The police department of the Animorphs' hometown in California is a law enforcement agency that had many of its members infested during the Andalite-Human-Yeerk War to serve as hosts for the Yeerk Empire.

History

In 1995,^{[note 1]} the Yeerk Empire began a secret invasion of Earth^[1] out of a city in California.^[2] By 1997,^{[note 2]} some of the officers of the city's police department had been infested by Yeerks and turned into host bodies.^[3] The infestation of the police force allowed the Yeerk Empire to control and redirect police investigations to both aid their efforts while also preventing them from being exposed.^[4]

Later that year, Elfangor's fighter, along with Visser Three's Blade ship and two Bug fighters, were spotted landing on a construction site. In order to control the situation, the Yeerk Empire tasked its human-Controllers with dissuading these statements. One of these Controllers, a spokesman for the police department, claimed that the lights and explosions were done by kids playing with fireworks. As the Yeerks were aware that human children had witnessed their actions on the construction site, they began to search for them. One of the cop Controllers drove to Cassie's farm, where he grew suspicious of Cassie; however, after asking the kids to share any information they learned, the cop Controller invited them to join The Sharing. Later that night, this cop Controller, who was also an adult supervisor for The Sharing, noticed Cassie trying to eavesdrop on a meeting for Controllers. As a result, the cop Controller drove to Cassie's farm two days later and kidnapped her; he then brought her into the Underground Yeerk Pool Complex to be infested. However, the rest of the Animorphs assumed their battle morphs and staged a battle, where they successfully managed to save Cassie. The cop Controller was killed during this battle, although the exact details were unknown since Cassie did not wish to talk about it.^[3]

Less than a month later, the police were en route to Dealin' Dan Hawke's Used Cars dealership after reports emerged that an elephant had destroyed many of the cars on the lot.^[5] Not too long later, the city police sped towards the mall when they received reports of a blue alien. While driving through the mall's parking lot, they spotted Ax, the blue alien in question, running out of the mall along with two humans (Jake and Marco). As the trio ran towards a grocery store supermarket that was nearby, the police cruisers surrounded them. A police officer then told them to freeze, but the three morphers ignored them and ran into the grocery store. The police's efforts to apprehend them were in vain, as many grocery carts and then a mass evacuation of the store impeded their attempt to enter the store. They were unable to locate Jake, Marco, or Ax, as unbeknownst to the cops, the three had morphed into lobsters that were then purchased by a woman, who carried them out of the store.^[6]

On a Saturday, Visser Three deployed the Veleek, a giant dust tornado-like entity that was programmed to track down morphing energy signatures. By this point, ten percent of the police force had been infested. The police-Controllers were struggling to contain the public damage that the Veleek was causing while hunting for Animorphs as being a "freak tornado," despite the fact that the Veleek had eyes, teeth, and whirling blades. One of these cop-Controllers met with Iniss 226 at the mall, although Iniss reiterated that the police force was to maintain the tornado story. Later that day, four police officers arrived to a suburban development when they received a call that an individual had broken into a home. Arriving at the house, one of the policemen knocked on the door and ordered the intruder to come outside. The intruder, an amnesiac Rachel, began morphing into an African elephant. Before she could finish the morph, the Veleek arrived and ripped through the house, forcing Rachel to charge out of the front door. The four police officers looked in shock at the elephant figure that had emerged from the house before they then noticed the Veleek, causing them to start firing their guns. The Veleek followed the elephant before suddenly focusing on chasing a pickup truck that was driving erratically and crashing into things, and the four police officers decided to follow both the beast and the truck. At the same time, the report of an elephant and the "freak tornado" in the suburbs caused other police officers to be dispatched to the neighborhood.^[4]

The sabotage of a Yeerk shuttle caused several human-Controllers to miss their dose of Kandrona rays, which caused a few humans to start becoming free. In order to address this issue, Controllers who had fed were given cylindrical devices to kill any freed hosts. Very shortly after the Animorphs killed the Veleek, the police department was notified that a man screaming about Yeerks was spotted outside the mall. A group of officers, alongside parademics, were dispatched to the mall parking lot, where one police officer, who was not infested, spotted the dying Yeerk coming out of the man's ear and exclaimed that the man was pulling his brains out. The police officers ushered the screaming man to the ambulance, where a cop-Controller stealthily injected the cylinder into the back of the man's head, killing him.^[7]

This section requires expansion

Appearances

This section requires expansion

• The Invasion
• The Encounter (mentioned)
• The Predator
• The Capture (mentioned)
• The Andalite's Gift
• The Alien
• The Decision (mentioned)
• The Pretender
• The Exposed
• The Hidden
• The Revelation

Gallery

Trivia

• In The Hidden, the inside cover illustration names them as "Orson Police", named after cover artist David Mattingly's pet cat Orson. However, this is not considered to be the canonical name of the Animorphs' city or of the police department.

Notes

References