guide [POLICE] Organization & Structure

[Samuel_Tsai 27]

Hey fellow Law Enforcers

With this topic I'd like to inform and assist you in understanding and creating a police department. It's important that departments are organised and have a structure to ensure officers are appointed to tasks and supervisors ensure tasks are completed. While rank structure is an important part of your department, it's also important to have a good divisional structure. Hopefully at the end of the text you're a bit wiser on how a police department works. We'll start of with Police Ranks.

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Hierarchy

Staff Officers

Chief Of Police - In charge of the department and handles public relations with other departments aswell as controls internal procedures and protocolsDeputy
Assistant Chief Of Police - In charge of the department when the Chief of Police is on absence
Deputy Chief of Police - In charge of a large part of the department, known as an Office. Example: Office of Operations or Office of Counter Terrorism

Command Officers

Commander - In charge of a training within the department. Example: Sergeant In Training or Detective In Training
Captain - In charge of a precinct or leads all patrols within a certain area and acts as a supervisor to supervisors.
Lieutenant - In charge of a larger division and serves as city wide/ patrol wide supervisor.

Supervisor

Sergeant - In charge of smaller divisions or head of certain aspects within divisions. Alse the first contact point for basic officers
Senior Lead Officer - A non commissioned officer who is in training to become either a supervisor or detective..

Investigator

Detective In Charge - In charge of a investigation division and will handle day to day requests from lower ranked Detectives. Also in charge of casefiles.
Detective - Basic detective who investigates crimes after they happened and observes organised crimes
Senior Lead Officer - A non commissioned officer who is in training to become either a supervisor or detective.

Non Commissioned Officers

Police Officer III - Patrol officer who teaches the new officers the way around the department.
Police Officer II - Basic Patrol officer who makes up most of the department.
Police Officer I - Newly inducted Police Officers who are in their probationary stage and learn the way of the department.

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Hierarcy

With the previous mentioned hierarcy the base of your department should be filled. However it is always possible to adjust the ranks towards the need of your department. For example you can create a Senior Sergeant who would be a basic sergeant, but in training to become a Lieutenant. Another example is a Lieutenant I and Lieutenant II. Where the I would ensure larger divisions are kept under control the Lieutenant II would handle a precinct or multiple patrols. Ranks also work hand in had with your organisation. For example if you have 7 divisions it might be wise to have 7 lieutenants or a few lieutenants of the bigger divisions and sergeants of the smaller divisions.

It's important to know your department, because some divisions will require more intense handeling than others. Warrants and searches require more knowledge of the penal code and law than a traffic division. For that reason it's better to have a Lieutenant handle the Investigation divisions and a Sergeant the Traffic Division. The higher the rank the more legal and situational knowledge a person must have.

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Organization Chart

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Organization

Know your department and its needs! It's very important to ensure your department has a wide arrangement of divisions people can join so their day to day tasks are never the same and never boring. A good structure is most needed in the department and every part of it has a person controlling it. Divisions by Sergeants, Large divisions by Lieutenants, Precincts by Captains, Offices by Deputy Chiefs and at the top the Chief of Police.

The way a good structure works if that a basic officer will not have to complain to the Chief of Police. If he has a problem he should go to his appointed sergeant. If he can not solve it, the sergeant goes to his superior and so on. Because there are limited amounts of divisions in an Office there will be a good overview of them all. It's important that the division leader reports to the Office leader and the Office leader to the Chief of Police. Ensure to give your Deputy Chief of Police enough power to change his Office by only having to inform the Chief of Police with the changes. This way there is more control and better support for every division and they will know who too contact when there is a problem.

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GENERAL NOTICE: If you have comments or have questions about a certain aspect within the police department, you can always ask it here. I'll try to give a good answer to every question asked. Obviously if your question is important, it will also be added in the topic along with the explanation. If you have certain subjects to add aswell you can always PM me and it will be added into the topic along with credits too your name. This topic is aimed to give a detailed guide on how to make or understand a police department and hopefully the community works with eachother to give tips to other servers.

_{Sorry for possible writing errors}

 

Edited December 7, 2016 by Samuel_Tsai

[Acetime 10]

I hope there will put this realistic structure ingame,because I don´t like only 4 ranks or something like that.^^

 

I would like to see your imagination ingame

[Theo 2]

what can you do about dirty cops, like if a detective is doing illegal activity on the side

[Samuel_Tsai 27]

Hey guys!

Thanks for the feedback and I'll try and put some more topics up to assist people who want to make a police department. Hopefully the developers or moderators will be able to give feedback on our topics aswell.

 

4 hours ago, Theo said:

what can you do about dirty cops, like if a detective is doing illegal activity on the side

As for this I'm sure that private servers will have rules and regulations when it comes to this. For example only small corruption such as excessive use of force or usage of illegal substances. In official servers I fear that corruption will not be tolerated or will have no rules outlining what's possible and what's not. More often than not public servers have less strict police departments.

[Murdock 0]

It's well structured and you have thought about the core structure of the department from what i can see quite thoroughly. 

