Policing Standards
It has become evident that the criminal cop experience comes with a lot of pre-conceived notions on what is and is not acceptable on a Roleplay Server. The following guide hopes to layout the Criminal/Cop standard that this particular server strives to achieve with base practices and what we allow. These aren’t meant to prescribe to a 100% realistic standard, but one that makes the most sense for our community.
These are never to be referenced in game for any reason, if you are a criminal you should not have knowledge of this guide or the Police Departments Operating Procedures.
Violent Crime & Use of Force
If you point a gun at a police officer or another person on TRP – you have initiated conflict and police CAN shoot you.
Police have to protect human life – it’s a key point of their roleplay and to allow a criminal to consistently brandish a gun at civilians and other officers would innately be not valuing the life of the civilian and the other officers.
The cops are expected to attempt to communicate with you where possible – but where not possible they are within their rights to shoot you. There are real life precedents for this; Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985), and Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989).
If you have pointed a gun, hit someone with a car or committed an aggressive act you can be fired upon while fleeing or running away. This actually has a real life precedent in Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985).
It’s a complicated form of law that focuses on an officers “Good Faith Belief” on whether or not you could inflict harm on another civilian or the officer themselves. If they believe this, they can fire upon you.
Police can shoot the tires of a vehicle if the vehicle is about to be used in an escape.
The standard for the police force is that the vehicle must not be moving – however accidents happen and the vehicle may be in motion by the time the gun is fired.
Cops can shoot a hostage taker.
In fact if a hostage taker does not give CLEAR demands – it’s NVL to not attempt to shoot the hostage taker. The moment that the PD feel that they cannot predict the hostage takers actions, they have to take action to try to save the hostages life with lethal force.
The moment a criminal dispatches a firearm at or in danger of an officer or other civilian, they can be shot at by law enforcement.
The moment a civilian attempts to steal a Police Officers Cruiser or Weaponry, they can be shot by law enforcement.
A police vehicle can contain weapons and materials, which would give the officer Good Faith Belief that the theft could lead to the endangerment of someone’s life. This is covered in Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985).
An officer can meet any force considered to be lethal, with a lethal weapon, this includes melee weapons as well as firearms. Police can meet a bat, knife or other any weapon that could be lethal with gunfire.
Once an automatic or higher yield weapon has been identified by law enforcement, they may match the yield of that weapon or go one class higher. Multiple officers may be armed with the same yield of weaponry, regardless if only one criminal is armed. The reason for this is that the officers have no way of knowing how many criminals have Class 3’s and if an officer goes down with a Class 3 firearm, there must be another officer ready to fill that spot.
In addition, if an officer is outnumbered by 2 or more armed individuals they may wield a higher yield weapon for their safety until back up arrives.
Officers can match force + 1.
Banks, Heists and any scenarios that have a rule of 4: Officers can bring 5 units with the stipulation the fifth unit is staged in a vehicle for pursuit, unless breaching.
Normal Engagements that have a rule of 5: Officers can bring 6 units. Unless it is a gang war, then officers can bring 8 (This is because they are usually dealing with a total of 10 hostiles).
Police need to assess the threat before engaging in conflict between two opposing parties and must attempt to make some effort to de-escalate the conflict without violence – however it’s rare police can do this in an active shootout.
Civilian and Public Areas: In areas of high traffic where the public could be endangered, law enforcement must attempt to stop reckless and hostile individuals peacefully, unless their life is in danger. If an officer cannot safely make contact, they must dispatch their firearms and where able to do so MUST identify themselves and give a lawful order.
Private Property: Law Enforcement must determine who the aggressors and who the property owners are. Property owners have the right to defend their property and firing upon property owners who are simply utilizing their constitutionally granted rights to defend their property would be an extremely unfortunate scenario. Law Enforcement may fire upon the aggressor and de-escalate the home owners when they’ve arrived.
Frisks are an over your clothes pat down for illegal weapons, this can be done ANYTIME you are detained. This does not need PROBABLE CAUSE, this only needs REASONABLE SUSPICION that you could have committed a crime.
A REASONABLE SUSPICION is just that, a suspicion that must be based on “specific and articulable facts”, “taken together with rational inferences from those facts”.
Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968)
TLDR: You can be pat down for weapons for a large variety of reasons, when potentially not having committed a crime.
Full searches are just that, they are full searches of you and your person.
These can be done when police have Probable Cause. Probable Cause can be gained in many ways – sometimes Probable Cause can be gained through a Frisk that was undertaken due to Reasonable Suspicion.
