Hello everyone. I have received news of several people marking the story as a 'Favorite', and I am pleased to see the response. I would prefer more people wrote something about what they would like included, after all this is a work in progress and the readers have a say, but I know this Zootopian story is still fairly young, no rush.
One of the things that bothered me about the end of the film was the seemingly clean transition between Nick's dubious lifestyle, to life as a cadet and eventual graduate of the Police Academy. Part of this chapter deals with how Nick transitioned into being a regular citizen and what that required. In general, I want to avoid a Deus ex Machina that magically makes everything work out, but in this case the creators already seemed to have gone ahead with one, so I have to work with it and fit in a few things to explain them.
I want to say thank you to Archangel12575 for some useful points about an appropriate model for the ZPD. I will make a few adjustments to rank structure that I think better match LAPD since the command structure of the NYPD burroughs is not quite how the ZPD seems to be structured. For some things, like officer education, I will keep the NYPD model because it allows me to write some useful backstories - I will explain:
The rules for joining the NYPD require 60 college-level credits and the background provided by Disney suggests that both Judy and Nick are high school graduates. Given that Judy is 24 when she starts training I have to think she has had some tertiary education, maybe her family could not afford to send her to a four-year university, but she would not have dawdled, she would have some classes under her belt. Given his life as a hustler, Nick probably followed less-traditional education methods, but he still went to high school where he would have met Flash ('100-yd Dash'). To meet officer entrance requirements I will assume that Nick had to do online distance-learning while in the Academy and probably still has requirements to fulfill. He likely got accepted to the Academy thanks to recommendation letters (most likely from Judy) and from his service on the NightHowler case. Right now he is wrapping up those requirements and still holds something of a 'probationary status' in the ZPD.
The issue of Nick's taxes I will solve in this chapter as well, again with the closest thing to a Deus ex Machina that I intend to use for this compilation.
So that deals with how we got to now thanks to the original writers, but now to the issues tackled in the last few chapters.
Thanks to the efforts of Judy, Geraldine, Nick, and several other officers in Precinct One as of the last chapter, Chief Bogo is left with little choice but to investigate improper conduct among his officers. As Nick surmised in the last chapter, no such investigation fails to uncover something that was previously hidden, even if it was not the target of the investigation. Often these shake ups may reveal things we conveniently swept under the rug when it may have been inconvenient for our purposes. Sometimes we violate rules simply because there is no enforcement and because the 'proper path' is too damning.
Now to the story.
It was now Saturday, and Judy was feeling much more relaxed and pleased with herself and her life in general. Since handing off her documents to Chief Bogo and emailing her report to other Captains and the Deputy Chief, Judy had been getting along fairly well with her work again.
The first reason for this was that she was finally getting proper sleep and not having to keep herself fueled by constant consumption of carrots. Despite popular belief that she and other bunnies lived on the sweet, orange root vegetables, carrots possessed very high glycemic indeces and were a major health risk in terms of maintaining proper blood sugar. Several of Judy's distant brothers and sisters had contracted diabetes from over-consumption of carrots and now lived in rather poor physical condition, with weakened immune systems. Judy was glad to return to a more stable diet, she needed one if she was going to remain an effective cop and avoid such a fate.
The second reason for her improved well-being was that she got to see Nick again after work, and it had made a big difference in her life.
In just a short time as a ZPD officer Judy had grown quite close to the sardonic fox. Their relationship had begun as somewhat antagonistic but had grown to one of close friendship during her recovery after their first case and his time at the Academy. Now that they were partners the relationship bordered on codependency. Nick was the only officer in the unit who was close enough in size to her that he could use the same equipment, drive the same vehicles, and stick close to her when investigations or chases went through narrow spaces in the city. Other rabbits were now applying to the Academy after the example she set, but it would be a while before any of them graduated, and whether they got to work for the ZPD was another matter entirely. For now, Judy absolutely relied on Nick to support her in her work. It made her glad she had pushed so hard for the department to accept him into the Academy and then assign him to work as her partner.
While off-duty on the weekends, as she was now, Judy enjoyed having a chance to just call on Nick and spend some time with him around the city. She knew that this particular Saturday he had to study for an exam that he was taking on Sunday, but she hoped he would have a few hours to hang out this afternoon. In fact she was counting on it, since she had just jogged from her place over to his apartment and was headed up the stairwell. If he did not take a bit of time off now, she probably would not see him until they got back to work on Monday... Sunday he would be doing nothing but last minute studying and the test.
Judy felt pumped and excited as she approached the Nick's door.
