So I recently transferred over to using all MET officers and vehicles, and I like to have a bit more knowledge and realism when I play. So does anyone have any tips, or experience they have to share here? I've just been going off of American laws as of now, but I'd like to start up research in my spare time.

I know MET police doesn't use 10 codes but that is all I know.

The police over here (UK) rarely use guns as we have significantly lower gun crime so use your tazer/baton more often and its not that common to use the megaphone except when riots break out.

 

Hope I helped!

Sure mate. The following links may be quite helpful to you:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_vehicles_in_the_United_Kingdom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Police_Service

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_enforcement_in_the_United_Kingdom

 

I found them very useful when I first got into police gaming, and they pretty much describe the basics of how stuff's run. Might be a bit much but just zip right through them and read what interests you.

 

I'll run over some of the basics for you...

 

• We have PCSOs over here, which are a bit like citizen officers but they wear a similar uniform to the regular cops. They're pretty useless
• We don't use 10-codes - just plain english but we do use callsigns based on these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collar_number
• There are many different departments in the Metropolitan Police Service such as Traffic, CO19 (Armed Police), Robbery Squad (plain clothes officers) and much more...
• The main patrol cars we use are Incident Response Vehicles (IRVs) like the Vauxhall Astra, and Area Cars like the BMW 3 E90s and Skoda Octavias. The IRVs are used for general response to 999 calls, whereas the Area Cars are more like your "patrol" cars - they get into vehicle pursuits, respond to calls and pull people over. Recently the force has swithced over to battenburg for their latest units but still alot of current vehicles are used that have the old red-striped "Jam Sandwich" pattern on the side of their cars
• Many officers now have a Taser equipped with them which they can use in sticky situations. I'm sure there are some British police officers on here that might be able to explain more. I always find them fine to use if a suspect pulls out a gun though (being it's just a game)
• In police pursuits, it's pretty much everything goes and anything is used though only Traffic and Area Cars may peform special manuvers like the TPAC. You can get police vans chasing after stolen cars if they're the only police vehicle in the area... but ideally they like Traffic and Area Cars to engage in them, so usually they'll take over when they're avaliable
• We don't put dangerous criminals in the back of our cars like you do in the US - we use special Ford Transit vans called "cage vans" or "station vans" (because every police station has them). Sometimes we do put them in the back of the cars but only when they're compliant and there always has to be another officer sitting in the back with them

 

On some of the mods, I describe the basic roles of the different police vehicles so keep an eye out on the readmes... I used to write a list of vehicles and their uses in the first version of the Met Police Car Pack - I've got them archived and I'll attach the file if you're interested

 

Nice to see you going British, it's quite fun but you won't be getting into as many shootouts unless you're CO19... however we do run things a bit differenty so it's a nice change

 

EDIT: If you want a basic run of the police vehicles I've attached a file called "LAYOUT" - it's from the older version of the Met Police Car Pack before I removed it because I assumed most people knew it already. But if you're curious it's good to know what vehicles do what in your game....

Edited October 19, 201312 yr by Double Doppler

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• We have PCSOs over here, which are a bit like citizen officers but they wear a similar uniform to the regular cops. They're pretty useless

 

This made me chuckle for a reason I don't know :P

From what I have heard, the Met use Status' 0-12 e.g status 5 would be en-route to call. They use IC (Identification Codes) e.g IC1 would be White European. They also use Codes 1,2,3 and 4 for their common use. 

Great, the information is really helpful, I've read up on the Wiki pages. Going British is certainly a nice change of pace from the more aggressive American policing tactics.

Doppler has pretty much explained the main gist of it.

 

Taser officers are not that widespread at the moment. We usually only have about 2 units on shift that are taser officers in a serial. (a response team of 10-12 officers)  only one or 2 of the cars would have officers equiped with them. also dispatch are not allowed to know and identify taser officers when they dispatch units to help.

All officers are equiped with CS spray and as there is nothing comparable to that in GTA I usually use the tasers as a replacement.

 

As with Driving, Met officers have to pass certain driving courses and exams to different levels. below is the levels in what you can and cant do. (sorry for the long post)

 

Level 4 = Basic driving within the confines of the road traffic act. May use blue lights to indicate a driver to stop or at the scene of an incident. May not use audible warning equipment. May drive any vehicle that has a licence for (except specialist vehicles like station van, TSG carriers etc and on aid) with suitable assessment and OCU Commander authority, although the normal authority is for cars that are in the response category (If you don't have it written down that you are authorised to drive anything else, then you aren't). Written test and on road assesed drive.

Level 3 = Standard response, may use police exemptions. May only use vehicles that are in the level three category - typically astra, focus, transit van etc. As a general rule the engine size will be less than 1.8l for a petrol and 2.0l for a diesel but there are exceptions. When driving a covert equipped vehicle must have roof light or high level blue light. Initial phase of pursuit only (not tactical options). May drive other vehicles within level 4 rules. Two week course at Hendon Driving School with written test beforehand. Despite common belief, you don't have to be a level 4 driver beforehand to satisfy the driving school criteria, however nearly all OCU's (including the MSC OCU) require this before you are put forward.

Level 2 = Advanced without tactical options. May use police exemptions. May drive advanced catergory vehicles in response mode (marked level 2 in log book), typically these are area cars and traffic cars. When driving a covert equipped vehicle may only use grill strobes (roof / high level light reccomended, but not required). Initial phase of pursuit only (not tactical options). Further two week course at Hendon Driving School (after passing level 3 course).

Level 1 - Advanced with tactical options. May use police exemptions. May drive advanced catergory vehicles in response mode (marked level 2 in log book), typically these are area cars and traffic cars. When driving a covert equipped vehicle may only use grill strobes (roof / high level light reccomended, but not required). Tactical phase of pursuit allowed. Further two week course at Hendon Driving School (after passing level 2 course) or four week course after level 3.

There are other bolt ons such as PSU (TSG Carriers), 4x4 off road and motorcycle courses, both standard and advanced.

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

In the UK the police sometimes stop pursuit if the suspect is driving too dangerously and there isn't a helicopter above the target vehicle. Also we don't ram vehicles unless its really needed because the police in the UK are too scared of getting a little scratch or a dent on there cars. Also we don't use slicktop police cars we only use marked or unmarked and the police only use the Blue lights when responding to a call not the red Secondary lights. The Secondary lights are used if you pull someone over and if the traffic can see you clearly otherwise the police keep the blue lights on when they pull someone over. I hope this helps a bit!

This made me chuckle for a reason I don't know :P

 

Good thing we don't have them up here.