Main Force Patrol

The Main Force Patrol (MFP) was a fictional Australian Federal Police special task force depicted in the film "Mad Max". Its purpose was to support the regular police in combatting organized crime, especially motorized criminal biker gangs, and act as a highway patrol on the Transcontinental Highways.

Background

A brief prologue covers the events preceding the original "Mad Max" (no backstory was offered in that movie). After uprisings and an extended war due to energy shortages destabilized the country, marauding biker gangs began to terrorize the townspeople in the Australian desert. The crumbling remants of the government created a tiny, underfunded group of special highway patrol officers to try and restore order to the outback. Max Rockatansky, is a police officer who the film called the force's "top pursuit man."

However, it is quite evident throughout "Mad Max", that the MFP is poorly funded and run down. They operate out of a dilapidated complex of buildings known as the Halls of Justice. Prisoners are generally held with shackles and officers have been known to use weapons, such as sawn-off shotguns, not generally sanctioned for police use. At one point, due to the red-tape of the legal system, Captain "Fifi" McAfee tells his officers that "so long as the paperwork's clean, you boys can do what you like out there". This possibly implies why the MFP don't come after Max when he goes on his vengeful rampage, although radio messages do mention a rogue officer taking a Pursuit Special.

Civilian slang for MFP officers is "Bronze", due to the bronze badges they wear. (A memorandum overheard in the Halls of Justice actively discourages this nickname)

In "", there is a much more pronounced breakdown of civilization. In the prologue, a narrator tells us that the world has "crumbled and...the cities have exploded" in a "whirlwind of looting and a firestorm of fear, in which 'men began to feed on men'". Some of Lord Humongous' biker gang raiders appear to be wearing worn-out MFP uniforms.

See also

* Pursuit Special
* Max Rockatansky

External links

* [http://www.mainforcepatrol.com/ Main Force Patrol a fansite]
* [http://main-force-patrol.skynetblogs.be/ Another fansite]
* [http://www.roadwarusa.com/roadwar151/ Roadwar 151 site]
* [http://www.madmax-jp.com/English/top.html MFP Clothing Branch: Japanese fansite]