Rick Deckard and Inspector Garland

Rick Deckard and Inspector Garland first encounter each other under circumstances that invert the normal order of law enforcement. After Deckard is arrested at the War Memorial Opera House by Officer Crams—an android posing as a policeman—he is brought to the Mission Street Hall of Justice, a building he has never seen before. There, Garland, a plainclothes police official, takes charge of the case, examining the contents of Deckard's briefcase and questioning him about the Voigt-Kampff test. Garland's manner is measured and unruffled, but he quickly reveals that he knows the names on Deckard's list of assignments, including his own. He tells Deckard, "This info sheet about me... 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." This moment transforms the encounter from a routine booking into a confrontation between two hunters who have suddenly become each other's prey.

The Revelation of Android Identity

Garland's true nature emerges during a private conversation in his office, after he has sent for the bounty hunter Phil Resch. Left alone with Deckard, Garland admits that he is an android and that the entire Mission Street police station is android-infested. He explains that he, Polokov, Luba Luft, and the others all came to Earth together on the same ship from Mars, and that Resch—who does not know his own identity—was implanted with a synthetic memory system and left behind for a week. Garland says of 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." This confession lays bare the androids' strategy of infiltration: they have placed one of their own in a position of authority, using a human bounty hunter as a tool while remaining hidden themselves. Garland's willingness to reveal this to Deckard stems from his recognition that the situation has already unraveled—Polokov's bone marrow test has confirmed him as an android, and Garland knows that Resch will soon test him as well.

The Confrontation and Death

When Phil Resch returns with the Boneli Reflex-Arc Test equipment, Garland makes a desperate move. He draws a laser tube and points it at Resch, but Resch, anticipating the attack, rolls to the floor and fires first, bifurcating Garland's head with a laser beam. The android's corpse teeters and crashes to the floor. After the killing, Resch examines the body and remarks, "It forgot... that this is my job. I can almost foretell what an android is going to do." Deckard, who had been lying on the floor during the exchange, later claims the bounty on Garland, though Resch objects that he was the one who fired the fatal shot. The death of Garland marks the collapse of the android police apparatus on Mission Street and clears the way for Deckard to pursue the remaining androids, but it also deepens his unease about the work he does.

Thematic Significance

The relationship between Deckard and Garland crystallizes the novel's central anxieties about identity, authority, and the nature of evil. Garland is not a simple villain; he is a sophisticated, intelligent being who has constructed an elaborate facade of legitimacy. His confession to Deckard reveals that androids are capable of strategic thinking and self-preservation, but also that they lack the empathy that binds human communities. When Deckard asks why Garland did not cover for Polokov, Garland snaps, "I think you're right; it would seem we lack a specific talent you humans possess. I believe it's called empathy." This admission underscores the fundamental difference between humans and androids, even as the novel complicates that distinction by showing Deckard's own growing empathy for the androids he kills. Garland's death at the hands of Resch, a man who may himself be an android, further blurs the line between hunter and hunted, human and machine.