As Judy was coming up to see him, Nick sat in his apartment, bent over his desk, scribbling away at the notes he had been taking during the lecture he had listened to the previous evening and this morning. While schoolwork was something he generally abhorred, he would stomach it for the sake of keeping his new job, because these particular grades could make or break his new status.
When Nick got accepted into the Police Officer Training Program he had mostly been coasting on recommendations from Judy and Chief Bogo since he lacked the necessary college credits required for new applicants. Thus he had to take some extra aptitude tests, and afterwards his status as a cadet and then ZPD officer was conditional upon him completing sixty credits (the minimum for officers) within the period including his training and the first two years of service. Nick now had over thirty completed credits with perfect final marks. Most of the courses included some form of technical writing since being an officer meant he had to write up loads of reports efficiently and keep proper paperwork.
Having been a con-artist, Nick knew the demands of attention to detail, and his talent for the craft had certainly been an asset to him in this aspect of his scholastics. He would soon increase the number of completed credits to almost forty. As it stood, he would probably complete his requirements well before the deadline. The Zootopian University, or 'zoo' as many referred to it, had a number of online courses that made distance education possible, and Nick had breezed through most of his classes with little difficulty, but not without a substantial investment of time. He had not been able to see much of anyone or take much time for fun activities while he took care of these classes and took exams. Finnick he only saw on rare occasions, and his Mom he saw even less often than usual these days. Still, it was a good feeling to see the results of these efforts - it affirmed that he had the smarts to handle this job.
Despite having a minimal formal education, Nick was quite intellectually gifted, particularly when it came to questions of logic, economics (thus practical mathematics), and civics; although his first-hand knowledge did not always agree with the theory he had to memorize for his exams. Right now he was going over notes he made about the separation of powers between the Mayor's office, the Council, the Courts, the Magistrates, and other small subsidiary branches of the democratically-elected federal system of Zootopia. Nick had to withhold his personal insight on the real checks and balances that were not considered proper channels. Much of what he was asked to regurgitate in these exams was theoretical pablum written by animals that lived in ivory towers and spent their time reading essays written by other similarly disconnected animals like themselves. Nowhere in all of these lectures was there mention of crime-bosses, gangs, bureaucratic abuses and bottlenecks to law that pervaded life at the street level. For Nick, life had always been about navigating these pitfalls in the system in order to get anything done. This was essential when you were a citizen who was considered to belong to a lower social class of animal. Nevertheless, his exams did not allow for alternative (and in reality 'more accurate') statements that he could bring to the fore. Face-to-face he might have argued his points, but he cared more about getting his credits so he could keep his status as an officer than simply winning arguments, so he made the adjustments.
Judy would probably come by any minute to steal him away for the rest of the afternoon, and he would not be able to study for most of the rest of the day. He could practically set his clock by Judy: she came every Saturday afternoon around 2 PM, after she had made calls to her family in Bunnyburrow and taken care of some volunteer work she liked to do with the Friends-of-Zootopia charity. He liked having her visit, but at times her arrival bordered on intrusion since he could do nothing to stop her. There was no turning her away or saying that he felt like being alone. No matter what the weather, no matter his condition or desire, Judy would be there.
Seeing that it was only five minutes until the arrival of his expected visitor, Nick sat back and just took the time to soak in what he had been studying and bask in the comfort of his current state of existence. Being a police officer was at times a difficult and odd pursuit for him; not one he had every really imagined for himself. Still, compared to where he had been before, there was no question that he was in a better place... if only it had been easier to make the transition.
One serious problem Nick had had to face when pursuing a legitimate career path was his previous tax evasion. While he had never dealt in illicit material, threatened other animals' livelihoods, or endangered the lives of his fellow citizens, he had effectively 'broken the law' for much of his adult life. Hustling a few pawpsicles was not the issue, but making money on his transactions and purposefully not reporting it to the government was not something to be taken lightly. However, true to his clever nature, Nick had managed to erase those infractions and in one fell swoop cut his ties to a number of organizations of 'questionable' business practice. He allowed himself a small feeling of pride to think about it.
