Metro police are given powered, motorized exoskeletons...

[FancyDarcy]

Metro police patrolling in highly developed suburbs which are likely to be attacked and/or of high importance and high-value target guarding duties are deployed with powered, armoured exoskeletons.

These exoskeletons are either powered by local power outlets or via mobile, armoured vehicles to which the exoskeletons are tethered to via electrical cable, therefore solving the power source issues which cannot be solved in a military scenario because of course being tethered to a power generating vehicle will be highly impractical and dangerous in a warzone... however in a metropolitan area the "enemy" will not have access to high-powered weapons, information and numbers. The exoskeletons would be supported by other law enforcement elements and would not operate alone.

The exoskeletons can be protected against all street-level arms, perhaps up to 7.62x39mm even, giving great protection against most street-level weapons such as machetes, common pistol types, and light automatic weapons. The exoskeletons could be intimidating for specific usages, and could be used for breaching fortified positions where hostages are not present.

The exoskeletons might also be produced in unarmoured, strength-focused versions for rescue squadrons, as their extra strength could clear rubble and debris, NBC protected versions could operate faster and safer than heavy, clunky NBC suits for humans, as the exoskeleton would still be extremely heavy, however the motors would compensate for that. However they would still be limited by their tethered cables to their vehicles. However, they could perhaps open a more safe and practical way for other units to pass through, exoskeletons could clear in buildings without vehicular access to allow normal rescue squads to move through and rescue people.

This is just an idea I've thought of. What are the impracticalities of this idea, and could it be ever practical in real life? For that matter, is it actually within the laws of physics to create a practical power source which can be permanently carried around on a powered exoskeleton which lasts long enough to be reasonable? Or does the laws of physics prevent us from manufacturing any power source small and lightweight enough to be practical for a exoskeleton? What about medium-to-large land animals, cows, elephants, oxen? They are very heavy and powerful creatures, yet produce all their energy from eating plants.. could we make some sort of generator similar in efficiency to a biological system?

I put this in Fantasy because it's likely not realistic or plausible.. but I wished to see what other people's opinions are.. so what are your thoughts on this idea, guys? Thanks..

[Simon_Jester]

The obvious impractical problem is that it's kind of dumb for police to try to do anything relevant if they're tethered to electrical sockets. "We can't pursue the suspect, we need an extension cord." Yeah, right.

Also, "Metro police patrolling in highly developed suburbs" are not, as a rule, likely to be attacked. There are not hordes of heavily armed criminal bandits out to try and win shootouts with the police. That never works in the modern era, because SWAT teams don't need power armor to be well enough equipped to crush any arsenal a group of criminals can gather.

The search and rescue applications make more sense, because that's a situation where you can afford to wheel up a generator, and where the exoskeletons having the strength of ten men or whatever would help. On the other hand, we also have a huge variety of tools for clearing and pulling open wreckage, like jacks and winches...

[Gandalf]

Power issues aside, I could see them being used for "riot control" because I wager they're fairly intimidating.

[LaCroix]

Not useful for riots - these can move quickly. You just move away from the vehicles to force them to return, mount and redeploy, and then you toss molotov cocktails at the vehicles during that phase. Or attack the vehicles directly.

Or simply attack the tether cables via firebomb or aimed shooting. A guy with a scoped hunting rifle, just aiming at the sockets they plug into or at the mass of cables coming out of the vehicle.

Or something easier - zap them with a taser. I wonder if they can deal with that.

For search and rescue, definitely useful.

[Simon_Jester]

Wearing a layer of solid, dart-proof, electrically conducting armor would probably be a pretty good defense against a taser, I would think. Wearing a layer of armor with good electrical insulating properties that the darts can't pierce would also work well, I'd think.