Member Information & Guidelines

Summary

This purpose of this knowledge base article is to provide important information to members of the police department in order to re-iterate useful and easily-forgotten information, and to provide them with with useful information and tips that they can use throughout their time while on-duty.

Public Domain Accessibility and Procedure or Policy Violations

This article, as with all of our knowledge base articles, is visible to everyone and also exists to educate the public about our procedures and general policies. Anyone who feels that a member of the police department did not follow proper procedure as outlined here (or in any of our other publicly available articles) or who otherwise believes that they were abused by a member of the police department is encouraged to report it to us. To get started on reporting an incident, please go here: https://www.ntwt.us/go/lspd/report.

Note that reports can be made anonymously and are visible only by department personnel.

Ranks

There are a total of ten (10) ranks in the Los Santos Police Department. All members of the police department begin at rank #01 and are able to gradually climb up the ranks as they continue their work and general progression within the department. The ranks of the Los Santos Police Department are shown below, from highest to lowest.

Uniforms

In the original rendition of GTA Online that was available on the XBOX 360 and the PlayStation® 3, there is no known way to acquire an actual police uniform. While there were some known methods in previous years, all methods to gain such uniforms were typically in the form of hacks, cheats, or glitches. Not only are cheats absolutely prohibited at the New Team of Weapons and Tactics, but to our knowledge, such methods were "patched" to the point where they are no longer effective. While unfortunate, this is nothing particularly new— as was the case in the previous installment of the game, Grand Theft Auto IV.

Since 2019 however (in the later rendition of GTA Online that is available on PC, XBOX One, and PlayStation® 4 and later), there are generic uniform shirts that can be purchased via the in-game clothing stores. Due to the mixed environments where players may or may not have access to such items, there is no official mandated uniform requirement for members of the Los Santos Police Department at the New Team of Weapons and Tactics.

Some examples of professional uniforms available since 2019 in GTA Online.

Players who are able to access such items are welcome to use them, but uniform use is not required. While not absolutely required, we generally recommend and encourage a business-casual look for members of the police department.

Vehicles

Unlike the previous installment of the game (Grand Theft Auto IV), the whole scene of police vehicles and their availability is quite different. Members that worked in the Liberty City Police Department may recall that marked cruisers were usually readily-available at any of the precinct stationhouses throughout the city, in addition to being very accessible throughout the normal traffic around the city. In GTA Online however, the scene is quite different: cruisers are usually not available at any of the station parking lots, and patrolling units are rarely ever seen in traffic, unless a nearby player is wanted. This leaves few ways to acquire patrol vehicles, such as dialing 911 on the in-game cellular phone and commandeering the unit that responds. In most cases, the commandeered cruiser is bound to get damaged by the police you commandeered it from, it will take time to lose your wanted level from commandeering the vehicle, and there won't be any way to repair the vehicle afterwards (emergency vehicles cannot be saved nor driven into automotive shops or garages for repair or customization).

Even in cases where vehicles may be expected to be available, often the vehicles that are available are not suitable for general use. Occasionally, there will be either a fleet of vehicles or a single vehicle that will appear at a police station, but often it is rare and certain conditions must be met for this to occur. Certain vehicles will also appear under certain circumstances; for example, a Police Riot will usually spawn for the player, if they have reached Rank 100 in GTA Online at either the Davis Sheriff's Station, Sandy Shores Sheriff's Station, Paleto Bay Sheriff's Office, or Vespucci Police Station. Even so, as the Police Riot is a vehicle intended for SWAT/NOOSE use, it is generally unsuitable for normal patrol use.

Needless to say, the game mechanics this time around unfortunately do not make it easy to acquire most police vehicles. Because of this, in GTA Online, it is not required or mandated for members of the police department to only use government-issued police vehicles. Instead, members of the police department are welcome to purchase and use their own personal vehicles for patrol use. Note that officers cannot use any vehicle they wish; restrictions are in-place for what vehicles they may use based on the rank of the member within the police department. Please refer to the table below for permitted vehicles for each rank.

