I've never been on-duty during marshal law but to my understanding, it is only called after there has been a constant attempt to contain the city's civilians. It is then decided by the admins if the APD will be able to reclaim the city, or if marshal law is the one and only way to reclaim the city. For example, I've been on duty in Kavala while rdmers and vdmers ran wild for over an hour and a half strong. With a total of five officers online, we stuck together in groups of 2-3 officers at any given time to watch each others backs. After detaining the wanted civilians we brought them into a safe place to be processed, which in this case was Kavala HQ. Even though the situation seemed impossible to overcome, we worked through it building to building and reclaimed the city before too long.