Psi Division

Psi Division (Psionics Division) is a fictional organisation in the "Judge Dredd" and "Anderson, Psi Division" comic strips in "2000 AD" and the "Judge Dredd Megazine". It is the branch of Mega-City One's Justice Department that deals in supernatural phenomena, using Judges with psychic abilities. Psi Judges are often highly-strung and eccentric as a result of the strain of their abilities. While Judge Anderson is its most famous operative, Judges Janus and Karyn have also proved notable. The current head of Psi Division is Judge Shenker.

The psi judges fulfill many roles on behalf of the Justice Department, including reading the minds of prisoners unwilling to disclose information, providing for warning of great events to affect Mega-City One and others, and providing a skilled force of specialist judges to counter supernatural threats to the city, such as the Dark Judges. ["2000 AD" #150] During the time when the Dark Judges were imprisoned in a vault beneath the Hall of Justice, a team of psi judges were on hand to provide a constant watch over the malignant spirits, suppressing any psychic activity should they become restless.

While Psi Division was once a well respected and influential division, it has since lost much of its prestige due to its failure to predict several major disasters, the most recent being a nuclear attack on the city in the "Total War" story. ["2000 AD" #1422] As a result, the division is no longer represented on the Council of Five, ["2000 AD" #1178] and in the story "After The Bombs" it was seen going to extreme lengths to salvage its reputation. ["2000 AD" #1422] It has been noted in the past few years that Psi Division has always relied on a few gifted operatives such as Anderson. Over the last few years far too many of these have been killed or rendered useless and the division is having a hard time replacing them. ["ibid."]

Within Psi Division are two sub-divisions - Exorcist Judges, who deal with exorcising demonic activity, and the Department of Magic who were tasked with examining magic and how best to judge it. The Department of Magic's former head, Judge Fauster, was caught manipulating the Half Life virus crisis in order to achieve immortality, causing a wave of carnage within Mega-City One. Fauster was arrested and sentenced to life (which, given that he had already achieved immortality, will be a very long sentence indeed). ["Anderson, Psi-Division: City of Death" Part 6, Judge Dredd Megazine #236]

Psi judges

Because of the psi judges' special status within the Justice Department, they are entitled to more specialised equipment and procedures, such as the ability to carry silver boot knives and special silver tipped rounds for their firearms. ["Judge Dredd: Asylum", Judge Dredd Megazine Vol.4 #5]

Psi judges also have an unusual uniform quirk, whereby their badges, (bearing the name of any other form of judge) simply reads: PSI. This has been apparent in several comic strips featuring the Psi judges (although not in all of them, with some artists simply depicting the judge's surname instead).

Psi Division also uses civilian auxiliaries and even prisoners to supplement its contingent of judges, as anyone with psychic powers is potentially useful to Justice Department. ["Juliet November: Phoenix Falling", Judge Dredd Megazine #202-4]

List of Psi Division personnel

References