Death of Inspector Garland
Inspector Garland, the android police official who presided over the Mission Street Hall of Justice, was killed by bounty hunter Phil Resch in his own office after Resch realized Garland was an android. The death exposed the android infiltration of the police department and forced Rick Deckard to confront the moral ambiguity of his profession.
Background and Discovery
Garland had been the superior officer of bounty hunter Phil Resch for three years, and Resch had never suspected that his boss was an android. When Rick Deckard was arrested by Officer Crams and brought to the Mission Street building, Garland intervened, taking charge of the case. He examined the contents of Deckard's briefcase and discovered that his own name appeared on Deckard's list of retirement assignments, listed with the inaccurate occupation of insurance underwriter. Garland then summoned Resch to his office, telling him, "This info sheet about me... it doesn't list me as a police inspector; it inaccurately gives my occupation as insurance underwriter. Otherwise it's correct, as to physical description, age, personal habits, home address. Yes, it's me, all right." Resch, upon seeing the sheet, remarked, "Say, Gar. This is you." The lab report on Polokov's corpse, which confirmed that Polokov was a humanoid robot, further undermined Garland's position. Resch proposed administering the Boneli Reflex-Arc Test to Garland, a test he had long advocated applying to police personnel. Garland opposed it, arguing it would lower department morale, but the lab's findings made resistance untenable.
The Killing
While Resch went to retrieve the Boneli gear, Garland retrieved a laser tube from his desk drawer and pointed it at Deckard. He confessed that he and the other androids on Deckard's list had all come to Earth together on the same ship from Mars, and that Resch had stayed behind an extra week to receive a synthetic memory system, making him unaware of his own android nature. Garland said, "That damn fool Resch... He doesn't know; he doesn't suspect; he doesn't have the slightest idea. Otherwise he couldn't live out a life as a bounty hunter, a human occupation — hardly an android occupation." When Resch returned carrying the Boneli device, Garland raised his hand and pointed at him. Resch, anticipating the attack, rolled from his chair and fired his laser tube, bifurcating Garland's head. The corpse teetered and crashed to the floor. Resch remarked, "It forgot that this is my job. I can almost foretell what an android is going to do." He then arranged Garland's body back in its chair to create the illusion that Garland was still alive, and used the intercom to tell the switchboard that Garland was not to be disturbed.
Consequences and Aftermath
Resch handcuffed himself to Deckard and led him out of the building, claiming the authority to take a prisoner with him. Once airborne, he freed Deckard and they proceeded to the opera house to retire Luba Luft. The death of Garland confirmed that the Mission Street police department was android-infested, and it forced Deckard to recognize that he had been working alongside a bounty hunter who might himself be an android. Resch later passed the Voigt-Kampff test, but the experience of watching Resch kill Garland — and then Luba Luft — led Deckard to a crisis of conscience. He told Resch, "I see a pattern. The way you killed Garland and then the way you killed Luba. You don't kill the way I do; you don't try to — Hell, I know what it is. You like to kill." The killing of Garland thus became a turning point, not only in the hunt for the remaining androids, but in Deckard's understanding of his own profession and his capacity for empathy.
