Suggestion Title: Corporal Rework
Suggestion Description:
Corporal is meant to be the penultimate rank that an officer can achieve before they step into the role of a supervisor. They are meant to be the workhorses of the PLPD, and amongst their most experienced and trusted. Instead, they are a stepping stone to Sergeant, and are often outshone by Senior Officers who far surpass them in ability and experience, yet due to inconsistent activity or other commitments, they're unable to fulfil the role as it is currently. This is because of the requirement for them to submit two or more observation reports every month.
I have three changes I think should be made. I believe all three would need to be implemented to make this work.
Make it so Corporal does not have monthly OR requirements, but can still submit them if they so wish.
OR requirements mean that being Corporal fucking sucks. There's more to it than this, but I wholeheartedly believe that this is the reason why there are more Sergeants than Corporals, and there have been for a very long time. There is almost no reason whatsoever to be a Corporal over being a Sergeant. Presently, it is a stepping stone to Sergeant, and nothing more.
Any Corporal whose activity takes a dip for a few months and doesn't write ORs is given activity warnings after two non-consecutive months without writing two ORs. I know there's the whole 'let's talk' copy-paste message you get after the first one, but I don't think I've ever received a reply to those after replying, no matter who sends it, so as far as I can tell, they're essentially worthless. Another thing is that this hard requirement encourages lazy observation reports. in which the person writing them just writes the bare minimum and offers no meaningful feedback to the person they're meant to be observing. This is not desirable for anyone.
Senior Officer should not be the highest rank available for those who aren't able or willing to log on every month, due to work, school, or other, more important things than being a virtual policeman in a Garry's mod roleplay server. Remove the requirements, and you'll make Corporal a more comfortable rank for ex-command members who might not be as active anymore, but may still want to pop on and enjoy playing the game once in a while, without being relegated to SO, who can't even search up someone's phone number on their own.
Removing requirements for Corporal to write ORs will, I believe, also actually result in more ORs being written, as there will be a lot more Corporals to write them. It will also result in less Sergeants who just sit on the rank, do the bare minimum, and have no desire to actually be supervisors, but are only doing it for the extra pay, and so that if they resign due to extended inactivity, they get six months to apply for reinstatement to Sergeant. Meanwhile, if a Corporal resigns, they only get four months to apply for reinstatement back to Corporal.
This is so more people want to be Corporals, and you get to keep experienced officers, ex-supervisors, ex-command, etc. in a position where they can still be effective when they choose to come on and play. This would also give new Corporals time to get used to the role, and get used to writing quality ORs, and only once they're comfortable with doing so, would they apply for Sergeant, where the requirement would be in place.
Limit shotguns for Corporals to 3, maybe have it so mayors can adjust this up or down a little bit, say between 2 and 5. Sergeant and above get a shotgun no matter what, and do not contribute to the shotgun limit.
This is so that with the removed OR requirements, which will certainly result in more Corporals, you don't suddenly have every cop wielding shotguns, which otherwise would be sure to upset the delicate balance of power that makes the game fun.
Have it so patrol/traffic trainers ranked Corporal or above must review new ORs, and can forward exceptional or objectional ORs to their respective command. From there, command can take action if the OR is in clear violation of the OR guidelines, or, if the OR is of exceptional quality, then they can approve a bonus payment. I suggest $25K for every OR deemed of exceptional quality, though this is certainly open to discussion, and there would have to be limits on how many bonus payments can be paid out in a certain timeframe.
This is so that with the removed OR requirements for Corporal, there is a monetary incentive for Corporals and Sergeants to write observation reports that are actually useful for the officer being observed, as opposed to just a few sentences saying they did good, and giving them full marks, so they can tick the box for the month.
Why should this be added?:
What negatives could this have?:
I do not believe any negatives that can arise from the 1st suggestion have not been addressed or mitigated by the 2nd and 3rd suggestions.
What problem would this suggestion solve?:
Suggestion Description:
Corporal is meant to be the penultimate rank that an officer can achieve before they step into the role of a supervisor. They are meant to be the workhorses of the PLPD, and amongst their most experienced and trusted. Instead, they are a stepping stone to Sergeant, and are often outshone by Senior Officers who far surpass them in ability and experience, yet due to inconsistent activity or other commitments, they're unable to fulfil the role as it is currently. This is because of the requirement for them to submit two or more observation reports every month.
