Well, being as I'm part of Professional Standards who are in charge of the Policy Board that are responsible for making amendments and changes to the General Policies, I'm going to provide some clarity on this.
For those who don't know what the Microphone Usage policy outlines, I will place it below:
2.1 Possessing and using a microphone of good quality is a requirement on entry to the police force.
2.2 If your microphone is not working, or you are not in a position to use it, then you must go off duty at your earliest convenience but finish any active investigations/interactions using text-based dialogue.
2.3 There are occasions where it is justified to use text-based dialogue as opposed to microphone usage for as long as necessary, including but not limited to: text-based radio; in a noisy environment, and/or if someone speaking to them is using text-chat.
2.4 Supervisors reserve the right to demote officers if they do not have a microphone, and cannot justify using their microphone.
As everybody already knows, a microphone is a requirement in order to become an officer and there are good reasons behind this, such as those
@CodezBlack as highlighted.
Now
@XPGamingXPDK in regards to what you say here:
if your mic broke, your unavailable to use it right now or if it's nothing really important like a traffic stop, a microphone isn't much a requirement.
This is not correct. As 2.2 of the Microphone Usage policy outlines, if your microphone is not working or is not of good quality, you
must go off-duty as soon as possible but you are allowed to finish the situation you are currently involved in via text-chat prior to this. Additionally, as stated in 2.3, while there are scenarios where it justified to use text-based chat such as in a noisy environment, etc. you really shouldn't be needing to use text-chat at all where your microphone can to the exact same job but quicker, so there comes the question: why bother using text-based chat in an incident such as a traffic stop when it is really not needed.
I'd like to point out as well that Supervisors can
demote you in-game and
reprimand you for not having your microphone or cannot justify using it as stated in 2.4.
If you disagree with this, then I'd recommend making a suggestion thread on PLPD.Online's forums or creating a Helpdesk ticket direct to the Policy Board to change the policy but personally, I feel the policy is fine in its current state and doesn't need changing anytime soon.
With that said, I will be closing this thread. Thank you for your discussion.