Haywire
Escaped Convict
- Location
- England
Why Police should be able to play Rebel
I strongly believe that police should have the option to play rebel and rebels should have the option to play police. The rule preventing this is outdated and serves no purpose, let me explain why.
The Rule
The rule that disallows police from playing rebel came into action way back. It was originally implemented to increase activity in the force as too many officers chose rebel over police. At the time, this was effective however with 3 servers and a constantly growing community there is not enough police to govern it.
Roleplay
The majority of players choose to play rebel over police. This is likely because playing a rebel gives you less limitations and your roleplay opportunities extends to the server rules whereas your roleplay as a police officer can only extend to the police rules. Of course this is fine but it means that there will be an immense ratio of rebels to police on the servers (as proven by playing). The rule also prevents experienced roleplayers from joining the police. There are many individuals in the community who would add a great deal to the police but unfortunately cannot as they have more freedom playing rebel. This doesn't stop them from joining the police at all though, rather they join and leave after a month or two as they the roleplay gets too repetitive. In no way am I commending myself for good roleplay, but this was the case with me as I wanted to play police and rebel. As a result I had joined too many times and became blacklisted. Removing this rule will not just increase the activity in police (as many many rebels will apply to join) it will also increase the standard of roleplay. A few months back the police command decided to allow non-police players to use the vermin SMG on their civ account. This resulted in many more players joining the police (even though they left soon after as their life as a civ was still heavily limited). If this rule was removed, the same would happen just in greater amounts and less people leaving.
Civ life is boring. Some people enjoy it, of course they do, but for most carrying a pistol and running copper doesn't satisfy their need for action. When you limit someone to the civ life it should be expected that they want to do everything they can to get around it. Some will leave the police and others will try and break the rules without getting caught. Either way this limits the police population to people who enjoy playing police only, which unfortunately isn't many.
To counter a common argument that is "we only want people who are dedicated to the police in the force" I would ask "how does playing rebel make you not dedicated"? I was a GP in the NHS for a long time and I sure as hell was dedicated but that didn't stop me from playing rebel and police. When playing rebel under a different alias there is nothing stopping you from coming online as a police officer and giving it your best. That being said, I would agree that higher ups in the police should be restricted to police only but i'll address that later. To conclude, I don't see how playing rebel would hurt someones dedicated to the police. It would perhaps reduce their activity but what's better: 5x the current amount of cops who are slightly less active or the current level of activity?
The Police Holiday
Something that I think deserves it's own section is 'The Police Holiday'. The police holiday allows officers to take a one week break from the force every two months and allows them to participate in rebel activity. I believe they have to do it under a different alias. The concept is great for officers who want the occasional break to go on a rampage and for this reason I have nothing against it. However, it isn't enough for a rebel to want to join the police. Most people I know on their holidays tend to run drugs and enjoy the big guns. You cannot enjoy all the opportunities of being a rebel in a year, there is no way you can cram it all into one week. As well as that, by playing under a different alias (basically a different character to your police one) you are doing exactly what rebels have been suggesting for ages now. By playing as a different character you are not in the police and therefore it doesn't effect roleplay in the slightest.
My Suggestions
Of course it wouldn't be as simple as removing this rule, if you were to even consider it of course. I have a few suggestions that would make this more considerable:
- Cop character MUST have a different name to the rebel character. These characters are completely different people and cannot refer to their cop / rebel life.
- If you choose to play rebel, your rebel name must be declared to academy. As well as this if you choose to play rebel you cannot reach a rank higher than DSGT.
- All returning officers must be put through the training system as I know this is very good. (maybe minus the 10 hour CSO)
Conclusion
I have clearly written enough for now so i'll rush to my final point. Whenever someone is asked the question "should cops be allowed to play rebel?" they instantly say no as it has become the norm. But after thinking about it more carefully I believe this needs to be reconsidered. Cops should have the ability to play rebel for the following reasons:
- It will increase activity in the force
- It will increase roleplay standards in the force
- It will allow long time members (and new) to experience all that the server has to offer as well as offer their own abilities to the server
- It will allow both police and rebels to experience each side of the server and maybe reduce the cop / rebel arguments
Thank you for reading, I may add more to the post when i'm less tired and i'll respond to any posts that are written bellow. Bare in mind this is my own opinion and i'm not targeting anyone for anything. My one request is that you read through my post before commenting, thanks