I have three changes I think should be made. I believe all three would need to be implemented to make this work.
- 1. Get rid of observation report requirements for Corporal
Make it so Corporal does not have monthly OR requirements, but can still submit them if they so wish.
OR requirements mean that being Corporal fucking sucks. There's more to it than this, but I wholeheartedly believe that this is the reason why there are more Sergeants than Corporals, and there have been for a very long time. There is almost no reason whatsoever to be a Corporal over being a Sergeant. Presently, it is a stepping stone to Sergeant, and nothing more.
Any Corporal whose activity takes a dip for a few months and doesn't write ORs is given activity warnings after two non-consecutive months without writing two ORs. I know there's the whole 'let's talk' copy-paste message you get after the first one, but I don't think I've ever received a reply to those after replying, no matter who sends it, so as far as I can tell, they're essentially worthless. Another thing is that this hard requirement encourages lazy observation reports. in which the person writing them just writes the bare minimum and offers no meaningful feedback to the person they're meant to be observing. This is not desirable for anyone.
Senior Officer should not be the highest rank available for those who aren't able or willing to log on every month, due to work, school, or other, more important things than being a virtual policeman in a Garry's mod roleplay server. Remove the requirements, and you'll make Corporal a more comfortable rank for ex-command members who might not be as active anymore, but may still want to pop on and enjoy playing the game once in a while, without being relegated to SO, who can't even search up someone's phone number on their own.
Removing requirements for Corporal to write ORs will, I believe, also actually result in more ORs being written, as there will be a lot more Corporals to write them. It will also result in less Sergeants who just sit on the rank, do the bare minimum, and have no desire to actually be supervisors, but are only doing it for the extra pay, and so that if they resign due to extended inactivity, they get six months to apply for reinstatement to Sergeant. Meanwhile, if a Corporal resigns, they only get four months to apply for reinstatement back to Corporal.
This is so more people want to be Corporals, and you get to keep experienced officers, ex-supervisors, ex-command, etc. in a position where they can still be effective when they choose to come on and play. This would also give new Corporals time to get used to the role, and get used to writing quality ORs, and only once they're comfortable with doing so, would they apply for Sergeant, where the requirement would be in place.
- 2. Limit shotguns for Corporals.
Limit shotguns for Corporals to 3, maybe have it so mayors can adjust this up or down a little bit, say between 2 and 5. Sergeant and above get a shotgun no matter what, and do not contribute to the shotgun limit.
This is so that with the removed OR requirements, which will certainly result in more Corporals, you don't suddenly have every cop wielding shotguns, which otherwise would be sure to upset the delicate balance of power that makes the game fun.
- 3. Pay bonuses for writing quality observation reports.
Have it so patrol/traffic trainers ranked Corporal or above must review new ORs, and can forward exceptional or objectional ORs to their respective command. From there, command can take action if the OR is in clear violation of the OR guidelines, or, if the OR is of exceptional quality, then they can approve a bonus payment. I suggest $25K for every OR deemed of exceptional quality, though this is certainly open to discussion, and there would have to be limits on how many bonus payments can be paid out in a certain timeframe.
This is so that with the removed OR requirements for Corporal, there is a monetary incentive for Corporals and Sergeants to write observation reports that are actually useful for the officer being observed, as opposed to just a few sentences saying they did good, and giving them full marks, so they can tick the box for the month.
Why should this be added?:
- More Corporals than Sergeants, as it should be, as it's a lower rank that's meant to be easier to achieve and maintain.
- Experienced officers, ex-command members, and others who- whilst competent and capable, have busy lives that take precedent, aren't penalized for not being able to log on every month.
- Less shotgun cops everywhere, due to shotgun limit.
- Less tick-box ORs, and more ORs that offer genuine feedback.
What negatives could this have?:
I do not believe any negatives that can arise from the 1st suggestion have not been addressed or mitigated by the 2nd and 3rd suggestions.
What problem would this suggestion solve?:
- Corporals being rarer than Sergeant, and experienced officers being left at SO because they can't log on each month to maintain the rank.
- Armies of shotgun cops when a lot of Corporals are on-duty.
- Shit ORs