January 2024 Update - Law Enforcement Vehicles Available for Purchase

As of January 2024— over a decade after GTA Online's original inception— Rockstar Games released an update to GTA Online titled the Chop Shop update that introduces the ability for players to legitimately purchase law enforcement vehicles and store them in owned garages. This update features two vehicles, a new Police Stanier with identical handling to the original in-game Police Cruiser and the Unmarked Cruiser that are both available for purchase. Subsequent updates later in 2024 have yielded additional patrol vehicles available for purchase.

Unfortunately, the prices of these vehicles are fairly steep, at almost $4.7M for the marked Police Stanier (referred to in-game as the Stanier LE Cruiser) and almost $4M for the Unmarked Cruiser, with slight discounts offered as trade prices if players complete certain missions. Subsequent updates later in 2024 which have yielded additional patrol vehicles available for purchase are also steep in price, with some vehicles not having any options for discount/trade prices.

Due to the limited methods of being able to assist players with ascertaining the funds to purchase such vehicles, the department does not require members to purchase these. Members are welcome to purchase them if they can afford to do so, and are encouraged to do so to help identify their in-game role while patrolling. Should methods be made available in future GTA Online updates to allow legitimate methods of gaining and sharing of money across an organization or crew, we may revisit this policy to attempt to raise funds for members to purchase their vehicles.

Weapons

In GTA Online, it is important to for members of the police department to remember that every player has immediate access to an entire arsenal of weapons. Unlike the previous installment of the game (Grand Theft Auto IV), where players had either one weapon or a melee weapon when they spawned depending on the setting of the freemode game, all players can control which weapons they have access to, and every player has the potential to have an entire cache of weapons: multiple pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, anti-vehicle weapons, explosives, and more. This means that all members should exercise extreme caution when approaching every situation, always assume that everyone involved is armed, and be sure to keep checking-in with dispatch when responding to calls. This does not mean to be hyper, unprofessional, or approach others at gunpoint when responding to calls. It is still your sole responsibility to remain professional and display a level of respect and courtesy when out in the field.

As for weapons, members of the police department are also encouraged to purchase, use, and maintain their own arsenal of weapons for duty use. Officers who are unable to afford a standard sidearm (pistol) or unable to afford ammunition can get in-touch with a supervisor who will attempt to arrange for you to be given some cash to purchase either the weapon or ammunition for it. The process for you to acquire the cash will be legitimate (no cheats) and will vary. For example, the supervisor may place a bounty on themselves for you to take, or they may hold-up some stores in-game and share the funds with you.

Just like vehicles, members of the police department are restricted with what weapons they are permitted to use based on their rank within the department. Please refer to the table below for permitted weapons for each rank.

Jurisdictions

Originally, there were effectively two separate bodies of police departments: the Los Santos Police Department (LSPD) and the Los Santos Sheriff's Department (LSSD). The LSPD primarily focused on servicing areas in the city from the middle to the south of the map, where the LSSD focused on servicing the countryside areas (the upper middle areas of the map and north portions of the city). Then for a short period of time, the Sheriff's Department were assigned responsibility of the highways, effectively serving as the highway patrol (or state troopers that other states may be more familiar with). As of 2020, due to circumstances surrounding the world COVID-19 pandemic, the Sheriff's Department duties, assignments, responsibilities, records, and jurisdictions have been merged and folded into the Los Santos Police Department. As a result, the Los Santos Police Department has full jurisdiction over the entire city of Los Santos.

Issuing Arrests, Citations, and Warnings

Arrests, citations, and warnings should be issued in accordance with standard department regulations. These should only be issued against crimes that we observe— which can be found on the Laws page. It is important to keep up-to-date with the contents of that page, as laws are updated regularly based on the normal evolution of the environment. In general, arrests, citations, and warnings for misdemeanors are issued at the discretion of the responding member of the police department.

Arrest

When you are able to capture and neutralize a subject with department-regulated weapon or vehicle, this is considered an arrest. It is mostly similar to the AI-police in GTA Online, since killing you is considered a bust, and they do not actually transport you to a jail or prison facility.

