Tokyo Unnatural Forensics

Chapter 418, The Metropolitan Police Department's Hellish Report

P.S.: It's a typhoon day today. The Emperor went out hunting but got stuck outside in a torrential downpour. Plus, this part required a lot of research, making it very difficult to write. So, today I'm combining the two parts into one 5400-word chapter. Hope you all enjoy reading!
Upon hearing the 87% failure rate, everyone present was stunned.

It's not that 87% are qualified! It's that 87% are unqualified!

The conclusions reached by the Minister of Security were horrifying.

Over the past 10 years, a full 87% of the bulletproof vests that the Metropolitan Police Department purchased from Yamato Armor were substandard!

"Impossible, this is impossible!" Watanabe Eiji was extremely puzzled by the result. He said in a deep voice, "If the failure rate is so high, at least several thousand police officers have worn bulletproof vests in the past 10 years, and there should have been at least dozens of live-fire tests. Why didn't they find it?"

"That's because..." The head of the security forces, Ide, told Watanabe Eiji with a wry smile about their discovery, along with Uesugi Muneyuki and Watanabe Minami, who were standing next to Watanabe Eiji.

Following Watanabe Eiji's instructions, the Security Department collected hundreds of bulletproof vests from different warehouses and batches of Yamato Armor from various parts of Tokyo under the guise of inventory management and replenishment. It was found that, apart from the bulletproof vests used by the Public Security Police and the SAT Special Police, almost all the other bulletproof vests were substandard!

Moreover, the problems were exactly the same as those discovered by the forensic team: insufficient Kevlar layers, substandard nylon used inside, disordered lamination, and uneven resin coating due to shoddy workmanship.

But why did the Japanese police never discover this problem?

Logically speaking, even if Japanese police have very few gunfights, even if most inspections are routine, and even if live-fire shooting is not mandatory, an 87% failure rate should not have been revealed until 10 years after the supply began!

"Ide, are you mistaken?" Watanabe Eiji said in a deep voice.

"No, Director, there's no mistake, we...we've all been tricked by Yamato Armor!" Chief Ide was sweating profusely.

He told Eiji Watanabe why the Japanese police had never discovered the problem with the bulletproof vest.

Because Yamato Armor used an extremely ingenious trick in its bulletproof vests, fooling the entire Japanese police force!

The reason lies in the standard firearms carried by Japanese police.

Japanese police are equipped with three standard firearms: the New Nambu M60 small revolver, the SW360 small revolver, and the SIGp290 pocket pistol, all of which use .38 caliber police ammunition!
Why choose these sidearms? It's similar to how special police forces both domestically and internationally favor the M4A1 and MP5. Many people like to mock these two guns for their poor stats and lack of power, but little do they know that's precisely what they need—insufficient power! Because the primary purpose of police officers, including special police, using firearms is not to kill people!
Controlling the power of firearms to prevent accidental killings, excessive force, and ricochets that could harm innocent civilians is a problem that the police system must consider.

And that's where Yamato Armor's trick lies!

Even if Japanese police did conduct live-fire tests on substandard bulletproof vests, handguns using small-caliber .38 police bullets, such as the Shin-Nanbu SW and SIGP290, would still be unable to penetrate the poorly made bulletproof vests!
Because police firearms are inherently weak, such as the SW small revolver, it is virtually impossible to kill someone directly with a shot at a distance of more than 20 meters.

This means that even if the police occasionally conduct live-fire tests on the bulletproof vests, and even if they encounter situations involving firearms while on duty, Japanese police are unlikely to discover any problems with the bulletproof vests.

It wasn't until this time, when they actually encountered the ghost in Ikebukuro, who actually had an M1911 .45 caliber pistol on him, and who actually fired at the police, that Yamato Armor's trick was accidentally exposed!
Body armor can protect against low-powered police pistols, but that's all it can do! It can't even stop standard .45 ammunition, let alone 7.62 and .45 AP armor-piercing rounds from an AK-47, according to regulations!

This is a NIJ Level 3 body armor with a hook-8 rating. Its bulletproof power is about the same as a Level 1 civilian body armor!
However, the Metropolitan Police Department purchased it at the price of a Level 3 bulletproof vest.

"After that, we switched to a .45 caliber pistol for testing, and this is the test report."

Uesugi Muneyuki and Watanabe Minami approached. Although both of them were novices, Minami, after joining the Metropolitan Police Department, was in the professional group but was assigned to the personnel department of the police affairs department. In reality, she had never been armed. Later, after being transferred to the Special Missions Division as the head, although she was armed, Minami never used it for a single day.

