Mission Street Hall of Justice

The Mission Street Hall of Justice is a baroque, ornamented structure with complicated spires, a handsome and modern building that Rick Deckard has never seen before. When Officer Crams brings him there after his arrest at the War Memorial Opera House, Deckard realizes the building is entirely unfamiliar to him, and he begins to suspect that the entire police apparatus operating out of it is not the legitimate San Francisco Police Department but a parallel organization staffed by androids.

Architecture and Appearance

The Mission Street Hall of Justice juts up in a series of baroque, ornamented spires; it is complicated and modern, and Deckard finds it attractive — except for the fact that he has never seen it before. The building contains a booking desk, a lab for bone marrow analysis, a room for taking cephalic patterns, and offices for police officials. It is a fully functional police station, complete with uniformed officers, a desk sergeant, and a technician operating familiar equipment for identification purposes.

The Android Police Agency

Inside the building, Deckard discovers that the police force is actually an android-run organization. Inspector Garland, who interviews Deckard after his arrest, is an android, as are many of the officers. Garland admits that he and the other androids came to Earth together on the same ship from Mars, and that the building is a closed loop, cut off from the rest of San Francisco. The vidphone lines are trapped, recirculating calls to other offices within the building, so that Deckard cannot reach his wife or the real police department. Garland explains that the building is a "homeostatic enterprise" — a self-contained system that knows about the human world but is not known by it.

Deckard's Arrest and Interrogation

Deckard is booked on charges of representing himself as a peace officer, and Officer Crams lists the charges as 304, 612.4, and 406.7. During the booking process, Deckard's cephalic pattern is taken, and he is led to a room where he begins assembling his valuables for transfer. Inspector Garland intervenes, taking Deckard into his office for questioning. Garland examines the contents of Deckard's briefcase, including the smudged carbon flimsies listing Polokov, Luba Luft, and Garland himself as retirement assignments. Garland is visibly disturbed to find himself on the list, and he summons bounty hunter Phil Resch to the office.

The Confrontation and Garland's Death

When Phil Resch arrives, Garland tries to turn him against Deckard, but Resch is suspicious. Garland reveals that he knows the Boneli Reflex-Arc Test will show him to be an android, and he attempts to kill Resch with a miniaturized laser tube. Resch, anticipating the attack, fires first, bifurcating Garland's head with a laser beam. The corpse teeters on its chair and crashes to the floor. Resch then arranges Garland's body at the desk to make it appear natural, and he handcuffs himself to Deckard to get them both out of the building. They escape to the roof, where Resch's hovercar is parked, and they fly back to the War Memorial Opera House to retire Luba Luft.

Narrative Significance

The Mission Street Hall of Justice represents the androids' most sophisticated infiltration of human society: a complete police agency that operates in parallel to the legitimate system, staffed by androids who have taken the places of human officers. It is a closed loop, cut off from the rest of San Francisco, and it serves as the organizing agency for the escaped Nexus-6 androids. The building's existence reveals that the androids are not merely hiding as individuals but have established an entire institutional structure to protect themselves. Deckard's experience there — being arrested, interrogated, and nearly killed — demonstrates the androids' ability to manipulate the very systems of justice that are supposed to protect humans from them.