Shortly after the arrest of former Mayor Bellweather, Nick had met with Mr. Big about their former business relationship. After Judy's involvement in a number of events that had direct and positive impacts on Mr. Big - rescuing his daughter Fru Fru and friend Emmett Otterton - the small mob boss found a somewhat forgiving nature when he spoke with 'Nicky'. Reminiscing about his late Grandmama's affection for the clever fox certainly helped. The two had agreed on a mutual severing of all business ties in exchange for a redistribution of Nick's saved wealth - with a fee to Mr. Big for the time and effort of conducting this redistribution. Since the majority of Nick's customers (Lemming brothers, Little Rodentia Construction, etc.) were subsidiary companies or affiliates of Mr. Big's 'legitimate' businesses, Mr. Big was able to have 'Nicky' meet with some of his attorneys and write off the money he made in his transactions as a series of 'gifts' between Mr. Big and the 'Wilde Trust': an account set aside for Nick to provide for himself and his mother, Kate. It legitimized a lot of Nick's residual wealth, and left his Mom with full, legal access to his money.
While this arrangement between a new police officer and a well-known organized crime boss was not an ideal arrangement for Nick, particularly if he came under the eye of Internal Affairs, it was preferable to five years in prison, and much of the actual paperwork that could tie the two together was so convoluted and disorganized that there was only a weak correlation between them. The end result was that Nick came to his new position with the ZPD with a history that was neither spotless nor soiled-beyond-legitimacy: a relatively average new recruit. Thus Nick was no longer at risk of arrest for false reports to the Zootopian Revenue Service, and he and Mr. Big cut all business ties, allowing Nick to live his life without any further involvement from the mob.
It had not been easy, but so far it seemed to work.
While Nick sat relaxing and reflecting on these changes, Judy came to his door and knocked. He checked his watch and smiled to see that his prediction of her timeliness had come true.
One of these days I should just sit at the door and open it right at this exact moment, he thought to himself. Nick stretched his arms and went to answer the door. Reaching for the handle, Nick opened the door and found his shorter friend just where she always was at this time of day: right behind his door handle and just a half-step to the side. They smiled as their eyes met, and without another word, Nick grabbed his keys and stepped out into the hallway before turning and locking the door behind him. Not a word was spoken, and the two physically mismatched animals walked to the stairwell (the elevator in the building was nonfunctional) and walked down to the street. Judy had been in his room a few times when visiting: it was a bit like hers over the 'Grand' Pangolin Arms in that it was narrow, grungy and cheap. Judy had marveled at the similarities, but Nick did not have the same romantic attachment to it that Judy had with her place. He had lived in similar places all his life. This place served its purpose and would keep until he decided to move to a better place after he saved enough money... or found a decent roommate to share a place with.
The two friends spent the whole afternoon just wandering the Downtown section, and only occasionally stopped to say something to one another and peek in on something through a window. This was a somewhat lazy afternoon. Judy knew she could not take Nick too far from his notes since he needed to be able to get back to it without interruption or re-integration of his thought processes. She mostly waited for him to ask a question or start a conversation topic.
If it had not been a test-weekend, the two of them might have gone somewhere more exotic: the Canals, the Canyonlands, the Marshes, maybe the Rainforest... with a city the size of Zootopia it would be hard to ever see everything, even if one wandered different streets every day for years on end. With only the odd weekend between them, it meant they almost always had somewhere new to visit.
Judy loved these times since it gave her the chance to see a new part of the city. For Nick it was much like visiting a room you hadn't been in for a little while, though it was all part of the same house you grew up in. It was good for him to do this with Judy, though. Her perspective of a place he considered old or unimpressive became imbued with the magic of new experience for him too... she infused his whole world with a little bit of the beauty that she saw, and it was good for him.
After two hours of wandering the town and feeling the hum and beat of Zootopia, Nick and Judy returned to his apartment and sat practicing some of his exam questions for the next hour. Nick broke out some diet-neutral energy bars that both he and Judy could consume while they worked. The bar flavors were Eucalyptus for Judy, and Blueberry for Nick.
As the sun began to dip from the sky, Judy decided to call it an afternoon, bid Nick goodbye, and walked herself down the street. The gentle-creature in Nick was insisting that he go out and help his friend home, but the part of him that knew the independent, self-reliant aspects of Judy's personality forced him to remain at home and let his friend walk herself. Thus Nick waved goodbye to Judy and returned to his studies.
"So how was the exam?" Judy asked Nick as they came into the precinct Monday morning.
"No real surprises, but it's hard sometimes to go with the answers they give you to choose from. Carrots, have you even seen some of those questions? Half of what they write in those books is garbage. Real politicians and bureaucracies don't work like that. They make back-door deals, they agree with animals of 'low-repute' and they often have vices that are pretty creepy - things that should disqualify them from public office."
She patted his arm. "Well, that's where we come in. We'll spot flaws, clean up corruption, and make the world the way so it fits with the ideal."
