Police Guide

What the script adds to police work, and the limits that keep it fair.

#You are not exempt

An officer recognizes people exactly the same way anybody else does: stand in front of them, press F3, and look. A uniform does not grant knowledge, and neither does a badge.

What police do get is four extra sources of information — and every one of them has a ceiling.

#Camera reports

A hidden camera records a scan. Its owner prints the recording as a paper from the F3 menu (Camera recordings), and that paper can be handed to you. Use the paper to read it.

When you read a camera report as a police character (a job your server lists as police, on duty), you get a memory of the person on it:

60 % is under the 80 % line on purpose. A report is enough to go and look for somebody. It is not enough to walk up and act on it. Find them, look at them yourself, and then you know.

A report carries the description, visible tattoos with their pattern codes, the voiceprint code if a voice changer was used, a photo where your server supports it, and the report id (RC-…). It never names the person.

Reports can also be pushed straight into your MDT, if your server runs a supported one.

#Witness statements

Civilians can write them with /recognition:statement. You get a paper, an MDT entry, or both.

A statement is a plain description in a witness's own words — clothes, visible tattoos, the face if they saw it — with up to 500 characters of their own notes. Cues they only half saw are written as "did not see clearly".

A statement carries no percentage and no real name. It is testimony, not an identification. Treat it as a lead.

Statements can be anonymous where your MDT supports hiding the author.

#The "possible match" line

After you scan somebody, if you are holding a report or a description that fits them, you get one extra line:

Looks like someone you were told about: Report: a masked guy seen on Grove Street at night (40%)

Only the jobs your server lists for this line ever see it (Config.Jobs.HintJobs, police by default). Everyone else gets a plain result with nothing in its place.

It is a match against everything you have been told, so it never proves who somebody is, and it can never reach the act line. It tells you where to look.

#Lab ID

A fingerprint or DNA match that comes back from your evidence script gives you a Lab ID:

A Lab ID is a name on a file, not a face you would know in the street. By default it does not put a name over their head, but it can count as "you may act on knowing who this is", which is what a lab result is for.

You need a police job and to be on duty. A lab result that points at the wrong person grants nothing.

#What "may act" means

Your character is considered sure enough to act at 80 %. The script will never stop you doing anything below that — but every aim, shot, cuff, search and arrest is recorded with two numbers:

what you remembered, and what a fresh look at them right then could have reached.

If you cuff a masked robber while your character had no way of knowing who was under the mask, that is exactly what the record says, and your staff read it later. See Proofs.

#Practical notes

#Commands you will use

Full list: Commands.