The Taris Civil Authority police cruiser was a ship used around 3964 BBY by the Taris Civil Authority, the law enforcement on the planet Taris. The cruiser was capable of following fugitives into space; whereas the craft used planetside on Taris could not. At least three were used to attempt to apprehend the Jedi Padawan Zayne Carrick and the Snivvian Marn Hierogryph, the falsely accused perpetrators of the Padawan Massacre of Taris.
The police cruiser was capable of traveling in the vacuum of space and were armed but required clearance from the Sector Constable to use their weapons lethally. A large blue searchlight was mounted on the front of the cruisers to help improve visibility.
One particular feature of the cruisers was a "hover mode" that allowed all occupants of the cruiser to disembark while keeping the ship nearby. This was particularly useful when low-gravity environments made landing difficult.
The police cruiser was used by the Taris Civil Authority, the law enforcement on the planet of Taris, to follow fugitives into space. The cruiser was needed because the craft used planetside were unable to go into space. If required, the cruiser would fire upon fugitive ships to destroy them.
The police cruiser was used by the Taris Civil Authority around 3964 BBY. A notable deployment of the cruisers was when the Taris Civil Authority and the Jedi Covenant issued an arrest warrant for Jedi Padawan Zayne Carrick and the Snivvian Marn "Gryph" Hierogryph for their alleged involvement in the Padawan Massacre of Taris. In an effort to escape offworld from the Civil Authority, Hierogryph decided to call on the Arkanian Offshoot mechanic Gorman "Camper" Vandrayk and his companion Jarael for help. An arrest squad led by Sector Constable Noana Sowrs and Jedi Master Lucien Draay arrived soon after the fugitives found Vandrayk and Jarael. Vandrayk ultimately decided to take them inside his modified starship, The Last Resort, and attempt to leave the planet. The Taris Civil Authority were not expecting the fugitives to flee to space and did not have craft capable of following. Sowrs assured Draay, both aboard a Civil Authority gunship, that the police cruisers would be able to apprehend The Last Resort.
Unreliable repairs made to The Last Resort caused it to stop in orbit of the planet, where three of the police cruisers surrounded the ship. Sector Constable Sowrs authorized these cruisers to use lethal force if necessary. Vandrayk managed to fix his ship's systems and it suddenly sped off into the Tarisian asteroid belt, hitting one of the police cruisers in the process. After deciding to look for T1-LB, an LB-series bulk-loading droid that was used by the masters of the Jedi Tower to set up portable shields for them to meditate under safely, Carrick and Jarael were dropped off where the droid was last seen—Taris' Rogue moon.
A TCA cruiser in the Lower City base of the Taris Resistance
The duo found the droid at the foot of a cliff, having been pushed off with the Force by Draay. They then suddenly found themselves confronted with said Master, who had navigated through the asteroid belt in a police cruiser with several Civil Authority officers to find them. However, the empty police cruiser was shot down by Hierogryph in The Last Resort, as the Snivvian had discovered that Vandrayk had rerouted the power from the hyperdrive to "one beauty of a gun." During the Siege of Taris, a cruiser was located in the Lower City base of the Taris Resistance.
The Taris Civil Authority police cruiser was first mentioned in the third issue of the 2006 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic comic series. The issue was written by John Jackson Miller and published by Dark Horse Comics on March 29, 2006. The cruiser made its first appearance in the following issue, written by Miller, illustrated by Brian Ching, and published by Dark Horse on April 26 of the same year.