On 02/12/2016 at 0:51 PM, Acetime said:

I hope there will put this realistic structure ingame,because I don´t like only 4 ranks or something like that.^^

 

I would like to see your imagination ingame

I also would like to see this go further as it is clear that you have thought about this.

[Samuel_Tsai 27]

On 4-12-2016 at 10:43 PM, Murdock said:

I also would like to see this go further as it is clear that you have thought about this.

Hey, feel free too suggest items that need to be discussed. If I get feedback from the community I'll be sure to write more about what's needed to be writen about.

[mrbeardma 7]

Hi, I have a slightly different structure idea in this career Path Tree I just whipped up, but still rolls are pretty varied. You're more than welcome to use the image if you like it, I still have the psd. so can make changes in the wild event that you would like it in the game, I'd love to get some imagery in the game. All imagery is my own I offer to you freely. Let me know what you think.

[QuannTann 54]

Okay @Samuel_Tsai I got a question concerning two things:

1.) Being that Platoon C under office of Counter Terrorism. Is this a placeholder? Or is there really some special unit that is just called platoon C? Forgive me for my ignorance.

2.) Since there is sufficient evidence of no aircraft whatsoever, what is the point of the air support under the Office of special operations?

Also @mrbeardma I love the way your path tree looks. Plus the failure job options made me chuckle.

Edited December 6, 2016 by QuannTann

[Samuel_Tsai 27]

23 hours ago, mrbeardma said:

Hi, I have a slightly different structure idea in this career Path Tree I just whipped up, but still rolls are pretty varied. You're more than welcome to use the image if you like it, I still have the psd. so can make changes in the wild event that you would like it in the game, I'd love to get some imagery in the game. All imagery is my own I offer to you freely. Let me know what you think.

Hello,

First of all thanks for the effort but however I'd like to discuss something with you about this.  I like the general way it works and obviously promotions should be based on either applications or achievements. However things such as field supervisor are needed in police departments. For example a normal police officer won't just get Captain but will also have to learn how to be a supervisor before he can lead a big part of the department. I love the way it's drawn and stuff and argee on the general concept however lots of ranks are missing. SWAT should also not be a full time job within the department as SWAT would serve as supervisor/patrol officer untill they are actually needed.

[Samuel_Tsai 27]

20 hours ago, QuannTann said:

1.) Being that Platoon C under office of Counter Terrorism. Is this a placeholder? Or is there really some special unit that is just called platoon C? Forgive me for my ignorance.

Platoon C would be a platoon that handles for example big disturbance of large groups, hunt down people with arrest warrants on them. They could also do patrol with more equipment or are generally trained for more dangerous situations or situations with lifes on the line.

20 hours ago, QuannTann said:

2.) Since there is sufficient evidence of no aircraft whatsoever, what is the point of the air support under the Office of special operations?

Could also be something else such as a motorcade division, COMPSTAT division, High Speed Pursuit Division, or much more things. The draft I made is just an example and it's totally possible to add more or remove some divisions from the department.

[mrbeardma 7]

Supervisors is a good and nesesary role, but couldn't that be covered by any staff members of a higher ranking. 

[Valtorix 48]

Intriguing, a lot of thought went into it from the looks of things; not sure about Police ranks 1-4 though.

 

I don't mean to be that guy but uh, just to help you out you spelled Organization wrong in the title...

[mrbeardma 7]

That's fine, I'm glad you like seem to like it. It was intentional, I enjoy flirting with illiteration I think I gives a human quality, similar to my image of the crime career tree in the crime forum I use it more there to show character,

[Samuel_Tsai 27]

13 hours ago, mrbeardma said:

Supervisors is a good and nesesary role, but couldn't that be covered by any staff members of a higher ranking. 

While I understand that there are higher up supervisors can guide units, they also have a lot more to do. 

First of all it would be highly unrealistic to go from a police officer directly to lieutenant but you should get some experience as a basic supervisor first so you can handle small scenes before attempting large scenes as a lieutenant. Sergeants or supervisors will be your supervisor on the ground and will handle supervisor requests, pursuit protocols etc. While lieutenants will more likely handle big situations, close off roads, give interviews.

Secondly, it's imporant to have a difference between those who just became supervisor and those who can teach basic officers how to be a supervisor. Lieutenants do a lot more than just basic supervising and are not always patrolling around but sometimes also focus on their other assignment such as division.

[Samuel_Tsai 27]

12 hours ago, Valtorix said:

Intriguing, a lot of thought went into it from the looks of things; not sure about Police ranks 1-4 though.

 

I don't mean to be that guy but uh, just to help you out you spelled Organization wrong in the title...

Appologies for the spelling/grammar, there are a few mistake that slipped into it sine I didn't use a spellchecker. Title is now corrected.

As for the 3 officer ranks, the first rank would be those who just joined and shouldn't be left out patrolling all on their own without assistance. The second rank are normal officers who can patrol alone and know how to handle situations without having to continously ask others how to do something. The third rank are senior basic officers who can teach the newest members of the department and ride along with them to teach them how everything works.

[Valtorix 48]

4 hours ago, Samuel_Tsai said:

Appologies for the spelling/grammar, there are a few mistake that slipped into it sine I didn't use a spellchecker. Title is now corrected.