Nick smiled and shook his head a little. Judy was ever the dreamer, and while he rarely had as much hope on these matters as she did, he would not want her any other way. As they took their seats, Judy's expression turned more serious. She had not heard anything from the Chief since she had given him the document and sent copies to the other Chief Officers in the ZPD. Today she hoped he would be bringing some changes that would start to make an impact on the department.
The Chief's silhouette appeared in the glass of the door, and Officer Perkins announced "Attention on deck." The contingent snapped to and everyone held themselves at their full height, but then something strange happened; the Chief did not enter the room.
For several long minutes the officers maintained their at-attention position and waited for the Chief to come through the door and give them their orders for the day, but still he made no move. His silhouette just hung in the glass, with a slight change in aspect now then that indicated he was slowly turning his head side-to-side. Some officers started stiffening their backs, producing popping sounds in their joints. Next to McHorn, Judy could hear a slow, sharp inhalation through the rhino officer's tight nostrils as he stood waiting for orders, and it pierced Judy's ears. In the back of the room, Nick could just make out the sound of Wolford grinding his teeth; a nervous habit Nick had noticed in the wolf officer. Judy looked over to her right to see Officer Fangmeyer clenching and un-clenching her paws as she stood at attention. She looked back at Judy and gave her a look that said she had no idea what was going on either.
For several interminable minutes this persisted: Chief Bogo's silhouette hung in the glass of the door near the front of the room, Perkins stood at attention with the whole unit, and occasionally the hippo officer looked to the side to see if Bogo would finally open the door. After a short time everyone in the room was making some form of fidgeting, nervous noise.
Finally the door flew open and smacked against the wall. Many of the officers had actually started to zone out and were surprised by the sudden smash of the door against the wall. Bogo walked in on heavy hooves, clenching his clipboard tightly and making every step very deliberate. Many animals would not be able to differentiate Chief Bogo's anger from his normal crankiness. The officers who had worked under him for years were among the few in Zootopia who knew when the 'big-softie' was genuinely peeved. This was one of those moments.
Bogo stood in front of the room, and in view of his crankiness, no one made to offer a 'psyche-up' chant. Bogo in turn did not tell the officers to be seated, but launched right into what he had to say.
"The unit will remain at attention until I say otherwise."
No one spoke, but several officers that had begun to slacken their posture stood taller. Bogo continued.
"It has come to my attention that there have been a number of inappropriate comments, advances, and other interactions in this precinct that violate our code of professional conduct. This behavior has particularly impacted a number of concerned female citizens and several female officers."
Heads turned to several of the female officers in the room. Most turned to Judy but she sat solid and facing forward. Nick noticed that a few of the gazes were actually directed at him and his posture sunk ever so slightly under their gazes.
"Eyes up HERE!" Bogo thundered and the contingent snapped to. "There has been a backlog of reports of this misconduct, and while I have been doing what I can to address the problem, I have been remiss in determining how effective my response has been. First and foremost I want all officers who have made reports to know that new action is being taken and a full accounting of the need to change begins now."
Bogo placed his glasses on his nose as he read from his clipboard.
"Beginning this evening, each and every officer will be undergoing Workplace Harassment Training to learn more about this issue. All of you will be made aware of when harassment occurs and whether or not what you are doing, or what you are enduring, from colleagues constitutes harassment. Further, I will be meeting individually with those who have submitted incident reports to obtain a full description of each incident and will be speaking with those about whom reports have been written. While I take no pleasure in administering disciplinary action I will stick to the no-tolerance policy of this department which I have grown lax in enforcing. All officers who have demonstrated improper conduct will be held accountable. Additionally, all officers will produce handwritten or typed reports about what they synthesize from the lectures I mentioned previously."
Heads turned to the side to whisper and a few groans echoed around the room. Bogo slammed the podium and many officers jumped.
"EYES ON ME! I'm not leaving this issue to some nonsense, multiple choice, box-checking crap. This kind of behavior will NOT be tolerated either in this precinct or ANY OTHER precinct in Zootopia. When you put on those uniforms, you promise to represent the very best of this city, and as a unit you are coming up short. I have no room for those who cannot obey the law or the policy of this department and I will administer punishment to ANYONE who flagrantly disobeys the rules. Officer Clawhauser has your assignments for the day as well as your training and assessment schedules. You will attend your scheduled meetings, you will provide me with a written synthesis of what you learn, and if I think you fail to absorb the necessary lessons from this course, or that you fail to demonstrate proper conduct as officers of the ZPD, you will be subject to a hearing, removed from duty, and depending on the severity of your infractions you may suffer legal prosecution. DISMISSED."