Probable Cause from the Fourth Amendment: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
TLDR: You can be searched fully when it is clear you have committed a crime and charges can be laid, or a warrant placed. There are other circumstances that allow for a full search of your person, but the topic is too broad for here.
Pennsylvania v. Mimms, 434 U.S. 106 (1977) ruled that police can order a person out of a vehicle following a traffic stop and conduct a pat-down to check for weapons.
Furthermore if you’ve committed a crime, you can be cuffed and arrested at a traffic stop regardless.
TLDR: Yes. They can cuff and search you at a traffic stop with reasonable suspicion.
An officer can detain you for a variety of reasons, they can do so for their own safety or if they have reasonable suspicion you could have or could in the future commit a crime.
You will likely find yourself detained if you are near or around the scene of a crime. An officer is within their rights to detain and question you. Sometimes an officer may simply cuff you while attempting to control a scene until they’ve ascertained what has happened.
An officer can have their weapon out for their own protection – when conducting a traffic stop or dangerous call, officers don’t often know what they are going to be dealing with so they have to be prepared for the worst. This includes medicals, robberies, traffic stops, drug calls and reports of shots fired or suspicious individuals.
Officers can have their guns out. It’s normal with the vast amount of crime in Los Santos.
If you get out of a car on a traffic stop, you are endangering the passengers and the officers.
If an officer has given you a lawful order and has not directed you to exit the vehicle you could be detained or arrested for doing so.
Searches, Pat Downs & Traffic Stops
Vehicle Chases & Pursuits
Police are allowed to pit a vehicle – though they are instructed to not do so carelessly in a way that endangers civilian life, an example is pitting a car at high rates of speed in a busy city thoroughfare.
Police are encouraged to pit vehicles outside of city limits and to do so effectively – by tactically striking a vehicle. Bumping and grinding cars is not pitting a vehicle and is highly discouraged.
If you pit a police vehicle – expect them to take this as an act of hostility.
Police can shoot the tires of a vehicle if the vehicle is about to be used in an escape.
The standard for the police force is that the vehicle must not be moving – however accidents happen and the vehicle may be in motion by the time the gun is fired.
Many criminals have the expectation that cops should simply sit and let you repair your vehicle in the middle of a chase.
Police will attempt to PREVENT you from repairing your vehicle and as referenced in the use of force section, WILL shoot you if you aim guns at them and they WILL shoot to disable your tires.
Spike strips are a viable tool for police to use and if you get caught by them – you simply just got outplayed.
It’s extremely difficult to predict a vehicles path and to do so without spiking both the vehicle being pursued AND the chasing units.
Also your vehicle can be pre-emptively spiked if parked illegally and confirmed to be being used in the crime (Key word, confirmed). Or if the vehicle is parked directly in front of a bank.
Police will pit you or block your attempt to take skips that are unfollowable or almost unfollowable. They are encouraged to do so.
This is common sense. Don’t be a shitlord.
Boxing and Blocking are viable methods used by the police.
They will block narrow corridors and obstruct you from going forward, they will block lanes of travel to slow you down and they will BOX a nearly disabled car to cease it from moving.
If your demands are unreasonable or you make no demands – police have to consider you unreasonable and begin a threat assessment to shoot the hostage takers in order to save the life of the hostage.
Police need proof of life to negotiate, or they have to assume the hostage is dead or going to die. Therefore you’ve become a dangerous felon and the police have to move in with lethal force to get to the hostage to save them.
I.E: The hostage takers fail to show proof of life and have shot the hostage. The hostage takers have shot the hostage and they need medical care, without intervention to get the hostage medical care they would have died.
Troopers can only go off duty at a police station.
Making a trooper go to a police station to “turn off a tracker” you don’t know exists IC, is incredibly fail RP.
The police have to make a determination on if it puts the hostage at more risk attempting to negotiate with you, or if there is less risk in attempting to use tactical and lethal force against the hostage takers.
If the hostage taker is irrational, unreasonable or if they are unpredictable it is often the only choice for the police to make.
The whole basis of a hostage situation is leverage – meaning that when you drop leverage, police have no reason to negotiate and every reason to save the hostage.
Meaning if you put your gun down or remove it from the hostage, you’ve removed your leverage. Police are trained to shoot or immobilize a hostage taker who has lost their leverage in a hostage negotiation – because this is the best case scenario for saving the hostages life.
Brandishing and pointing your weapon repetitively at police will leave them with no choice but to use lethal force.