As for the 3 officer ranks, the first rank would be those who just joined and shouldn't be left out patrolling all on their own without assistance. The second rank are normal officers who can patrol alone and know how to handle situations without having to continously ask others how to do something. The third rank are senior basic officers who can teach the newest members of the department and ride along with them to teach them how everything works.

I see, that makes a little more sense; thank you for explaining <3

[Indoorseeker 32]

@Samuel_Tsai I think you have presented some good suggestions and ideas. Part of the challenge will be to balance real life versus what we can do in a video game. I am confident the developers will try to do their best though. They have so far shown that their content will be really interactive, as shown in the apartment and housing game play video demonstration they have posted. I am excited to see what happens and maybe we will see each other in the game.

Family First, Mission Always. Stay Safe.

[Samuel_Tsai 27]

5 hours ago, Indoorseeker said:

@Samuel_Tsai I think you have presented some good suggestions and ideas. Part of the challenge will be to balance real life versus what we can do in a video game. I am confident the developers will try to do their best though. They have so far shown that their content will be really interactive, as shown in the apartment and housing game play video demonstration they have posted. I am excited to see what happens and maybe we will see each other in the game.

Family First, Mission Always. Stay Safe.

While I have not a single doubt in our developers, we should still assist them in every way possible. I have no doubt that they'll make a great script with lots of features for the Police. I hope however that they'll stumble upon this topic and might get inspired by the organisation provided, so that the public servers will offer the best possible department.

I share your vision and hopefully we'll see eachother in game.

[Indoorseeker 32]

9 minutes ago, Samuel_Tsai said:

While I have not a single doubt in our developers, we should still assist them in every way possible. I have no doubt that they'll make a great script with lots of features for the Police. I hope however that they'll stumble upon this topic and might get inspired by the organisation provided, so that the public servers will offer the best possible department.

I share your vision and hopefully we'll see eachother in game.

@Samuel_Tsai Hey I didn't mean to sound like I was saying we shouldn't assist the devs by presenting ideas and suggestions, I was complimenting you on your ideas. I agree with you and have made my own similar suggestions and ideas about law enforcement in the game. Together we can provide constructive and positive feedback! I look forward to seeing you too. 

Family First, Mission Always. Stay Safe. 

[Shadow765 149]

Looks good

[Alex 9]

I love the structure, however I have a few nit picks. For one, there will be no airborne vehicles as per the FAQ so the air support branch isn't really needed. Personally, I also think there should be a forensics branch under Investigation. It's great that you took the time to make this, very well laid out. Just curious, do you think the chief police should be elected or appointed by the governer?

[QuannTann 54]

5 minutes ago, Alex said:

Just curious, do you think the chief police should be elected or appointed by the governer?

Personally, I think they should be appointed by the Supervisors or Captains of all the offices.

That way the person who is chosen is right for the job, as sometimes the public doesn't know and at (most) times a governor can be clueless.  

But that's just me.

[Alex 9]

6 minutes ago, QuannTann said:

Personally, I think they should be appointed by the Supervisors or Captains of all the offices.

That way the person who is chosen is right for the job, as sometimes the public doesn't know and at (most) times a governor can be clueless.  

But that's just me.

I like that, that way they don't have to put on a fake persona just to be elected. It would also produce stronger leaders since they won't exactly be the most likable people but they can get the job done.

[mrbeardma 7]

A chief of police I think should maybe be the first one to climb the ladder the quickest, elected sounds good but government elected sounds more like the system of things so possibly the latter. I think a forensic department is vital as it would be really great to brush for prints and find the crooks through searching prior arrests data-base together with licence plates and last known address and places they commonly frequent. A real incentive to never get arrested or always wear gloves.

[Samuel_Tsai 27]

On 14-12-2016 at 6:01 PM, Alex said:

 Just curious, do you think the chief police should be elected or appointed by the governer?

On 14-12-2016 at 6:04 PM, QuannTann said:

Personally, I think they should be appointed by the Supervisors or Captains of all the offices.

21 hours ago, mrbeardma said:

A chief of police I think should maybe be the first one to climb the ladder the quickest, elected sounds good but government elected sounds more like the system of things so possibly the latter.

While I think selecting a Chief of Police shouldn't be a popularity contest, there are certain things that do need to be taken care of. For example people who don't know manuals, have no or only a small bit of sight into police work should not be the onces who elect the Sheriff or Chief of Police. There should be a committee, including everyone who wants to be chief of police, the mayor, and several key figures in the police department who decide who becomes the next chief of police. It would be obvious that a Police Officer can not run for the Chief of Police function and also that the candidates Chief of Police should not vote for their own.

When it comes for foreniscs, I totally agree on this part. However it is possible to for example make a UNIFORMED SERVICE DIVISION. Basic officers in plain clothes will do basic detective work that are non casefile related or small tasks given by detectives that work on casefiles. A part of this division could serve as forensic department and specialise in fingerprints and other identification methods. It's important to know that forensic work is tedious and will not be very fun to do. There for it's better to for example, allow detectives to dust for prints and just make it part of their all around investigation.