With that, Bogo walked out of the bullpen, leaving his officers with a range of looks of stunned, terrified, pleased, excited... and angry.
After getting their assignments from Ben, Nick and Judy both decided to hit the bathrooms before hitting the streets. Nick finished early and walked from the office corridor. As he walked he heard the busy typing, paper-shuffling, and chair rolling of the humming back offices where desk officers worked, and where the information that beat cops like him operated on was generated, processed, and turned into orders.
As Nick passed the offices he entered a corridor of private offices. This was where supervisory officers sat a lot of the day when they needed to think, work through the mountains of paperwork they had, or just be out of the fray. Nick liked the thought one day he might be in here... if he were a detective he might even get there faster.
"Hey Fox." A voice called to him threateningly as he walked down the hallway. Nick froze and looked behind him to see the large polar bear officer Grizzoli, who stood at the end of the hallway. The large predator had a very petulant look about him.
"What's the deal getting the Chief all steamed at everyone?" Grizzoli challenged.
Nick faced him, and though he felt nervous by the show of aggression, he spoke his peace. "I didn't get anyone steamed, Grizzoli. I spoke to the Chief about a problem, and asked him to think about it. Nothing more."
"Oh, really? Seems like you and Hopps are back at stirring things up. You know it's hard enough on this job without having this crap at the office. Let the hippies and the whiners complain about laws and let us do our job on enforcement."
"Well laws weren't made perfect Grizzoli. And my partner and a lot of other officers suffered some unjust treatment. I just let the Chief know there were problems and something needed to be done, others came forward with specifics. I never told him how to handle it, that's his prerogative." Nick defended. Grizzoli took a few heavy steps closer to Nick.
"Maybe it's hard for you to understand, seeing as you're a fox and all, but in this unit we take care of our own. Since you so willingly went to blab at the Chief, I guess you wouldn't know what that means. Now he's coming down on all of us and some of the guys are probably going to get in trouble when they don't deserve it."
Nick chose not to retort to that statement. In truth he did not like the idea of a full inquisition by the department that was probing all officers. He had enough stories he would rather not have exposed. Grizzoli's comments about 'taking care of our own' left Nick a bit angry, making him want to make comments like 'take care of who specifically?', but he kept a lid on it.
"The Chief will do his job: take care of the department and all of its members. We'll all take training, if we've had complaints we'll go over them with the Chief, and then I'm sure it'll be back to the grind as usual. If he starts throwing around punishment unjustly we can all protest that too and get things sorted, so I'm not sure that there's an issue here Grizzoli."
McHorn suddenly came into the hallway just behind Grizzoli. The fluorescent lights above his head flickered ever so slightly at the thudding impact of his large hooved feet. Nick fought the urge to take a step back, but he felt a very strong urge to direct himself towards running away.
"The issue is you're a rat, Wilde. I never really trusted you; was always pretty sure you came from the other side of the law. And now I'm starting to think you wanna get in good with the Chief to pull a fast-one."
"And being subjected to the same scrutiny as everyone else is part of this brilliant plan?" Nick retorted sarcastically. McHorn did not have much to respond to with that, but he channeled his lack of any clever retorts to making a deeper grimace.
"I think maybe we ought'a step outside and talk this over." Grizzoli said with the softest level of threat in his tone. Nick was reminded of the days in his childhood when he crossed some big cops who eyed him suspiciously, looking for an excuse to let him know what they thought of him, and tell him with force.
While Nick had grown to feel a bit emboldened by his status as a cop, he still felt nervous to see two very large, physically-fit officers facing him down. He did not want a fight if he could avoid one. After all, regardless of the outcome (which could mean serious injury on his end), Nick was the rookie of the department, and making trouble as the new kid could lead to punishment or even dismissal if the Chief thought him a liability.
As Grizzoli started to step forward, a challenging voice came from behind Nick's shoulder.
"Is there a problem here?"
It was Judy who had spoken, and with her came Jayashri Fangmeyer, as well as Christopher Sharp, one of the wolf officers with whom Nick got on well. Suddenly a mild rumble echoed along the corridor and Francine Paddington brought her large uniformed self into view.
"Indeed officers, is there a problem?" she asked. There was a thinly veiled threat in her voice that put everyone on edge. McHorn and Grizzoli combined were barely the same mass as Francine, and her presence on Nick's side of the room suddenly made any outcome in this encounter less definite.
"Just a minor disagreement between us and the fox. Nothing but words." McHorn grated out.
"That's Officer Wilde to you." Judy growled.
