I know it's probably a long shot but something I'd love to see.

A ranking system based on morality or choices made while on duty. Could have it based on session while on duty unless possible to save to the skin you use. Basically earn (or lose) morality points to earn promotions while on duty to give players a sense of progression while playing LSPD:FR. Could see using the system to have more commands over AI officers the higher rank you are, or your limitations as an officer. Say you use deadly force on a suspect that is not armed, you would lose points, or if you pull off an arrest on an armed suspect, you could earn bonus points as opposed to just killing them. 

RANKS:

Recruit
Officer
Officer 1st Class
Corporal
Sergeant
Lieutenant
Captain
Major
Colonel
Deputy Chief
Chief of Police

Like I said, I know its a long shot and would require a lot of work to pull off properly, but I feel it would really give that sense of progression and help feel more like a real police simulator.

It's LSPDFR, not LSPD:FR. And LSPDFR is, as LCPDFR, not a police simulator: It provides the tools for people to roleplay as a cop in GTA IV and V. We've had this kind of system up for discussion several times in the past (use the search button and ye shall find). The universal consensus is No, this is not something we or most of the community wants. 

If someone wants to develop it with the LSPDFR API, that's a whole other thing of course. 

Sam has already stated that they aren't interested in a ranking system. Most people seem to agree, including myself, that it'd just be a waste. Some people (like me) enjoy dragging suspects out and beating them to death. It wouldn't be so fun if every time you use your nightstick, you drop 3 ranks.

The problem with this is that realistically, the higher rank you are, the more you do behind the scenes work and command from the back. Sitting at a desk and controlling how much backup is sent to a pursuit doesn't sound all that interesting to me.

The idea is good, but i feel LSPDFR isn't the right mod for it. 

The problem with this is that realistically, the higher rank you are, the more you do behind the scenes work and command from the back. Sitting at a desk and controlling how much backup is sent to a pursuit doesn't sound all that interesting to me.

Not to mention the really fun stuff: Giving press conferences and setting budgets (I know, hard to believe the excitement!)

Police ranks (and army ranks, and really just about any rank system) aren't a matter of "you're good, so we're going to give you a higher rank and keep you on the same job." Paygrades can work like that, but not ranks. Increasing rank means you're turning into more and more of a supervisor, and less and less of a front-line worker. At the high end, a police chief's job in a big department is more similar to the job of the director of the city parks department than it is to the job of a patrolman. A police chief (and those a couple levels down from the very top of the hierarchy) is a bureaucrat, whose main connection to policing is that he was a cop and he supervises cops, and that he still considers cops to be his colleagues. It's kind of like the difference between a four-star general and an infantryman, except the general still wears a uniform.