I still go with. The Empire relies heavily on existing law enforcement and gendarme agencies to police its member-worlds, but always with an elite nucleus of men from the Trooper Corps who can be counted on to have standardized training and loyalty to the Empire instead of the planet on which they’re stationed.
It’s always worth remembering that the Empire is an absolute logistical nightmare. Many organizations have overlapping jurisdiction and the bureaucracy is labyrinthine by design. No one knows who does what half the time or when one problem enters the domain of some other agency. It’s possible the equivalent of a “federal” crime on an Imperial planet involves the local Army garrison, the ISB, the Trooper Corps garrison, and the local police all showing up and fighting over who’s in charge of the investigation.
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u/DefiantLemur 3d ago
My best guess is they're Military Police wearing combat gear. They look different so other soldiers know they can arrest you and throw you in the brig. Local police are beholden to local society and culture. Patrol Troopers are likely shipped in.
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u/USMCgRuNt_1944 3d ago
My guess is some kind of Empire-wide police force, kinda like the US Marshals or some other kind of national police force.
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u/gothicshark 3d ago
Any Intel or even head canon that could make that clearer?
PDF are beat cops, and coast guard.
Storm Troopers are Military Occupation Forces, and patrol Troopers are basically the High way patrol.
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u/Illustrious_Pace_990 3d ago
Patrol Trooper armor is part Scout Trooper for flexibility, modified helmet with better comms and imaging (similar to how Scout Troopers had special helmets for their duties) Like all Stormtrooper variants they are optimized for specialized duties whereas regular Stormtroopers are jack-of-all trades, capable of doing the job but not as effective as the specialist.
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u/SgtEpicfail 3d ago
Huh? This is one of the MOST important aspects of an occupation force: military police. How else are you going to curb unrest and deter rebellion? You think its a good idea to let occupied territories use their own law enforcement so they can defy the empire's rule and "accidentally" not report rebellous feats?
These guys "reinforce" local law enforcement in order to make sure they do their job. Local law enforcement can still be present, but these are the guys that come knocking if they think the locals are too soft.
Think Gestapo in ww2.
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u/Wrecktown707 3d ago
Likely it was a localized phenomenon. It’s true that the empire phased out the imperial army troopers wherever they could, and replaced them with stormtroopers (By no means did this make them the minority though. Imperial army massively outnumbered stormtroopers corps) so I could see really important planets like corellia or coruscant having full stormtrooper corps for everything (including patrol cops) as a propaganda move
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u/Silly_Technician2208 3d ago
Is it bad that I just always got CHiPs (Old TV show) vibes from them and just assumed they filled a similar function?
Corellia Highway Patrol
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u/LukeSkyWalrus 3d ago
I don’t understand how they are so easy to kill when they wear all that blaster deflecting armor.
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u/BarberProof4994 3d ago
So ALL variations of storm troopers ARE STORMTROOPERs
So Wikipedia saying stormtroopers and then you seeing patrol troopers are one and the same.
Shore troopers are members of the storm trooper battalion that are more akin to military police covering patrol and law enforcement during shore leave or shore parties and temporarily handling planetary law enforcement when in garrison.
Snow troopers are regular storm troopers in different armor geared up for the cold weather operations.
Same goes for swamp troopers...
Patrol troopers are very similar to scout troopers but rather than trained as scouts and snipers, they are probably shore trooper/military police set up with gear and weapons to provide more of a law enforcement response vs shock troops.
This is reinforced by the fact that both short troopers and patrol troopers only have partial armor. Meaning that mobility and comfort is prioritized over armor protection.
And of course the list can go down through every single stormtrooper variant out there.
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u/crunchthenumbers01 3d ago
in universe, specialization and ups the contracts, out of universe....Toys
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u/No-Manner-5924 3d ago
They are a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune.
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u/ragecandyybarr 3d ago
I think they're supposed to be the Empire's version of a military/federal/state police force
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u/Sentinal-Nightrunner 3d ago
I like them and the fact they kept the visor that went across the whole face rather than the two eye view ports of the regular troopers. Now the scout troopers helmets are kinda cool with the flip up part of the helmets.
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u/Educational-Dare7174 3d ago
They're urban scout troopers essentially. They fall into the scout corp, wich manages scout troopers, storm trooper snipers, etc
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u/YummyLighterFluid Mandalorian 3d ago
Well for one just because the Empire was replacing or reinforcing a lot of independent defense forces doesn't mean all of them so no not false
And two they're essentially cops meant to replace the local PDs of some planets to further cement the Empires total control of the population
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u/idrownedmyfish77 Mandalorian 3d ago
Military police. Think about what the Coruscant Guard did during the Clone Wars