McHorn grimaced, and his lips stiffened, but after Francine had come on the scene he was treading lightly to avoid antagonizing anyone unnecessarily.
"Right, Officer Wilde." He sneered.
Grizzoli and McHorn started forward and slowly, deliberately, walked passed Nick, with Grizzoli not bothering to move a bit out of Nick's way. The result was his paw bumping right into Nick's shoulder and knocking him back against the wall. Judy started thumping the ground with her hoof, while the other three bristled and stiffened their shoulders and backs. In response, Grizzoli took a half step away from Wilde and closer to McHorn, and the two of them walked by the other officers. Both contentious males looked pointedly at Judy. She did her best not to wilt under their gazes, but it took all of her resolved not to allow her nose to start twitching, or her ears to droop back in her fight or flight pose.
Once they left, Jayashri and Francine nodded to Judy. Sharp nodded to Nick and then to Judy and all three of them walked away. Judy heaved a sigh of relief and then went to Nick, who had not moved since Grizzoli had knocked into him. He was still watching the edge of the corridor where Grizzoli and McHorn had departed through. He still looked a bit shaken.
"Wow, some strong feelings flying around about this business with the Chief." She said.
Nick grimaced. "Ya' think?" He gestured for her to walk with him and they made their way to the Atrium.
"When do we have our Harassment Training?" He finally asked.
Judy opened her folder and looked over their schedules.
"Well we both start our training this evening, but there are meetings and seminars every evening for about an hour and a half except Friday."
Nick's eyebrows went up, six hours over four days. Whatever the Chief and the captains and commanding officers saw from the documentation Judy brought they must have thought it worth doing a lot of retraining for a lot of officers. That would come later, for now they had patrol in their regular section, though they were supposed to cover more of the Downtown area (not far from where they had been wandering yesterday). The need to move on the streets now required a vehicle, and it was Judy's turn to drive.
"Well, let's get a move-on Carrots." He said and started walking towards the garage. Judy fell into step alongside him.
As they passed other officers in the halls, there were occasional nasty glares thrown their way. Judy quickened her pace and pulled Nick along with her. She was going to continue being an officer and doing what she loved - making the world a better place; she looked ahead, towed her partner by his tie and marched toward the garage doors resolutely. Nick, while he put up with Judy yanking on his tie, was witness to a very different view of their situation. One thing that Judy never quite seemed to realize was that when they walked places together there were ugly glares. Most of the time just a regular, distrusting gaze, sometimes a look of great hostility. Nick being almost twice Judy's height and with sharp eyes was also able to differentiate line of sight that usually revealed the hostile gazes to be aimed at him. Today, everyone was looking angry and distrusting: Grizzoli and McHorn had only been the most aggressive tip of a very large iceberg of hostility being directed at the fox officer.
As they got through the doors and started walking towards their patrol vehicle, Nick thought back on the confrontation in the office area. True there had been a few officers on his side of the room to prevent a tussle, but if their actions we any clue to their sentiment, they had been there because of Judy. When he got knocked to the side by Grizzoli the others may have bristled, but none of them had come forward to see if he was okay; even Judy had not thought to ask. Looking at the situation objectively, Nick figured their presence during the confrontation was due to who his partner was, and not due to him actually being in trouble.
"Do you think any of the other cops are going to get as edgy about this as Grizzoli?" Judy asked as she unlocked the car. Nick waited until they climbed in and buckled up before answering. Ever since Judy had caused him to face-plant by a rapid braking action while on patrol Nick had become militant about having his seat belt fastened when his partner was behind the wheel.
"I think this is what happens when you rock the boat Carrots. Some don't like the shaking, and get mad at those that started the trouble."
"Have a little more enthusiasm about this, Nick. We're doing good on this. All of those problems the other officers told me about... we're finally going to set things right and get the department back on track."
Wash away the filth. Nick mumbled to himself in a soft, disconsolate air.
He did not get to dwell on the matter long. The main door opened, Judy put the accelerator down, and their car coasted out of the garage and into the light of day.
After that, the first few days went by about as well as could be expected. It was hard for everyone to have to go through these issues. In a way it would have been easier to just pretend that everything was just as fine and well-ordered as they had always thought. The threat of suspension for not synthesizing the lessons of the training was enough incentive for many of the officers to pay close attention to the talks and keep good notes. Many were startled to find how close some of their behavior bordered on inappropriate, even some of the other female officers had not fully appreciated how some of the comments they were subjected to were not your run-of-the-mill joshing, but actual sexual discrimination. Many of the more mild personalities among the group were rather startled by this new information.