Citation

If you are attempting to capture a subject wanted for one or more criminal activities, and they escape by leaving the session, you are now effectively unable to arrest them— therefore you would issue them a citation. Issuing a citation is considered a hands-off equivalent to an arrest, and is recommended to be issued when an arrest is not possible for circumstances potentially out of your control. Other incidents that would warrant a citation rather than arrest for example, would be the appropriate procedure when handling a cheater. Cheaters will often have cheat tools to allow them to initiate cyber-attacks that can cause much grief upon other players, such as locking-down player movements, kicking or banning them from sessions, and even crashing games of other players. Because of this, standard procedure when coming across a cheater is to silently issue them a citation and move on. In most cases, we recommend leaving a session once discovering a cheater, as cheaters often have the power to be malicious and cause unwanted effects such as draining the in-game bank accounts of other players or doing other similar egregious acts to other players.

Incidents and Warnings

If you do not wish to arrest or issue a citation to someone who may have committed a misdemeanor (a minor crime), you may issue them a warning. This may be a verbal warning, where you do not file any information on the incident, or better yet, you can document the incident by filing an incident report. Filing an incident report does not count as an arrest or citation, and simply establishes the fact that such an incident actually occurred.

Cheaters (aka "Modders" and other Violators)

For the sake of discussion, anyone utilizing cheats in an online setting is labeled as a cheater regardless of any specific actions they do or do not partake in while using cheat tools. Due to the nature of the technical structure of this installment of Grand Theft Auto Online, cheaters are capable of having an enormous amount of power over others in the session. In addition to the usual problems of them being able to utilize invincibility cheats and give themselves unfair advantages in other ways, they often also have the ability to perform far more malice, by changing the statistics of another player in the session, crashing the games of other players, and/or revealing the physical locations of other players in the real world which can be used to commit not only cyber-crimes, but also actual physical crimes to invoke harm upon others in the real world.

Standard Operating Procedure for Department Members Reporting Cheaters

For the security of our members, department policy dictates that members of the police department are generally not to engage with cheaters and avoid them as much as possible. Instead, department members can do their due diligence by filing a citation for any cheaters they discover, but only after doing what they can to verify that the player's information to the best of their ability.

For each discovered cheater:

1. Verify (to the best of your ability) that their in-game name is not spoofed.
   • On PC, make sure their in-game name matches with their Rockstar Games Social Club profile. Their Social Club profile can be viewed by accessing the Pause Menu > Online > Players > (Choose the Player) > Show Profile.
   • On PlayStation Network and XBox Live, try to see if their in-game name that is linked to their platform profile matches the one found on Social Club. Their Social Club profile can be viewed by accessing the Pause Menu > Online > Players > (Choose the Player) > Show Profile.
2. Make note of each violation they are committing or cheat they are using.
3. If possible and it is safe to do so, gather any possible evidence by taking screenshots or photos (1-3 photos preferred).
4. Gather their Account ID (aka Rockstar ID or RID) information if possible via the Rockstar Games Social Club website or via an appropriate CI (confidential informant), and use this as the DL# (driver license #) value when submitting the citation.
5. If possible via the help of a CI, you may also include their IP address and general possible location as the address for the subject.
6. Any other information, such as sex/gender, height, weight, etc can be provided if known, otherwise leave blank.
7. Be sure to indicate the correct date and time of the incident (using your local timezone), sector (ie.: PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, XBox 360, or XBox One), and indicate the in-game general location (town/neighborhood is recommended and more than sufficient; for more information on towns, please see the map of neighborhoods).
8. If the subject used a vehicle, provide as much information about the vehicle as possible when submitting the citation as well. If unsure or you could not see, this can be left blank.
9. Submit a citation using the information gathered.

Example Citation for Cheater

Below you can see the screen-capture of an actual citation written for a cheater. The submitting officer's identity has been removed for privacy purposes.

Maps

Members can utilize the following maps to help them determine the proper locations of in-game towns/neighborhoods/etc.