Law enforcement

[Mike]

Law enforcement

Introduction
Playing as a police officer is the most important role in any Cops and Robbers game, and Mike's Cops and Robbers is no different. Cops play a vital part in maintaining the peaceful environment that San Andreas is known for. Well at least they try; vehicle theft and gang crime is at an all-time high and the San Andreas Police Department and its many divisions are tasked with catching criminals and preventing crime.

Becoming a police officer
Before applying to become a police officer, there are a few prerequisites. Firstly, you must reach level 50 as a civilian. This shows basic knowledge and understanding of the server and ensures new and potentially destructive players are not able to abuse the powers of being a police officer. Secondly, you must obtain a weapon license from any Ammunation. You must complete one round in the shooting range with any weapon before being able to purchase a weapon licence.

Once you are level 50 and have a weapon licence, visit any San Andreas police department to apply to become a police officer.

Police Department locations
There are 7 police departments spread around San Andreas (3 city and 4 countryside).
They are represented on the radar and map by this icon:


Los Santos Police Department (LSPD)
Pershing Square, Los Santos


San Fierro Police Department (SFPD)
Downtown, San Fierro


Las Venturas Police Department
Roca Escalante, Las Venturas


Dillimore Police Department
Dillimore, Los Santos


Angel Pine Sheriff
Angel Pine, San Fierro


Fort Carson Sheriff
Fort Carson, Las Venturas


El Quebrados Sheriff
El Quebrados, Las Venturas


Police rules
With power comes responsibility. Police officers must follow the police rules at all times or risk demotion or dismissal.

- Do not attack innocent players or ticketable suspects except in self defence.
- Do not impede or obstruct other players from playing the game such as by blocking access to areas unless in order to apprehend a suspect.

You can view the police rules at any time in-game with /policerules.
Players that repeatedly fail to follow these rules will be barred from playing as a police officer.

Identifying criminals
A player's criminal status can be identified by the color of their name and blip.

Color	Wanted stars	Meaning	Action
White	0	Innocent	Do not attack innocent civilians except in self-defence.
Yellow	1	Minor offender	Issue a ticket and take payment. Do not attack minor offenders except in self-defence.
Orange	2-5	Felon	Warrant for arrest issued. Lethal force to be used as a last resort only.
Red	6	Most Wanted	Always try to arrest most wanted suspects. Killing is a last resort and only if they are a threat Choose the safer option in the situation encountered.

What counts as a dangerous/threatening suspect?

A threatening suspect can do one of several actions that should be considered a hostile intention and you will be cleared to neutralize them. These include the following.

• Raised guns towards another person or officer
• Recently killed another player in the current life
• Is with a group of other players that are a serious threat to public safety (IE. Group of Most Wanted or players that have killed other people recently)
• Is actively attempting to run over officers or other pedestrians with their vehicle to facilitate the murder of the police or civilians or to aid the escape of another suspect.

Suspect visibility
- The higher a suspect's wanted level, the further away their blip can be seen by cops.
- Suspects in emergency, military or air vehicles will have a blip visible from anywhere (radar/GPS tracking).
- Most wanted suspects will also attract bounty hunters and their blip has an increased visibility distance for other civilians also.
- Any suspect in the sight of a cop will also have their blip shown to all other cops regardless of their distance.
- Suspects cannot evade police while in a restricted area (e.g. a police department) or inside any interior. Suspects inside an interior will not have a visible blip on the radar.

Tickets
Suspects with yellow names should be issued tickets. Approach the suspect on-foot (they can be on-foot or in a vehicle) and press N to issue a ticket. The suspect will be given 1 minute to pay their ticket, after which they will become a felon and should be arrested. Minor suspects should only be attacked in self-defence. Sometimes force may be required to get a suspect to pay their ticket. Popping vehicle tires with a spike strip to bring a suspect to a stop is an example of authorised force.

Arresting
Suspects with an orange blip/name are felons and have a warrant issued for their arrest. To arrest a felon suspect, you must be within 10 meters of them and both be on-foot. Use the N key or the /arrest (/ar) command.

You can use the N key to handcuff a stationary suspect. Otherwise, if the suspect is moving, the N key will instead equip the tazer, once you taze them, cuff them by approaching their back and pressing N once again. Once a suspect is cuffed, you can double tap N to arrest them on the spot and they will be transported to jail. Alternatively the suspect can be placed into the back of a vehicle and transported to any police department by yourself. The officer will receive a transport bonus and the criminal will receive a compliance bonus of reduced bail costs and lower jail time. To deliver criminals to jail, drive down into the police compound and drive into the large red checkpoint.

Most wanted
Most wanted suspects have a red blip/name and are thought to be armed and dangerous. Caution should be taken when dealing with these suspects. Most wanted suspects can be arrested or killed (taken down). Choose the safer option in the situation encountered. Bear in mind that vigilante bounty hunters will also be coming to kill most wanted suspects.