Wednesday evening, after completing their Harassment Training, Nick and Judy were walking by the front desk, when a tired looking Ben Clawhauser waddled out from behind his desk to grab them... or specifically, grab Nick.
"Hey Nick, I got a message from Payroll, they wanted you to stop by and help them solve some problems."
Nick froze. "Did they say what it was about?"
Ben shook his head. "Just that there were some issues in your financial history that they needed to sort through. They seemed to want to talk to you pretty urgently."
That put Nick on edge. The issues of his life before being an officer would originate in payroll if they were found at all. He thought he had done a good job of putting these matters behind him and getting his life on track, but if they uncovered something suspicious and tried to trace it back to what had been going on before working with Judy... the word 'trouble' hovered in Nick's mind.
Nick did not dally, but went straight to the back offices. The payroll office was in its own room, deep in the catacombs of the building. Inside, Nick spied a beaver at the front desk, nervously chomping on one pen, while he twiddled another between his claws. He scribbled on sheets of paper and scanned his computer monitor closely. Looking at the mug of pens on the desk, all of them had bite marks and dents that indicated a fair amount of tension. Nick came up slowly and announced himself as coolly as possible to avoid giving any more shock to an animal who seemed to be somewhat on edge.
"Hi, I'm Nick Wilde. I was asked to come here about an issue of some kind."
The beaver looked up for a moment, nodded and resumed his scribbling. Nick waited another moment and then the beaver put his writing pen down, took the 'gnawing' pen from his mouth, and looked up with a fresher face.
"Hi Wilde, just a few quick questions about some of your pay information. The Chief ordered some weird set of background checks on past behavior of all the officers, and since you're pretty new we needed to go back to matters before you joined the department. Nothing serious, just want your input so we can get this taken care of quickly."
Nick put on his best nonchalant face. "All right, what's up?"
"When you joined the Precinct a while back we did a background check to compliment the one done by the Academy. You came through all right, no major red flags, nothing of course that would prevent you from being made an officer, but like I said: crack-down, Chief's orders, reviewing personnel records... you get the drill. Anyway I was looking through and found some indiscrepancies regarding your pay."
Nick began to feel his heart beat faster, but did his best to maintain control. "Indiscrepancies in what exactly?"
"Well when we asked for an account to have on file while you were at the Academy you gave us the routing address to a private fund with Timberlands Bank known as the 'Wilde Trust'. Since joining you've switched to another personal account with the Zootopian Central Bank. I was curious about that fund, kind of an unusual case for a cadet or an officer to be contributing money to something other than a private account."
"Uh, yeah. That's the account I share with my Mom. I try to send money there for her to have access to. She doesn't make much and needs some financial assistance now and then."
The beaver nodded and continued looking at his screen while tapping his pen on the desk.
"All right. And when you started here as an officer, like I said, you changed your account so all direct deposits went to a personal checking account with the Zootopian Central Bank. Is that true?"
Nick nodded. "Yep."
"Any particular reason you had it changed? That account for the trust can also receive direct deposits."
Nick had rehearsed how he would address this problem and kept his calm, smooth-talking street-wise persona out in front.
"Well my mom had the trust set up as a place for me to deposit money from my odd jobs with the service sector before I was an officer. I had a lot of different jobs with different contractors - food service, courier, building supplies - a lot of different things. Anyway, the trust has always had money kinda going in, coming out, it was always kinda irregular - I mean work was irregular, pay followed the same cycle as work. So I thought a new account just for my work as an officer would make it easier to keep track of my finances."
The officer looked at Wilde dubiously, but went back to the sheet on the computer screen and cross-checked some things on the hard copy on the desk.
"Some unusual payments there going back to Lehman Brothers and a Saul Volenstein C.P.A. in the last few months. What was that about?"
Nick's breathing began to settle. This much he knew and could explain easily enough.
"Well I had some issues with how I had been paid from my jobs, mostly i was a question of whether or not the pay was taxable or if I could claim certain allowances. Lehman Brothers were my primary benefactors in all of my odd jobs, and Saul was recommended to me by them. Just some last minute things I needed to take care of before I started more regular work here. Actually since I started here I don't think I've really put any money into the trust that didn't come from my work as a cop."
Seeing that there was nothing glaringly wrong with any of this, despite its somewhat unusual nature, the officer sat back.
"Very well, Wilde. I think that about takes care of it. I'll mark off your case as settled and pass that along. That's all."
"You sure? At the front desk I distinctly heard the word 'urgent'. I figured you would be needing me for a while."