Troopers not only have to value the hostage’s life, but their life and the lives of their fellow officers as well.
When attempting to take a hostage you cannot expect to take a hostage under unreasonable circumstances. This means when outgunned, having to NVL to get the hostage or attempting to take a hostage at an unreasonable distance.
A good example is approaching an unarmed person who is flanked by two armed guards with guns raised at you. Simply because you have pointed a gun at an unarmed individual – doesn’t mean the two gunmen at either side couldn’t shoot you.
If you interfere or prevent PD from retrieving a medical – you essentially are hostage taking and will be treated as such.
Hostage Situations
Banks, Heists & Robberies
It should be expected the police are going to arrive and know you are robbing the bank.
When the cops respond to the scene of a bank robbery in progress and they see four masked individuals inside with guns out – “Just Vibing” or “We don’t know what’s going on in here” are not valid excuses.
Police have no choice but to treat it like an active scene – you are robbing a bank. Act like it, because the cops definitely are.
Why would anyone ever do this and why would it be expected.
You are robbing the bank and the cops have to treat you like you are robbing one. You need leverage if you want to clean the bank out.
You need leverage. Without it the police will come in the bank.
That means if you are unarmed or if you have nothing to deter police from stopping the robbery, they are EXPECTED to stop the robbery.
The last door of the bank is an added reward, not a guarantee.
If you park your civilian vehicle in front of a bank it will be spiked. If you park it in plain view and it is obviously your vehicle, it will be spiked.
If you want to get to a vehicle easily – use a getaway driver or hide your vehicle better.
Police are meant to STOP the bank robbery – you can’t run through the bank at your own leisure and expect them to do NOTHING.
Crime is about RISK and REWARD. Most of the fun is in the RISK. But don’t expect cops not to RP cops. You need to pick when you should leave. Even Han Solo knew when it was time to kick it into hyper speed.
You are doing violent crime. Whether it’s a bank or a home robbery, there is major risk involved.
You aren’t going to be able to just walk away without any consequence. Police will intervene eventually – if you do these crimes you should prepare for potential violence.
Police have to meet a burden of proof, your finger prints on scene and an MO often times is enough for a repeat violent offender.
Deal with it.
If you have committed a crime, police are allowed to enter any of your owned properties in which might house a felon (you). So if you have a warrant or were witnessed committing a felony the police can enter your home.
Police don’t always need a warrant, there is something called the plainview doctrine and exigent circumstances meaning that if the police enter your home looking for you and see weed planters growing weed or other illegal paraphernalia they are allowed to seize/destroy it.
They simply are not allowed to just go into closed containers when they have no reason to do so.
The problem however is if they find weed planters, growing weed next to multiple boxes or boxes with illegal weapons laid on top of them they then have PC for a crime and the ability to search those boxes too.
Police can get search warrants if they show probable cause or well founded suspicion that there is evidence of a crime in a domicile. They apply for these to the Department of Justice.
This likely is the result of weeks or months of investigation and generally targets large drug or arms operations.
However, there are incidents where search warrants can be granted to find murder weapons or key evidence for a crime.
Vehicles do not need search warrants – they need probable cause.
Vehicles are considered transient therefore they are not held under the same standard as properties in the fourth amendment.
Untrue – as long as you were offered a lawyer during your detainment an officer can continue with the arrest.
If the miranda rights are not read, the arrest is valid but any questioning that took place must be stricken for the record and cannot be used in a court of law.
Search & Arrest Warrants
Respecting Police RP
If you are violently assaulting someone or executing someone… leave bread crumbs for the cops to be able to find you.
RP is about counter play and when you give the police no opportunity to investigate or capture you, you are doing it simply to win and not for the creation of story.
The police have to do their job – don’t be mad at them for simply RPing a cop.
You wouldn’t be able to be a criminal without someone to enforce the law and enable banks to be robbed. Remember that there is a player on the otherside.
This includes “Fuck 12”.
This is something that has no place on an RP server – we have many people on the police force who are active service members and hear this daily.
Give them a break and treat them with a little bit of dignity when they’re on the server. There is so much hate right now around the world right and there are good men and women in the police service who would never do those horrible things you’ve seen on TV. There are people who want better and want the world to be better. Love, Hope and Optimism.
It’s not story reason enough to simply just hate cops and want to kill one.
Please be more original – it’s a yawn fest story wise and everyone wants to RP this simplistic storyline and use police as there punching bags.
Police aren’t simply a game mechanic. They are players with a story.