Head of SFPD's Special Investigations Unit
Karrin was a police officer in the Chicago PD for a decade. Recently, the Lieutenant and her entire division was moved to the San Francisco Police Force under hurried and hush hush circumstances. An award winning martial artist, she makes it her business to kick ass and take names. The Special Investigations unit she leads is the place where most unsolvable cases go to die, as the crimes were committed by those of a supernatural ilk. Despite that, she does her best to protect the people of her new city from things she only has some grasp on.
Personality[]
Karrin is tiny, but fierce. Her short and stocky build only belies the stubbornly loyal woman of conviction that she is. Used to relying on herself as opposed to other people, she tends to be stubborn and closed off, trying to fix things on her own rather than get other people wrapped up in her own mess. However, that does not go for information or for the truth. She always believes that knowing everything is the best way to educate and protect people is to let them know what they are up against. She takes trust very seriously and when someone breaches that trust, she will make them pay, though she is also open to forgiveness.
Perhaps her most defining characteristic is that she cares. She cares about the people she protects as a police officer as well as her friends and her family as well as anyone she believes needs it. When she slows down, she is understanding and patient. In both that and everything else, she is a passionate woman who does not take no for an answer. Almost a force of nature, she will do what she must in order to keep those she loves and protects safe and she won't stop doing so until she is either dead or physically and mentally unable to do so.
SKILLS[]
GUNS[]
Expert
Karrin knows how to shoot multiple weapons and has a collection of firearms in her personal collection. She's a very good shot and can even make her own bullets.
INVESTIGATION[]
Competent
As a police lieutenant, Murphy is can put the pieces of a mystery together. She worked her way up from Detective, so she is used to solving cases. Shes smart and observant, which helps in her line of work.
LORE[]
Novice
Karrin knows that there are things that go bump in the night. In fact, she even knows certain details about them and how best to defend herself against some of them. However, most of her knowledge comes from Harry Dresden and he has not been the most forthcoming with it. As such, she knows the basics and few of the specifics.
MARTIAL ARTS[]
Expert
From a very young age, Karrin has practiced the martial arts. From the age of four she's done aikido and practiced various other fighting forms almost every day since she was seventeen. To date, she has studied: Aikido, Wing Chun, Jujitsu, Kali, Savate, Krav Maga, Taekwondo, Judo, Boxing and Shaolin Kung Fu. She is able to take on and fight against people much taller and stronger than she is with a good chance of besting them.
POLICE WORK[]
Competent
Karrin knows more than just how to investigate a case. She knows all the proper procedures and ways of securing a scene in order to make sure that the evidence is admissible in court. She also knows the ins and outs of police departments and the best way to try and get things seen or buried.
SWORDSMANSHIP[]
Novice
While not nearly as good with swords as hand to hand combat or with guns, Karrin is used to fighting with a sword. She can hold her own against other fighters, due to her ability to use her training as a martial artist, but she is not a master.
POWERS[]
ADVANTAGES[]
ARSENAL[]
Her interests and collections have given her quite the collection of both exotic weapons as well as a myriad of guns. She has permits for all of them and knows how to use them.
GRIT[]
Karrin is not the type to take no for an answer. She is the leader of a sidelined department that no one believes in, yet still gets the job done. Determined and headstrong, she never quits and she doesnt give in to hopelessness. She will face down both higher ups and werewolves square shouldered and without balking.
HARRY DRESDEN[]
Karrin doesnt have an extensive knowledge of the occult or the other world outside the mortal one. However, she does know Harry Dresden and how to get in contact with him. Having a wizard in her corner has helped her more than once.
LOYAL[]
Once a person has Karrin's friendship and trust, she will do just about anything for that person without question and without worrying about the consequences. She is a true friend and will never ask for anything in return for helping. The same side of the coin, she will be honest and unyielding with her friends, helping and comforting where need be.
SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS[]
The Special Investigations group are a small and loyal bunch. Theyre used to taking on the weird cases no one expects to be solved. While they may not have much political clout, they look after each other and are able to work things inside the system. She will do whatever she can for them and they will do the same for her.
STRONG STOMACH[]
Having worked a lot of cases with people who have been torn apart and worse, Karrin is not the type to get woozy around horrible things.
WEAKNESSES[]
CHIP ON HER SHOULDER[]
The world has not been kind of Karrin. She's used to fighting for everything and she doesn't back down easily. She's not the type to soften herself for the benefit of other people and let people know when she's felt as if she's been misused or her trust has been abused. She won't hold her feelings of anger or disapproval back, though the softer ones like love and respect are hard won and less readily meted out.
CLOSED OFF[]
Her failed marriages and family troubles have led Karrin to become closed off and wary of making friends. She tends to push people away or try and solve all her problems on her own because she thinks they will leave her first.. There are many people she would kill for, but she doesn't tend to expect other people to do the same for her.
DISTRUSTING[]
Karrin has trust issues, especially lately. She's in the middle of a struggle that she knows she doesn't fully understand and she can tell that many of the people she investigates and deals with aren't telling her the full story. As such, she has gotten in the habit of not believing them. The problem, however, goes all the way back to her father committing suicide. She genuinely believes that everyone will leave her.
FAMILY ISSUES[]
Karrin values family quite a lot. However, her own family is one that is rather in shambles. Her father killed himself when she was a girl. Her younger sister is engaged to her ex husband. A family is something that is something she wants dearly, but also fears.
STUBBORN[]
Karrin has a very distinct point of view and she is not about to change it without good reason. In fact, even when there may be some good reason involved, if she has made up her mind about something it is very difficult to get her to change it. She will do things her own way and, often, by herself if she has decided that is the best way forward that will cause the least amount of harm to the people around her.
TOEING THE LINE[]
Dealing with the supernatural in a very political and procedural place such as the police department is a study in tightrope walking. In order to help people and do her job, she often has to lie on police reports, explaining away a vampire attack as terrorists, a building destroyed by magic as a bombing. In order to do her job - protect the people - properly, at times she has to operate outside of the letter of the law. While it's necessary, it leaves her uncomfortable and at risk of losing a job she loves dearly.
Karrin Murphy always knew she wanted to be a cop. Her father was a cop and she was very close to him - admiring his ability to help people and make Chicago safer. She had a relatively happy and uneventful childhood until the age of eleven when her father killed himself. After that, her happy family life fell to shambles. She threw herself into aikido, which she and her father used to do together, and school work.
As soon as she was able, she became a police officer and started to work her way up the ranks. She made detective with little trouble, having a reputation of being tough and smart. Some of the older officers remembered her father, but other than the brief introductions, many were tactful enough to not bring him up around her.
It did not take long, however, for Karrin to start asking questions: the wrong kind of questions. The ones that dealt with why certain cases never got solved or why some people disappeared and no one cared. Being a stubborn woman, despite the advice of her superiors, she continued to work those cases and try and figure out what was actually going on despite the push back. Her commendable record made it hard for them to fire her, so they instead played the political move: she was promoted. To Special Investigations, where cops go to run out their career or transfer. No one seemed to last there very long. But, of course, Karrin is not most people. She'd started to see that there was far more to the world than what the precinct believed and decided to use the promotion as an opportunity and not career suicide.
She started to gather the knowledge around her, hiring Harry Dresden on retainer when she realized that he was the real thing. Pushing back against the higher ups, she used the SI to help people by listening to crazy theories and using the system as a tool to assist them and investigate the unsolvable cases that were only unsolvable because people didn't believe in the supernatural. While she still does not know everything about the supernatural world, she's getting a better grip on it and she's doing the best she can to protect the people she cares for as well as the innocent citizens of her city.