It is advisable to follow these guidelines when planning to take down a most wanted suspect (or any dangerous suspect):
- Have sufficient weapons and ammo in case the need to use force arises.
- Have backup both on the ground and in the air. Having colleagues in your vehicle to perform drive-by shootings will drastically increase the chance of a successful takedown.
- Clearly communicate with colleagues regarding tactics and situational reports.
- Have a good knowledge of routes around San Andreas to attempt to intercept suspects. Getting ahead of a suspect and placing a spike strip will render their vehicle useless and bring them to a stop.

TIP
Press N on-foot or the SUBMISSION (2) key in a vehicle to shout orders to suspects. This includes pull over, freeze and exit the vehicle. These orders have a small cooldown between uses and are randomized.

Police officer XP and rank
During your time as a police officer, you will earn XP as you perform your job duties, such as arresting suspects. Different actions reward you with different amounts of XP, for example you get more XP for an arrest than for issuing a ticket.

You will begin your time as a police officer at rank 1. Throughout the process of gaining XP, you will be promoted to the next rank as you reach certain XP milestones. While performing your duties, you will continue to rise up through the ranks at regular intervals, all the way up to the maximum rank of 10. Ranking up will allow you to unlock new abilities, such as calling for vehicles, and receive access to additional resources, such as increased numbers of spike strips and roadblocks. However, keep in mind that you may be demoted back down through the ranks if you fail to properly follow the police rules at any time. This will also involve losing any abilities you may have unlocked as part of those ranks."

Payday
As a police officer, perform job duties (ticket/arrest suspects etc.) to accrue payday credits. Payday checks are issued every 72 in-game hours and are automatically credited to your account. See /payday to find out when your next paycheck is due.

Bribery
Not all cops are corrupt, however, if you fancy earning a bit of extra cash, accepting a bribe or two from a criminal is one way you may wish to go about it. Bribes can be offered from a suspect to a cop or a cop can offer a bribe opportunity to a suspect. Accepting a bribe will remove a suspect's wanted level or reduce their bail/sentence in jail. Rejecting a bribe will be counted as an attempted bribery crime.

Job events
Cops and other roles are offered random 'job events' twice daily (pre and post-noon) which can be completed for cash, score and XP. These job events are generally NPC-based and give players more to do in addition to playing with other players.

See this topic for a list of job events and guides to them.

Police department reception and locker room
Visit any police department reception to:
- View a list of wanted suspects and locations
- View a list of stolen vehicles and last seen locations.
- View a list of jailed players.
- View recent crimes committed.
- Release criminals from jail.
- Go on or off duty or apply to be a cop in the first place.

Visit any police department locker room to:
- Change clothes/skin
- Go off-duty
- Replenish health & armour
- Purchase weapons & ammo
- Purchase equipment such as pepper spray and night sticks

Police officer abilities
Police officers have several abilities open to the to aid them in their job.

Request a vehicle
A range of police vehicles can be requested from the 'Police officer abilities' option on the interaction menu (hold Y to open interaction menu). These vehicles include patrol car, police bike, enforcer, police ranger and an undercover unit.

Request backup
Request backup by typing /backup (/bk) or through the interaction menu. Backup can also be requested via a payphone.

Spike strips
Spike strips can be used to bring fleeing suspects to a halt. The number of spike strips a police officer can have deployed at any given time is directly dependant upon their rank. For example a police officer of rank 7 can have 7 spike strips deployed at the same time.

To place a spike strip from a vehicle, hold Q+E to look behind then press FIRE (LMB).
To place a spike strip on-foot type /spike or find it in the 'Police officer abilities' section of the interaction menu.
To remove the nearest spike strip, type /rspike.
To remove all your deployed spike strips, type '/rspike all'.
To remove spike strips within a defined radius from your position type '/rspike [distance]' with the distance in meters. For example type '/rspike 50' to remove spike strips within 50 meters.

Roadblocks, barriers and signs
Police officers can place a range of roadblocks, barriers and signs to help catch criminals and also to warn road users of hazards. Type /roadblock (/rb) to place roadblock objects.
Use /rblock to remove roadblocks using the same range of methods as for removing spike strips (nearest/all/distance). See above for more details.

Important notice regarding Gangs/Crews

You must treat crew members like you would any other player. You CANNOT avoid chasing/arresting them as a cop.

Failure to comply will result in public service offences and eventually lead to dismissal from the police department (job ban)

Thank you
Thank you for reading this guide - hopefully it has helped you and you know things you didn't know before.
If you spot any issues in this guide or wish to suggest an amendment or addition, please feel free to leave it in a reply or message myself directly and I will look into it.