The PLPD is a joke

[dzukee]

Hello everybody, I am here once again to give my unsolicited opinion on the forums.

This one's been brewing in my brain creases for a while. I was a part of the PLPD when we first started making the full move to PLPD online (ask any IA investigator about the spreadsheet, it was traumatising,) and I've noticed that the quality of officers has seriously deteriorated.

I want to make it clear, by no means is this the fault of any specific member of the department. All command members work for free to help run this thing and I'm grateful there are still people dedicated to the project. This is, in my opinion, just a part of a wider problem.

Firstly, let's talk observation reports. They're ineffective at actually judging the effectiveness of any officer. A majority of the time, an officer who wants one can barely even get a corporal+ who's interested in writing one. I've heard "I've already done 2 this month" more often than I could count. There is no ability to recognise officers for a single act of good policing. Back in my day, we had commendations, which were able to be issued for either a single notable act or an entire patrol. I feel these should be brought back, in conjunction with patrol reports, so that CPL+ isn't so "burderened" by the horrors of writing observation reports.

The main issue I have is that all cops are way too shootout hungry. Officers will literally drop anything they're responding to if a shootout comes up, leading to a lack of actual decent policing and just a constant TDM between police and zerg criminals. Only a handful of officers both enforcing traffic laws, and barely anyone can roleplay for shit. It's all just measuring what you can do against policy and as soon as an arbritrary policy threshold is crossed, doing that thing. The radio is basically just people screaming over each other about the latest shootout and nobody could give a shit about anything less. A lot of the time, TFO are essentially permanently geared in some form, and will never deal with anything except a shootout. What's the point in being a police officer if you don't do any actual police work?

There's seldom any tactical thought put into anything either. Pistol cops are so hungry to be the one to get the kill that they rush into properties and get shot before even firing a bullet. Breaches are predictable and sluggish and nobody holds a perimeter anymore.

The PLPD was never perfect, but we used to have a lot more officers who cared about the little things. Who would be reasonable and try to roleplay as somebody who actually valued their life. Supervisors used to carry authority and actually cared about the behaviour of lower ranked officers.

The whole culture feels like it's shifted. There's probably no solution, because this isn't just a police problem, but rather a wider issue with the quality of roleplay on the server.

Idk, rant over, thank you for coming to my ted talk.

I fully agree. What you said about the Observation reports is so true. One time I asked maybe 10 different corporals for a OR and all of them said the exact same thing. "Ah the city is too intense now", "I already gave two OR's ". I dont understand how it is fair promoting people like this. They have no will to watch people grow their career in the PD. This is the main reason I personally do not enjoy PD at the moment because of this. Feels like I am stuck and will never get promoted. Numerous times I have asked higher ups to arrange a OR and told them about stuff like this they dont seem to care. Unless you ask them about OR then they will try doing something, otherwise they dont give a flying crap. I rarely see someone on PD ranked cpl+ asking lower ranked officers "do you want an OR" or "do you want to patrol with me" never.

 

[dzukee]

That's what I'm getting at.

If you are trying to get promoted or get certs, it's detrimental to do things like traffic violations, going after people for jwalking, and things that people consider Police RP. Even if you are not worried about getting promoted, you still have to worry about interacting with those situations because it does carry a risk of being demoted for what basically amounts to small mistakes.

And the real shit sandwich about all of this is that you still have to deal with people acting like complete toddlers. Some people could be RP'ing the freakout, but I have absolutely seen several people go full crashout and threaten to file F6s and IAs because they didn't get their way. After a certain point you would figure Excess Negativity would come into play because sweet jesus some people on here need a Xanax.

Just report them for FailRP, because they are breaking server rules mentioning OOC stuff. Tired of hearing Im gonna file an IA or F6 just do it. Most of the time they aint do shit fr.

 

[ExcelentAxelent]

This was with 128 pop, this is the problem if everyone hops off duty when Dispatch comes on (not the case this time just bare officers). When multiple shootouts happen this is kind of a pain as we have to dedicate 90% of the officers to one incident as they are mostly regular (pistol) officers and therefore for the officers safety at least 3 or 4 are needed at a scene. If another incident then happens and there is just 1 available unit left, they get instantly blasted by like 5 raiders With AR's and scream for additionals that aren't there making them die and also hop off duty.

Basically moral of the story, if you want dispatch to do well, guide them but don't hop off duty cause dispatch can hardly do their job if there's only a handful of officers only.

 

[unscsnip3r]

I've had at least 2 new Sgts asking me if road crew or firefighters are gov employees or not, not having their guns out during a hostage situations

Just want to reply to this on two points:

1. RC being gov is constantly being debated and its fairly unclear even now. Probably needs a rule amendment to confirm this.

2. To fair on cpls, the patrol resources have 0 guides for this, its solely in the TFO guidlines, which you would only ever read if going to tfo l1+

 

[lencz]

1. RC being gov is constantly being debated and its fairly unclear even now. Probably needs a rule amendment to confirm this.

It's also pretty clearly stated in the penal code. Including Colliers reply.

 

[Acerius]

Im sure @Acerius can weigh in somewhat about the strain it makes IA go through in some respect i would also appreciate the insight into it

The PD is a classic example of a catch-22. Those of us who have been and stayed around for a prolonged period of time will know that nothing dramatic has changed or shifted, but rather the PD debate is cyclical:
> People complain that the bar of entry for specialist divisions and higher ranks is too high for people who don't 'main' or 'sweat' PD
> Community shouts at PD Command to improve the situation
> PD Command works with Developers and others to introduce new ways of doing things and lowering the bar of entry as asked to make it more accessible
> People complain that the bar of entry for specialist divisions and higher ranks is too low and is leading to a poor capability of LEOs
> Community shouts at PD Command to improve the situation
> PD Command alters those ways of working and makes them slightly tougher to try and improve standards, and works to get rid of existing LEOs who do not meet standards or are underperforming
> People complain that the bar of entry for specialist divisions and higher ranks is too high for people who don't 'main' or 'sweat' PD

This cycle has been ebbing and flowing ever since the formalisation of the PD, with those swings between the different camps/states of play happening more frequently and less intensely as we move forward.

In my view, there's no perfect solution to the question of the PD. It's a case of people having to decide which trade-offs they would prefer to take, because you can't both have your cake and eat it. You either:

• Raise standards and bars of entry to ensure a higher quality within the LEO pool (both ranks and divisions), accepting that there may be those who likely have the capability but cannot overcome those hurdles
• Lower standards and bars of entry to keep the LEO pool accessible, accepting that while this does open it up to those who may have had capability but were previously unable under those aforementioned higher standards, it also opens it up to those who simply do not have capability and aren't/will likely never be good LEOs

You also have to consider that those who call for higher standards and making things harder to achieve would likely not even meet those standards themselves. They may then say "oh, well we went too far in the other direction" but it's more likely the reality is that they simply do not have that capability.

I think people hinge or focus too deeply on things like the Observation Report system. I'm not saying it's fit for purpose or doesn't matter but to be honest it's immaterial in terms of the bigger picture. Culture is the biggest driving factor, and what people want from the PD, and how hard they're willing to work to achieve it - even if it means they themselves have to be excluded.

If I'm being brutally honest, I don't see a way of solving all of the issues for all of the people. You can address the majority of issues for the majority of people on one side of the debate, but it will always be to the detriment of the other side. Whichever side has the strongest voice is what seems to ebb and flow, and thus causes that cycle I mentioned above.