Didn't read all the walls od text, so sorry if someone mentioned this, but how about giving official factions unique IDs....
For example: Official police factions could get unique ID that allows them to lock out stations/planets/lanes/gates.....This will create better RP imersion and differentiate official police factions from indies and military factions.....
And before you say it is opened for abuse, I say not cuz official factions have strict rules about this....I have spoken to a few people and this would be possible to code....I think that would greatly help solving the problem official police factions have in terms of numbers....
This is just one idea regarding police factions, let me know what you think about it, I have some for other official factions as well which I will share later...