#RemoveDispatch - A discussion

[Smeris]

A Few days ago someone threw in the hashtag #RemoveDispatch in OOC and it sparked some discussion, it's clear dispatch is a controversial topic within the PLPD: One side absolutely adores it and wishes it was there 24/7, the other considers resigning the moment a dispatcher goes on duty. Those in favor of dispatch are usually are dispatcher themselves. I threw a strawpoll in the shoutbox some minutes ago and with a 5/3 vote i felt it warranted a thread.

Right of the bat: i'm incredibly biased here.
I used to be a dispatcher before i went on a hiatus. I liked being the role myself but one thing i noticed that you had to put an extreme amount of effort into the role to not make it enjoyable for yourself; but also enjoyable for the officers that are fully dependant on you. I feel that in 2020 PERP, the dispatcher role is completely redundant and only ruins police roleplay instead of making it better. Now, i dont think the role should be removed fully, i think it could be reformed as some kind of assistive role, like watching CCTVs, but the whole "Dispatch from Alpha 1" part of dispatch has got to go.

Radio communications
The radio is a vital part of being an officer and it's fucking annoying that whenever you are dealing with a situation or talking to sombody in-game some cunt is asking on the radio if he may be moved to another unit or that he's dealing with some situation. Yeah, enforce radio protocol you'd might say but that isn't always possible, efficient or doable in certain situations. Most often times, it's dispatch rambling to units to give situation updates. This leads to officers muting their radio whenever they're not driving leading them to missing otherwise vital information. Speaking of which..

Vital Information
I'm a Tactical Firearms Officer. The other day i was at bazaar when something was going on at projex. I wasn't assigned there, despite hearing shots but that's all fine so far. But all i knew was that 'something was going on'. Should i just give dispatch the finger and leave my assigned incident he still hasn't removed me from since dispatch is too busy communicating one incident and help them? You get 0 information when dispatch is around: Not when officers die at a location, not which appartment or situation you're dealing with unless dispatch puts it in a call. Entering slums during a shootout? Hope dispatch relays the info in time that the purples inside are defending their property.

In certain situations it is absolutely vital officer at all times receive every 911 call or life alert as the seconds it takes for dispatch to copy and paste it into your incident or relay it to you are the difference between life or death, and arresting a criminal vs bodybagging him up. Now that we're on the topic of time:

Being available
When dispatch isn't around i can perfectly manage my own time, if a call comes in while i'm talking to someone or dealing with something, others will take my spot. When a call is assigned when you're busy, you have to break up your investigation or discussion to talk to dispatch, wait for permission to tell him you're busy and you've just annoyed yourself for 30 seconds because it takes a stupid amount of time for something stupid. Honestly, whenever there is a dispatcher on it completely ruins communication between officers. I dont know how i can describe this, but if you share my opinion then you know how this is like in-game.

I need a medic!
How you're supposed to do this:

Alpha 1: Dispatch, this is Alpha 1
*Wait 5 seconds*
Alpha 1: Dispatch from Alpha 1 priority
Dispatch: Alpha 1 go ahead
Alpha 1: I need a medic to bazaar, one male onconsious
Dispatch: 10-4 assigning a medic to you now

This sometimes takes like 15 seconds. You clog up the radio for 15 seconds. thats the time it takes a medic to come from hospital to slums.
This is how it could go, even with dispatch on:

Can i get a medic to bazaar code 3

There are not many protocols and instructions for dispatch besides the standard radio protocol. RADIO PROTOCOL IS STUPID. It doesn't work for officers.


Can dispatch be saved?
I myself dont think dispatch should be an active part of an officers experience here, they should see all the 911 calls themselves and assign themselves how they see fit. Maybe dispatch could be a passive role where you still communicate and relay info to officers that appear to incidents now that they don't the incident reason on your display, maybe they can just watch CCTV. Update incidents with text since they're conventiently always behind their keyboards on the police computer. There's all kinds of improvements you can do with and for dispatch but i don't see a lot of it happening. Though, that might be because the person who heads it hasn't posted something on the forums for nearly 3 weeks and barely shows his face in-game.

tl;dr: plpd bad

 

[Nate]

I think dispatch is a role that you can live without, But it adds in a lot of good rp and can be very useful

 

[Deleted member 6228]

16 police officers is not enough to warrant the use of a dispatch, it's always easier to just not have them

 

[Smeris]

dispatch belongs on a map the size of arma that has a playerbase of 300 people

 

[kapi]

I was the one who put #removedispatch but ironically I actually wouldn't want it removed, when a dispatch is not on its fine, when he is its also fine so I don't really see a reason to remove it.

 

[Husky]

The same excuse of wasting time can be used on TFU compared to SWAT, whilst the TFU time is slightly more of an OOC issue in comparison.

 

[Bnjemann]

Not gonna lie here, I absolutely fucking hate getting 911 calls as a uniformed patrol officer and if anything I want dispatchers to be able to deal with them as opposed to supervisors.

On top of this, dispatch can access camera's and the likes.

We also have the fact that devout dispatchers who might not be all that good at patrolling and shootouts and the likes still making themselves incredibly useful by sitting behind a desk commanding the PD.

I say keep dispatch. Dispatchers could be given alternative uses in future updates as well, which would be great. Should my PC suggestion get accepted, Dispatchers would also take the task of actively catching cyber crime and the likes.

