Ayjay
Guest
As you may of noticed, the applications for the role of Chief of Department are now open, due to @Samuel sadly resigning from his post. I have entered my bid for this role once again and have pledged to bring some necessary changes, in order to combat an increasing friction between the community and the Police Department. Here are the things I plan on doing should I become Chief of Department in the near future.
@Dom_ and I will be a dream team - I am open to any questions you guys would like to ask, if I have not covered it above ^
Cheers
Ayjay
- Audits
Divisions within the department should be functioning correctly, and be able to deliver what is expected of them. Audits would take place by the Chiefs of Department, this would assess the activity, functionality and roadmaps of each team. Regular reports would be delivered to the community, regarding statistical information and the current practices of divisions within the department. Problems that are raised by lower ranking officers and even members of the community who are not involved with the department, will be listened to carefuly. Solutions for clear problems that are raised by a large portion of people will be voted upon, allowing for everybody to have a voice, regardless of how many badges they have on their plpd.online profile. Members of command who can not consistently demonstrate they have enough time to perform their duties should be stripped of their rank, and will be replaced by someone else who can.
- Downsizing
It's clear that the Police Department is somewhat disconnected from the community, I believe that a lot of this is down to the sheer size of it. It's always going to be difficult to find a perfect balance, but I believe that the work regarding downsizing that @Samuel and @Dom have been doing should be carried on. Some functions of the department are just too complex for very little reason, making it very intimidating for newer players to join and progress. There's absolutely no excuse for 3/4 command members to control one division, it is clear that quality has been sacrificed to band-aid a gaping hole. More capable and motivated members of the community should be able to take on these roles, rather than multiple friends of somebody in a high position.
- Policy & law refinement
One thing that I believe needs to be improved is the absolute wreck that is the current state of policies & procedures. Some policies are written poorly, and go around the houses in what they are trying to say - Policies should be easy to understand and follow a common sense logic, rather than a vaguely written wall of text. A simple quality over quantity methodology should be followed, all policies and procedures should also be open to scrutiny by members of the PD and community as a whole.
Laws are also a big talking point, some do not cover everything they should and others just don't make sense - I believe that a group such as the city council should return, however in a form (previously suggested) which allows for everybody (criminal and cop) to vote on changes. Laws are currently just left unchanged, which can stagnate the gamemode and allows zero room for progression in this regard.
- Intranet (plpd.online)
plpd.online has been a core part of the department for a long time, love it or loathe it, it is an important part of the way the PD works. I do believe that significant changes need to be made, in order to move features such as observation reports, event planning and also application processes onto the live server. It's very unlikely that the new Intranet is going to be completed by any other candidate, I plan to get a usable version of the new Intranet out by January 2020.
- Features and development
Another thing that other candidates will struggle with, is actually getting new features completed and live onto the server. I have the ability to listen to exactly what you guys want, and push it onto the live server within the day. Constant updates will be pushed out after Christmas, and amongst them, I plan on providing the PD with much needed changes and long awaited features. The radio manager, in-game observation reports, new & freshly skinned vehicles, removal of pistol sights for non-tfu members and plenty of other features you have all been asking for. The PD ideas & suggestions forum will not just be ignored for months, features will be added and features will be changed if there is a consenus for it.
After discussing this point with @Samuel, I decided that I should put this in my roadmap and solidify this goal for the near future (should I become Chief) - Incidents should be fed to the police computer and also accessible through a PLPD app on your mobile, allowing for limited information about calls to be displayed on the app, along with the ability to self-assign your unit to a specific incident. We could also intergrate other functions into the PLPD app, such as current warrants, incident logs, etc. Full information and other functions such as adding warrants, etc can be done via the Police Computer.
I also believe that adding some form of radio manager would be absolutely beneficial for the department, having a full interface and channels avaliable for Officers would resolve the current high radio traffic through the single channel we currently have. (You can see a more detailed version of this in my response to @Freedor here)
- Professional Standards
I plan on reviewing and refining the Internal Affairs system, allowing for more transparency when it comes to the process in general. Investigators should be well vetted and offer a high level of competence before they are involved with offering a conclusion, as they have some ability of swaying a case. I believe that all members involved in deciding the outcome of a case should be held accountable for their decisions, and should be able to provide a clear reasoning behind their choices.
Some members of the community have been asking for records to be made public due to concerns of corruption throughout the department. Should I become Chief of Department, I will provide an addition to the "Internal Affairs & Complaints" policy. This addition would allow for an individual (or multiple individuals) to apply for a "Freedom of information request" into a specific complaint. Should all of the very simple requirements be met for this request, and the request acheives support from enough community members, then a detailed report into the decision-making regarding the case and justification for outcomes will be posted publicly.
- TFU
The tactical firearms unit is in some ways a huge benefit to the PD, however I do believe (alongside many members of this community), that this division has proven to be very flawed. The original idea of TFU was to provide assistance to Officers in the most volatile situations, however it has clearly created a big divide between criminals and the PD generally. TFU needs to be altered, many issues may be solved if we improve the general intake and auditing of Officers in this division - Allowing for a limited number of only the highest quality of Officers to join, which would lower the overall amount of TFU overall. We could also forcibly limit TFU in both heavy or light gear down to only two at any given time, however this is open for discussion. There's many things we can do with this division, I would love to hear the feedback of you guys and would also be absolutely open to providing the changes that are voted for by you.
- Recruitment
This somewhat works hand in hand with the #downsizing part of this thread, however it's important that this specific point gets addressed. Recruitment in the department is something that receives many mixed opinions, I personally believe that the current system for applying is too annoying. As a new player, you absolutely should not need to go onto a website, sign up via steam and then complete an application just to become an Officer. Some people come on the server for a laugh, and have zero intentions of progressing throughout the ranks of the department, I believe this should be respected. As soon as I become Chief, I will push a change to the server which will allow any new player (with 2 hrs playtime) to speak to the NPC and become an Officer. This will create a plpd.online profile for them, so if in the future they want to take part in other divisions, etc. then they can. We will also provide a short tutorial for Officers, so they understand the keybinds, general policies and make sure they can read the laws and relevant policies.
I also believe that members of staff should intervene if there is somebody who is on-duty is clearly breaking the rules or is repeatedly breaking laws. There's no reason that people who are just playing the game, should be told to "make an IA" because some staff members can't be bothered dealing with somebody.
- Transparency
Bias is something that many members of this community believe happens in the department. You can remain absolutely certain that I will personally stamp out any forms of bias within recruitment, internal affairs cases and other processes within the PD. We will hold regular polls on policies and features, and also release regular statistics which will show exactly how efficiently the PD is working. We will be transparent and hold anybody accountable (including the Chiefs of Department), who are not performing their duties with the community in mind and whose only aim is their own progression.
- Training
Training is a huge cause for concern within the department, it's clear that many newer Officers lack the integral skills required to perform their duties - Whilst I do believe that it's important for people to be able to just have fun, and not have to worry about progression, it's important to differentiate between those who wish to progress and those who don't. I also believe that it's important for Officers who aren't as serious, to recieve the proper information to perform their duties regardless.
After a short chat with @Daigestive, I started planning some new ideas around how we can make training sessions work the best for all parties. I believe that having different tiers of training sessions could be beneficial for Officers, lighter sessions which focus on general policing could work well for newer Officers. We could also have seperate sessions for Officers who wish to progress further in the department, going over more supervisory topics, moulding them into more competent command members.
@Dom_ and I will be a dream team - I am open to any questions you guys would like to ask, if I have not covered it above ^
Cheers
Ayjay
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