Needless to say, Uesugi Muneyuki knew absolutely nothing about firearms. If it weren't for Mikoto's experience as a forensic pathologist during her visiting scholar program in the United States, he wouldn't have been able to tell the difference.

This is also why Yamato is so fearless.

Approximately 40,000 people die from gun violence in the United States each year. Of these, 30,000 are suicides with firearms, and a little over 10,000 are murders with firearms (with another 1,000 or 2,000 cases involving unclear suicides, homicides, and accidental discharges). On average, more than 100 people die from gunshot wounds every day. As a result, American forensic pathologists are masters of examining gunshot wounds and have accumulated extremely rich experience in gunshot wound autopsies.

This is similar to how Japan is a master of parasites and geriatric diseases, the Shonan province of a certain country is a master of oral cancer, and the Sichuan region is a master of esophageal, gastrointestinal and anorectal diseases.

In contrast, the Tokyo Metropolitan Health and Medical Inspection Institute's eight autopsy teams can only manage one autopsy per year, let alone one for each team. They're considered "lucky" if they can autopsy even one gunshot-related death per year, and most of the time they don't even have one.

The security department urgently inspected 100 bulletproof vests from the sample.

Examination results:
89% of bulletproof vests have a fiber density in the heart area that is less than 70% of the standard value. Evaluation: High penetration rate.

79% of bulletproof vests had adhesive coverage of less than 50% in critical areas, indicating interlayer delamination failure.

Live-fire test:

Tested with 7.62 caliber rifle bullets, penetration rate was 100%, rating: instant lethal.
.
Tested with .45 caliber pistol ammunition, penetration rate was 68%. Assessment: Lucia roulette with her life on the line.

Overall failure rate: 87%.

Only a very small number of submitted samples, including bulletproof vests worn by public security police and SAT bulletproof vests, passed the test.

After saying all this, silence fell over the Superintendent's office. Outside, the night was pitch black, but the neon lights of Tokyo, still brightly lit even at midnight, shone through the windows into the Superintendent's office. The inscription "Political Purity and Harmony" on the wall was covered in a dark shadow. Only the medal that Watanabe Eiji had won when he was the head of the First Investigation Division, after a passionate gunfight with yakuza at the docks, reflected the light on the cabinet.

"Pfft!" Watanabe Eiji realized that people really do laugh when they're speechless: "I remember that theoretically, when testing bulletproof vests, standardized weapons are usually used, not personal weapons, right?"

"Yes... but the testing procedure for using standardized weapons is very troublesome. The procedure is complicated and requires signing a lot of documents. If a problem occurs, there will be a chain of accountability. Our country has very strict gun control. The use of standard firearms requires the triple signatures of the head of the equipment section, the general affairs minister, and the superintendent of police. So everyone finds it troublesome and is afraid of taking responsibility... so they changed to using their own weapons for testing."

To put it bluntly, the long-term peace within the Metropolitan Police Department and Japan's strict, almost obsessive, gun control measures have made accessing standardized weapons extremely cumbersome, so over time everyone has resorted to using their own personal weapons to get by.

"Damn it, how did the country become like this?!"

Eiji Watanabe slammed his fist on the table in anger and cursed.

The security chief, trembling with fear and drenched in sweat, asked, "Commander, what do we do now?"

"..." Watanabe Eiji gestured for him to go down first, as he needed some time to think.

The head of the security forces, Ide Saneatsu, left, leaving only Uesugi Muneyuki and Watanabe Minami in the room.

“Look at you, Zongxue, Minami, these are the Japanese police.” Watanabe Eiji’s voice was cold and barbed: “The National Police Agency and the Metropolitan Police Department’s annual inspection reports all say ‘equipment management is proper.’ And this is…?”

“The bulletproof vest that was supposed to be effective became a murder weapon; we all killed him,” Uesugi Muneyuki said coldly. “What should we do next? Should we go straight for Yamato Armor?” “No, we can’t!” Minami quickly exclaimed, “Uesugi! This won’t work!”

"Huh?!" Uesugi Muneyuki was stunned. It didn't work? Are you kidding me?!

“Minami is right, Muneyuki, doing it this way won’t work.” Watanabe Eiji forced himself to calm down: “Do you think that if we take the defective bulletproof vest to Yamato Armor and question them, the higher-ups at Yamato Armor will all be executed?”

"Otherwise what?" Uesugi Muneyuki was clearly furious as well. "Cardboard bulletproof vest"—this is a criminal-level fraud! These beasts! These bastards have fooled us all!
“It’s no use, Muneyuki.” Minami immediately grabbed Uesugi Muneyuki’s hand. She knew that Uesugi Muneyuki was not familiar with Japanese law and prosecution procedures, and immediately said, “If that’s all there is to it, then Yamato Armor can just apologize, admit its mistake, promise compensation, and then put forward a few scapegoats to take the blame.”