 

[Smeris]

I think I saw @LEWIS 088 saying it few days ago

 

[Creepis]

I find solo dispatchers (and IMO very fun for myself) to be incredibly useful if paired well with a department that's willing to cooperate, even better if the Dispatcher doesn't restrict units to certain calls all too much. Having someone access CCTV for just a simple traffic chase can be so useful for the whole department and so can be looking for those E-Sport flankers during on-going raids. Pinpointing life alerts is also a very crucial feature for Dispatchers, there can be some calls that have been sent in "Unknown".

Keep it, it can also take off some work from the highest ranked when there are constant 911 calls coming through.

 

[Valentine]

I can't agree with you on how it should be completely removed from the server, however I agree on the radio protocol stuff I never try to enforce it too much and sweat officers. Instead even if they use casual laungage I try to relay the info they give out again in order to get more units attention & make it more understandable not like all the police transmissions made on PD radios are robotic in real life. However I still see asking for a report when the officers are on scene kind of mandatory as you cant view units dashcams on live or havent seen anyone have an issue with it so far. I see this as more of a personal problem and can be solved by a dispatcher training? Stating the issue on another thread? But perhaps not under the "remove" label . . .

 

[Jimmy]

There is nothing more satisfying than sitting on CCTV cameras and coordinating officers in a bazaar shootout. Calling out targets and having officers detain flankers before they can even strike.

In the right hands, dispatch can make a medicore team of sweatercops into an effective crime fighting force.

 

[CaughtRed]

/agree

 

[pingu]

Dispatch is the only thing keeping me around, to be honest. When you can't be arsed with the issues that come hand in hand with PERP "roleplay",especially stuff that primarily affects so-called cop mains like myself (shameless acknowledgement), dispatch is great. Removing dispatch is removing a vital part of the cop roleplay experience. I can see why it is beneficial in regards to the cop vs robbers direction PERP has taken, sure, and I may be in the minority in saying this, but if someone took the time to actually train dispatchers and make the dispatch role more professional and equipped it could go in a positive direction.

After dabbling with some GTA 5 communities and watching a few videos, which I know isn't a fair comparison even when comparing top quality santos RP (rip), the communications division in these communities are brilliant. Signal 100 (professional, roleplay way of saying oPeN coMmS) comes hand in hand with over-the-radio beeps, panics aren't spamming some chat, they actually submit several loud, obnoxious beeps that get your heart going, which requires dispatch to allocate select units to respond to (not the entire server rushing over but, again, not a fair comparison).

What i'm trying to say is, in TL;DR form: Dispatch is an amazing part of PERP, and removing all the effort it took into inaugurating that for the sake of saving a few seconds and being able to pew pew some epic bad guys for your perp victory, isn't something i'd personally like to see happen. Perhaps if the PLPD and the community generally acted with a bit more seriousness, and if Dispatchers were equipped with the necessary information, training, quality control, etc, it would be a great division, probably the best (bias).

This is a massive opinion warning, take what I say with a pinch of salt. Not saying cop vs robbers in inherently bad, i'm just saying that's the complete opposite of what I personally want and or look for in a roleplay community, there's plenty of cop vs robber gmod knock-offs flying about, no thanks.

I'm a Tactical Firearms Officer. The other day i was at bazaar when something was going on at projex. I wasn't assigned there, despite hearing shots but that's all fine so far. But all i knew was that 'something was going on'. Should i just give dispatch the finger and leave my assigned incident he still hasn't removed me from since dispatch is too busy communicating one incident and help them?

If this wasn't perp i'd say no. Tactical Firearms Units are exactly that, Tactical Firearms. You don't get SWAT responding to every shots-fired-on-officers scenarios, especially ones that can be dealt with by patrol. But, since it's PERP, the dispatcher should have assigned you to the incident if patrol was struggling with the situation. Mad respect for you not just yelling down the microphone and rushing over, calling everyone a cunt, ignoring dispatch and making his life hell, to go and LMB some carrot colored badguys.

You get 0 information when dispatch is around: Not when officers die at a location, not which appartment or situation you're dealing with unless dispatch puts it in a call.

Probably one of the biggest flaws for PERP dispatchers, it's very hard to not slip into that PERP mentality and just do some CSGO callouts over the main radio. It is possible though, and again, should Dispatch have some quality control you'd have less silence / panicked dispatchers, and or less "HES OVER THERE, ORANGE MAN BAD", and actually have:

Multiple officers down at harbour lane, all available units respond. 11-99.
FOX-1 assigning you to incident #234, shots fired on officers, harbour lane.
Suspects wearing pink attire, two white males, class 2 firearms at scene.

or some shit.

I need a medic!
How you're supposed to do this:
This sometimes takes like 15 seconds. You clog up the radio for 15 seconds. thats the time it takes a medic to come from hospital to slums.
This is how it could go, even with dispatch on:
Can i get a medic to bazaar code 3

Again, lack of quality control and general issue of dispatchers not being prepared. This is supposed to be serious RP, it isn't efficient, and even with radio prot it won't be efficient due to a lack of 10 codes. This is generally an efficiency vs roleplay argument / discussion, mate. I can see why you hate that, however. Even when a competent and highly prepared dispatcher is on, you'll always get people rushing over code 3 to get their salary for reviving people. Issues boil down to more than dispatch. Issues such as: general lack of RP, rp often taking the back seat in day to day affairs, lack of seriousness on both sides.