Remember your assumed to be Starfinders which have very strong ties with many governments and a good reputation and admittedly a reason / hook to give the PCs a reason to go after them.
Sooooo, in what universe would people from another world with no ties to the local government in a Space age city with a large populous-( with access to their own police force and undercover agents) - be Deputized- That's right folks - Deputized....
1st: Stop applying human logic to alien civilizations. Asana might actually encourage civil participation in police matters.
2nd: PCs are superheroes compared to regular NPCs. It’s like refusing help from Batman.
And when GMing this bit I just assumed the detective was from private law enforcement, most likely from the university itself, since he arrives pretty fast. Qabarat might just be that libertarian.
But checking on Pact Worlds, it's actually a dictatorship.
"Lady Morana Kesh (NG female damaya lashunta
envoy) and her chief consort and battle leader, Grantaeus (CG
male korasha lashunta soldier), rule the city from the Threefold
House, the city’s capitol. They fight a quiet but desperate battle
to maintain traditional governments and keep all of Asana from
becoming a corporate free-for-all.
Government autocracy (Lady Morana Kesh) "
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Worst ever? A little drastic, don't you think?
Anyway, by the end of book 1, the PCs are minor celebrities, anyway. At the very worst, deputizing the PCs is like a university giving an honorary degree to a famous actor. It is extremely unlikely that the PCs would abuse their power, and it actually makes sense from the perspective of the local cops, because they don't want to get mixed up in a bunch of cultists doing a bunch of cult stuff.
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I've been running the game under the assumption that 'in universe' the various 'planets' weren't the only signatories to the Absalom Pact.
On some planets (like Castrovel) individual governments (like Soyvarian and the Colonies and representatives from most Lashunta city-states) signed the Pact individually.
In addition, several large corporations (I'm looking at you Abadarcorp) and other organizations (like the Hell Knights, Knights of Golarian, and yes, the Starfinder Society) were also signatories as organizations.
Depending on the size and relative power/wealth/influence of the signatories, they came away with various powers/privileges/responsibilities, either assumed or encoded in law.
While the Starfinder Society isn't 'law enforcement', per se, as a part of their information gathering mandate they often end up assisting local law enforcement agencies, just like they help the Pact's diplomatic core in making first contact with new species as part of their exploration mandate.
So, I think the situation here is that a semi-private detective working for the university as part of their semi-private security team notices that there are members of an interstellar detective agency, and newly famous and successful ones at that, and says, "Hey guys, you wouldn't mind helping me out? It'd make me look good to my bosses."
I don't see anything wrong with that. As others have pointed out, the PCs are appearing as representatives of a well-known quasi-governmental organization, have a relevant set of skills, and are interacting with law enforcement. It's very reasonable to think that the PCs might want to be deputized and ask about it.
Deputization happens even in the modern day. In the United States, there was a time it was very common for a short-staffed law enforcement department.
Also, the writing is just fine. Mr. Compton crammed a lot of detail into this book, and should be commended for it.
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Sooooo, in what universe would people from another world with no ties to the local government in a Space age city with a large populous-( with access to their own police force and undercover agents) - be Deputized- That's right folks - Deputized....
Our?
What's funny is I'm pretty sure many of you are from the US, which are really good at interfering with other countries governments by appointing their own "guys". Well, I'm French, and I know we are doing the same in our former colonies.Clearly, if you have power, you do whatever you want. Laws are from the commoners.
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Sooooo, in what universe would people from another world with no ties to the local government in a Space age city with a large populous-( with access to their own police force and undercover agents) - be Deputized- That's right folks - Deputized....Our?
What's funny is I'm pretty sure many of you are from the US, which are really good at interfering with other countries governments by appointing their own "guys". Well, I'm French, and I know we are doing the same in our former colonies.
Clearly, if you have power, you do whatever you want. Laws are from the commoners.
Yes, I too enjoyed that part of Dead Suns where the PCs overthrew the governments of Castrovel and installed their proxies so that a local police department would take the otherwise inexplicable step of appointing alien outsiders they just met to undertake officially sanctioned law enforcement action.