"Well they were essential questions and I want to take care of it as soon as possible, but it's all a matter of quality control. Anyway, I've asked my questions and your answers seem to check out. Was there anything you needed help with?" Despite asking, the beaver officer gave off the air that he did not want any more to do with this issue if it could be helped. Nick was fine to let it go.
"No, I'm good. Glad to be of help." Nick replied and slowly walked out of the office. He strode past the cubicles, through the atrium, and once he got outside the main entrance he let out a long sigh. All things considered the turning over of little stones from his past had not been particularly damning and this had all gone remarkably smoothly. Nick was relieved to have taken care of those issues all of those months ago; today could have ended very differently and nowhere near as friendly.
Suddenly, Judy materialized right next to him. "Hey, what was that about?" She asked. When Nick came out of the Payroll Office he had gone resolutely past her and right out the front door.
"Some loose ends in my finances that caught the eyes of some attentive accountants." Nick replied. "I was a little nervous there for a bit... I figured there would be some questions about my tax forms. Fortunately, not so."
Judy covered her mouth. Nick had not told her the full story of what he had to do to 'legitimize' the money he made as a con-artist, only that he had taken care of legalities with Mr. Big and was no longer at risk for his background check. Apparently a closer look after this shake up had uncovered a few things he had failed to bury adequately.
"Do they suspect something?"
"I don't think so. They asked for me to answer some questions so they can understand why I set up my accounts like I did. My gut says they could be a little suspicious, but all of my money was under the table and I legitimized its sources in writing with an accountant and paid some back-taxes. There's a paper trail for me now and I should be free of those other 'problems' you pointed out all of those months ago."
"Gosh, I thought this was taken care of. You said it was taken care of months ago."
"And it was - apparently with this whole crack-down the Chief asked payroll to look into things a bit further back. But I explained myself and the payroll officer seemed to accept it, so I think we're okay. Or at least I'm okay."
Nick straightened up and cracked his neck as he let out another sigh, then turned back to his partner.
"Though I admit, this is the sort of thing I was concerned about. Animals start looking into one problem, and there's a risk they end up finding out about other problems too."
"Nick, that's no excuse not to investigate corruption."
"Not giving excuses Carrots, just saying this is why I wasn't as enthused about it as you."
She nodded and gestured towards the street. He started walking with her and they made their way toward the subway. Nick thought of sharing his thoughts from earlier about how the other officers did not seem overly concerned about his well-being, and how they seemed to be there to support Judy rather than him. He decided instead to keep it to himself. Judy had enough antagonism on this issue without him bringing her down any further.
They rode the subway car in silence.
This is where the witch-hunt starts to place the careers of ZPD officers in jeopardy. While Nick got lucky with his own past problems and managed to avoid too much inspection, there are others (those with citations and incident reports) that are unlikely to be so lucky. Judy Hopps may have a clean record and be above these problems, but she has led a rather sheltered life in rural Bunnyburrow. Most of the animals in the ZPD are not as untainted by things that happen in the Big Jungle, and sometimes just by accident we may flout the rules of the system and inadvertently put ourselves at risk in regards to inquisitions like this.
In any shake-up, no matter how appropriate or overdue (such as one to address workplace harassment), there will always be those that suffer without having been responsible for causing the trouble that led to the shake-up. In this case, McHorn stands to suffer a little backlash from his treatment of Francine (what the shake-up intends to address), however Nick is not guilty of such infractions, but could still wind up in trouble. As I will show in the next chapter, the nature of Grizzoli's anger is not about his own situation but in regards to how it will affect others he knows.
Another thing I want to go over briefly is Judy and Nick's relationship. While they are close and care for one another they are platonic. I know a lot of fans imagine a romantic relationship between these two, and many would love to see these two together, but looking at their interactions at the end of Zootopia, they appear to be no more or less than close friends that are comfortably ensconced in a non-romantic relationship. That is not to say that there couldn't be something between the two at some point, they just aren't at that stage. Whether or not it ever will be...
Also, for Nick the shake-up has brought to light some 'speciesist' issues among the department with regards towards him. Despite his nominal acceptance as an officer (pending education requirements), there are still some harsh feelings about him being an officer and a fox. I always felt that the end of the movie wrapped up of Nick's status in society a little too easily. If the Chief so quickly disregarded his testimony because he is a fox, that seems like some pretty heavy stereotyping to overcome. I will bring in more to that story to explain what Nick has had to go through, and his story will be further elaborated on in the story that follows 'Shake-Up' ('The Rabbit, the Fox, and the Wild' (Rated: M)).
For now, stay tuned for the next installment of 'Shake-Up'.