“Yes, with just this one report, we can’t really punish those bastards at Yamato Armor!” Watanabe Eiji gritted his teeth, his eyes bloodshot. He grabbed a wet wipe from the table and vigorously rubbed his cheeks. “Moreover, for Muneyuki, Minami, and Yamato Armor to dare to do this, there must be a huge profit chain running upstream and downstream. There must be many people within the headquarters, and even within the police department, who are taking their money. If we act rashly without sufficient evidence, not only will we fail to achieve our goal, but… I’ll be finished too.”

“…………” Uesugi Muneyuki was silent for a moment before finally understanding what it meant.

Yamato Armor became an official supplier to the Metropolitan Police Department and even the Japanese police 10 years ago. It would be absolutely impossible without transactions and operations. However, even though Watanabe Eiji himself, as the Superintendent General of Police, was unaware of this 10 years later, he only routinely received some annual gifts from Yamato Armor. This shows that Yamato Armor was very confident and no longer needed to pay tribute to the Superintendent General of Police.

"So, is it Tanaka, the head of general affairs?" Miss Minami asked tentatively.

"No...it can't be Tanaka. Do you know why I put Tanaka in the position of General Affairs Minister? It's because that kid was always timid. He would take what he was entitled to, but he would never take a penny more than he was entitled to. He can't solve cases, he can't investigate, and he's not good at analysis, but he's very capable in handling general affairs. That's why I arranged for him to be the General Affairs Minister." Watanabe Eiji said in a deep voice, "He only served in this position for a little over a year, so his words should still be trustworthy."

"If Minister Tanaka is not the problem, then the problem should lie with the head of the equipment section, the head of the allocation department, the inspector in charge of equipment in the police department, the warehouse management director, the forensic department's technical department, and the director of the forensic research department. At the same time, the equipment officers of major local police stations and subordinates of the security department are all suspects." Miss Minami, as expected of someone with a background in personnel, instantly found the key point.

“That should be the case. The General Affairs Minister only reviews the ‘cleaning’ reports submitted by the section chiefs, while the inspectors report directly to the Police Minister (bypassing the General Affairs Department).” Watanabe Eiji also frowned: “There is only one reason. These positions responsible for the safekeeping and review of equipment are all held by the previous Director Tabuchi or even earlier. They have taken the money layer by layer, manipulating things from top to bottom. It’s an ironclad group. If we investigate now, we won’t find any problems at all.”

“Historically, the positions involved in the Metropolitan Police Department’s bidding and procurement have always been lucrative and highly profitable ones. Moreover, these positions require relatively specialized knowledge. We are busy handling cases on the front lines all day long, so we never expect that when we encounter equipment problems, we can simply say that we are unlucky and ask the logistics department to replace them. And when it comes to the First Investigation Division, the logistics department will try its best to provide us with good equipment.”

"I understand." Uesugi Muneyuki understood and couldn't help but laugh. "So to put it bluntly, half of the safety and resource allocation of the entire Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is in their hands. If Sakuradamon wants to do something, only they can open the warehouse door?"

"So now you understand why we can't just declare war on Yamato Armor directly. With just a report of substandard quality, they'll coordinate from within and without, and the agency will be thrown into chaos. If we miss our target, the District Public Prosecutor's Office will get involved." Watanabe Eiji nodded. "Once the District Public Prosecutor's Office gets involved, Muneyuki, we're finished."

“The police organization will collapse, I will be forced to resign, the Special Missions Department will be disbanded, and all our efforts will be for naught.”

"We can't hand over control to the district prosecutor! Those people dream of dismantling our police organization!" Miss Minami was also anxious.

“But the problem now is that as more and more people find out about this, we can’t keep it a secret for long.” Watanabe Eiji looked at Uesugi Muneyuki: “With my current absolute control over the Metropolitan Police Department, we can only keep it a secret for a maximum of 72 hours! Maybe even only 48 hours! And if we get the Public Security Bureau to help us, the time to keep it a secret will be even shorter… Muneyuki, what are your thoughts?”

"..." Uesugi Muneyuki pondered for a moment, then suddenly said, "Speaking of which, isn't the head of the Equipment Management Department of the General Affairs Department the same person as Inspector Kashiwagi Meisa, the wife of Inspector Kashiwagi Jin, the head of the Third Department?"

"That's right! It's Meisa-nee!" Minami-sama remembered too, and reacted even faster: "Could Meisa-nee know something?"

