Judge Niles - Head of SJS

Head of SJS

Niles was already an experienced judge when he first appeared in the comic after the story Necropolis. He argued that the judges were not culpable for the atrocities committed during that story, and that they should not make any changes out of a "misplaced sense of guilt". When Dredd pushed for a public referendum on whether to maintain judicial control or restore democracy, Niles was worried that the people would not vote for them (although in the end they did).

He was later appointed head of the SJS – Justice Department's internal affairs department – by Chief Judge McGruder in 2112. In that role he was responsible for ensuring that all of Mega-City One's judges met the highest standards of behaviour, competence and judgement. Yet when the Chief Judge herself began to exhibit increasingly poor judgement and erratic behaviour, he was powerless to intervene by himself, as by abolishing the Council of Five in 2112 she had removed the only constitutional way of holding her to account. Instead he was forced to resort to underhand means. In 2116 he conspired with Judge Hershey and others to remove McGruder from office by force. However when the conspirators tried to recruit Judge Dredd's support, Dredd refused to cooperate, firmly declaring that he would not support a coup d'état. Anticipating Dredd's reluctance, Niles had come prepared: he informed Dredd of the location of a secret research facility in which McGruder was covertly developing a new production line of robot judges. Niles knew that Dredd believed the robot judge programme to be strong evidence of McGruder's deteriorating judgement, and that Dredd thought that the programme had been discontinued. Once Dredd had discovered the truth, Dredd agreed to join Niles and the others in a delegation to demand the Chief Judge's resignation. Although this step failed badly, it nevertheless set in motion a long chain of events which eventually did result in McGruder's resignation. In this indirect way Niles was therefore instrumental in bringing about McGruder's departure from office.