A new agency formed specifically to deal with the various preternaturals. Constructed after the werewolves went public.

• unhappy with the limited power given them to combat the scary werewolves and suddenly scarier fae decided to go off on their own¹²⁰
• needed a really big event to turn the tide of public opinion in their favor - decided to murder a popular anti-fae senator
• want the right to shoot werewolves and fae on sight
• had contacts but not the money to hire mercenaries¹³¹
• tired of having to call the cavalry because they can't have their own army¹⁴⁴
• they needed to die because the justice system would only slap the wrists of whoever was in command¹⁵⁸
• they might be hired by someone who supported their vision and Cantrip would hire another person with the same attitudes¹⁵⁸
• end result would be the enemy prospered and the wolves would lose

Mercy Thompson Series #7: Frost Burned

• attracted a number of anti-nonhuman zealots⁸⁹
• agents don't make that much money⁸⁹
• running around screaming that the fae and werewolves and all the rest are dangerous and need to be exterminated when their job was supposed to be learning about the supernatural world and acting as intermediaries between the preternatural world and the government¹⁴⁴
• rhetoric they're spouting is that they want the power to go wolf hunting before some other agency gets it; tired of having to call the cavalry because they can't have their own army¹⁴⁴
• Cantrip doesn't have the budget for a black-ops slush fund; maybe if they gave up their salaries they'd be able to do an operation without alerting someone¹⁴⁴
• Cantrip has been a dumping ground for the screwups for yearsFB-144
• unhappy with the limited power given them to combat the scary werewolves and suddenly scarier fae decided to go off on their own¹²⁰
• needed a really big event to turn the tide of public opinion in their favor - decided to murder a popular anti-fae senator
• want the right to shoot werewolves and fae on sight
• had contacts but not the money to hire mercenaries¹³¹
• tired of having to call the cavalry because they can't have their own army¹⁴⁴
• they needed to die because the justice system would only slap the wrists of whoever was in command¹⁵⁸
• they might be hired by someone who supported their vision and Cantrip would hire another person with the same attitudes¹⁵⁸
• end result would be the enemy prospered and the wolves would lose

Mercy Thompson Series #8: Night Broken

• Cantrip was dangerous. There were people in Cantrip who would love to see supernaturnals just disappear, maybe into Guantanamo Bay—there were rumors, unsubstantiated, that a whole prison block was built to hold shapeshifters and fae¹⁷⁷
• there were good people in CNTRP too but a growing number of incidents indicated that the good agents were in a minority¹⁷⁸
• without assurance that there was magic afoot, Cantrip doesn't have authority¹⁸¹
• attempted to detain Mercy; claiming she was a potential thread to public safety, and wanted to bring her in as a murder suspect with supernatural powers that made her too dangerous to be incarcerated in the usual ways²⁸¹
• Under the Humanity Act that established CNTRP the discretionary detention provisions in the Patriot Act. They can detain any supernatural indefinitely as a possible terrorist²⁸¹

Mercy Thompson Series #9: Fire Touched

• anything paranormal belongs to Cantrip²⁸⁸
• the director of Cantrip called to complain to Adam about lack of cooperation²⁸⁹
• Cantrip admitted to placing illegal tracking equipment on the Mercy and Adam's personal vehicle²⁸⁹

Alpha & Omega Series #3: Fair Game

• They pronounced it “Cantrip.” Nick called them Trippers because whenever they involved themselves in an investigation he was in, he tripped all over them³²
• an agency formed specifically to deal with the various preternaturals³²
• tended to have more chair sitters than the FBI did⁵²
• less skilled than FBI field agents; no situational awareness and made no effort to avoid detection⁵²
• Cantrip, as it was an even newer agency than Homeland Security, having come into being when the werewolves outed themselves⁵⁶
• Les Heuter was the poster child for Cantrip and was their main spokesperson for puplic appearances which lent to people not taking the agency as seriously⁵⁷
• the Marrok tended to dismiss the Cantrip agents as harmlessn, since they had no authority to arrest or detain anyone⁵⁷
• came into being when the werewolves outed themselves⁵⁷
• funded and authorized by the government, their role was “to collect and share information about nonhuman and altered-human groups and individuals”, which left them a lot of leeway⁵⁷
• they have two main offices, on on either coast⁵⁷
• they travel around the country to concern themselves mostly in criminal cases that involved fae, werewolves, or anything else that looked odd to them⁵⁷
• they were one of the government agencies required to go armed at all times - and they carried guns with silver bullets⁵⁷
• not required to have the same weapons training as the FBI¹⁴⁵
• they have a fae database that lists full and half-blood fae¹⁴⁷
• fringe benefit to working with Cantrip or the other smaller enforcement agencies in the government is that on one ever thinks to file on them with the Freedom of Information Act(FOIA)¹⁴⁷
• just when you think they are professionals they pull some weird stunt¹⁵⁰
• who else would join an agency like Cantrip except for people who are afraid of the dark¹⁵²
• Cantrip takes a lot of Quantico graduates who don't get on with the FBI¹⁵²
• it's less time-consuming than the FBI or Homeland Security, and it pays better than most police departments; it's less dangerous because they don't actually do anything but collect information¹⁵²