“Probably not.” Uesugi Muneyuki and Watanabe Eiji shook their heads at the same time. Watanabe Eiji added, “Besides, she was only promoted to head of the Equipment Management Department after the last procurement.”

Uesugi Muneyuki had no idea what to do. Based on his few encounters with her, he felt that the woman's skill level was only good for doing some administrative work.

Ok? !

Thinking of this, the adoptive father, adoptive son, and Minami suddenly looked at each other with a tacit understanding.

That's right, your skill level isn't very high!

The problem is that her competence isn't quite there! Because she's only been in office for a short time, Meisa Kashiwagi is most likely unaware of the issues in the procurement process. And because of her lack of competence, it's highly probable that she hasn't gotten a share of the profits in this chain of interests.

This is actually a point that can be used!
"I'll handle it!" Uesugi Muneyuki said immediately. "Have Kashiwagi Meisa take the report on the bulletproof vests to Yamato Armor and talk to them! Not about the problems, but about money! That way, Yamato Armor will be in a difficult position and will understand the entire profit chain!"

"That makes perfect sense! With such a huge incident, as the head of the Equipment Management Department, Kashiwagi Meisa is undoubtedly responsible and may even face imprisonment. Even if she knows nothing, she cannot escape punishment. She is also the most likely person to discover the problem, so it's perfectly reasonable for her to have discovered it. It's also perfectly reasonable for her to take the initiative to seek protection and demand benefits, requesting to understand the whole situation or else she'll destroy the Yamato armor. This way, we can understand the situation within the headquarters through Kashiwagi Meisa!"

Uesugi Muneyuki became more and more excited as he spoke, and immediately stood up: "Let's do it like this tomorrow morning! As the person who performed the autopsy and was involved in the pursuit, it's perfectly reasonable for me to have noticed the problem during the autopsy and forensic examination!"

"Leave it to me, Godfather, Minami!"

As Watanabe Eiji and Watanabe Minami listened to Uesugi Muneyuki's plan, their eyes grew brighter and brighter.

This has potential! And it makes a lot of sense!
As expected of my godson/fiancé, you can even come up with a solution for this? Hagi Xue, is there anything you and your Special Missions Department can't do?
But when they heard that Uesugi Muneyuki intended to personally intervene, the father and daughter almost simultaneously shouted, "No! Absolutely not!"

"Huh? Why?" Uesugi Muneyuki was taken aback.

"Muneyuki! Do you know how many people you're offending by doing this?" Minami was so anxious she almost jumped up. She grabbed Uesugi Muneyuki's arm tightly: "This involves 130,000 bulletproof vests across Japan and a 10-year supply chain. The amount involved alone exceeds 10 billion yen, and that doesn't even take into account other police equipment!"

“It’s an entire chain of interests, with countless people and companies sharing the profits. Millions of fishermen’s livelihoods depend on it. Ming Sha doesn’t care; she can give up if she wants. She was just a lowly internal affairs officer in the General Affairs Section anyway. We’ll protect her. But you can’t, Zong Xue. You absolutely cannot get involved! Doing so will offend many people inside and outside the department!”

"No way! Absolutely not!" Minami knew Uesugi Muneyuki's temper, and she roared angrily, "As long as I'm alive, I absolutely won't allow it! Muneyuki! If you don't think about yourself, think about me, think about your master, and think about Asuka who waits for you to come home every day!"

“But…” As expected, Uesugi Muneyuki hesitated.

If he were to charge into battle himself, that would be fine; he could sacrifice his own interests. But how could he be so generous with other people's resources?
Just then, Eiji Watanabe spoke up. The Superintendent General of Police placed his hands on his stomach, clasped his hands together, and buried his face in the shadows of the room. Leaning back, he said meaningfully, "Let Jin Kashiwagi handle this."

"?" Uesugi Muneyuki and Minami both stopped what they were doing.

“It makes perfect sense to have Kashiwagi from the Second Department handle this. He’s Meisa’s husband, so he’d know about the bulletproof vest issue,” Watanabe Eiji said calmly. “Isn’t this the very time we’re keeping him around?”

"Besides, Zong Xue, you've already saved him twice, haven't you? This time, it's his turn to sacrifice for us. We can't always be the ones cleaning up his messes while he doesn't have to do anything, can we?"

"I think Kashiwagi would definitely be willing, and very willing at that. After all, this is an opportunity to become famous throughout the country, and even internationally! Isn't this what he's been dreaming of? As the saying goes, you get what you ask for. If Kashiwagi wants it, we'll grant it!"

Uesugi Muneyuki and Watanabe Minami rolled their eyes.

Yup!

This is probably what a win-win situation looks like, right?

(End of this chapter)