Forum:KB:Identification?

I'm curious... what sort of identification laws are there? I recall from the old WEG stuff that ships and certain weapons had to be licensed, but, if I recall, it was rather sparse on the subject of personal identification. As I recall, Han Solo needed a valid Imperial ID in order to become an officer, but it's somewhat unclear as to whether he had one before. Now, while his retinal patterns were stored in criminal databases, that didn't seem to indicate that there was a widespread cataloguing of individuals in the Empire.

I think I can see how this arises... Consider the Republic: A loose confederation of systems organized around a somewhat powerful but also remarkably powerless core. The Senate typically levied local armies to intervene in conflicts before the Grand Army of the Republic was recommissioned under Palpatine from its long disenfranchisement. It would seem that identification cards and widespread cataloguing of personal data would be scarce at best. Any system that implemented it would find immediate opposition from other systems and be forced to abandon it...

Later, in the Empire, the process is even more spectacularly corrupt, despite the stronger centralization. Imperial Moffs would be more than happy to piss on identification laws if it allowed their more covert operatives to engage in illicit activities with a minimum of tracking.

Consider all the books and scenes where people are in and out of ports. Even when customs agents are present, no one is checking papers or passports or identification.

Mind you, in Coruscant Nights, they seem aware of (many of) the Jax Pavans on Coruscant, but then in Wedge's Gambit it was established that Coruscanti security was tight under the Empire's reign, at least as tight as it could effectively be made. Though, Coruscant Nights has other oddities... Jachra 07:11, 27 January 2009 (UTC)