6 - General Rules
6a) Jail and Punishment | Handling of Suspect
SUSPECT REQUESTING A SUPERVISOR
Officers are expected to allow suspects the chance to speak to a supervisor if they request it. This right may be declined under the following circumstances: no supervisors will review the case (they may only do this if they were previously involved and have already reviewed it), another supervisor has already ruled, the arresting officer is already a supervisor, a supervisor is not available.
COMPOUNDING PUNISHMENTS
Officers are to not add up laws under any circumstances. For example, if a suspect has committed both assault (9.1) and failure to stop for a Law Enforcement Officer (6.9), the officer may only charge them for up to 5 years in prison and issue a $5,000 fine, even though these together would result in up to 10 years and a $9,000 fine. However, you are able to put both of these laws in the reason when jailing them as stacking charges only relates to the punishment itself, not the reason for them being jailed, arrested or ticketed.
For minor breakage of laws (e.g. minor traffic offences) tickets and sentences should remain lower. Generally, the extent of cooperation offered by the detainee should be considered when setting a jail sentence or issuing a fine. When an officer wishes to go over the maximum punishment for an offender, exceptions may be authorised where justifiable by an officer ranked Lt. or higher utilising the power under 3.10 of the Penal Code. When issuing tickets to vehicles, the charges should only be for traffic-related offences and should not exceed $5,000.
REGARDING THE PUNISHMENT OF OTHER OFFICERS
Officers may not publicly punish, pursue, restrain, or otherwise damage the reputation of other officers unless that officer poses a clear and present danger to themselves or others. This including pulling over other officers. If it is believed that the officer has committed misconduct, then an Internal Affairs complaint should be created at https://plpd.online/complain
6b) Conduct
CONDUCT IN TEAMSPEAK & DISCORD
Any conduct within the Police Department channels in Teamspeak and Discord is to remain kind and preferably professional. Use of any powers in Teamspeak and Discord which have been granted by the PLPD to an officer are to be used only for official purposes and abuse of these privileges will result in disciplinary action.
CONDUCT ON PLPD.ONLINE
Any conduct in PLPD.Online’s shoutbox and inbox system is to remain kind and preferably professional.
CONDUCT IN RADIO & RADIO USAGE
Radio communication is to remain courteous and professional. Officers are also expected not to talk over each other and not to take up excessive time in use of the radio. Only emergencies and time sensitive matters should be sent over voice radio, this includes but is not limited to: Code 3 paramedics, reporting a car chase, requesting backup, reporting a traffic stop, panics or shots fired.
6c) Dispatch
REGARDING THE AUTHORITY OF DISPATCHERS
On-duty dispatchers have complete authority and control over any asset inside the PLPD. Officers ranked Lieutenant and above may overrule a dispatcher’s commands provided that the reasoning is justifiable.
6d) Peaceful Policies
IGNORANT BEHAVIOUR IN THE APPLICATION OF LAWS TO PRESERVE THE PEACE
Laws are expected to be lessened in severity or even ignored at times if it is absolutely necessary to preserving the peace or preserving life. Often threatening people with more charges and longer sentences in an already tense situation can aggravate the situations and cause an undesirable outcome.
IDENTIFICATION OF OFFICERS
Officers are always expected to identify themselves as law enforcement officers for the city of Paralake during a situation and especially when entering a building. Otherwise the officers could be mistaken as hostile persons.
6e) Performance of Duties
NEGLIGENT PERFORMANCE OF DUTIES
An officer performing duties, even within the limits of the law, may be found negligent in the performance of his or her duties if they obviously do not act to the best of their ability or if their behaviour unreasonably endangers the lives of citizens, other officers, or themselves and the risks obviously and heavily outweigh the benefits.
SUPERVISOR RESPONSES TO CALLS
Supervisors are expected to respond to the most important call at the time and may not stay idle or ignore regular policing and supervising duties in preference of more menial tasks. Supervisors must respond to and judge all officer-involved shooting incidents.
WARRANT STRUCTURE
For a warrant to be reason enough to arrest someone and be classed as "valid", you need to provide an overview of the situation including evidence and weapons used (if any). Warrants only saying "Tried to run the taxi driver over" will not be classed as "valid" or be enough to arrest someone for, as it does not give an overview of the situation nor does it tell us what kind of evidence that was present at the time. It is also important to specify if it’s a search warrant or if its an arrest warrant.
A good example of an arrest warrant is; "Arrest Warrant: Shot and killed the mayor outside city hall with a M9 Beretta after the mayor refused to lower the sale taxes. Several witnesses including police officers witnessed the situation. DNA found on the scene."
A good example of a search warrant is; “Search Warrant: Drug plants appear to be visible from the window of Slums Apartment 1, indicating production of drugs is ongoing. Residents of the apartment are refusing to open the door for Officers.”
PANIC BUTTON
The Panic Button is only to be pressed when there is an urgent concern for personal safety of you or a colleague, which requires immediate assistance.
You must not ‘test’ your Panic Button, even with notice, and it is your responsibility to reduce the likelihood of accidental press (e.g. by moving it to a bind you’re unlikely to hit by accident); accidentally pressing the panic button may lead to disciplinary action.
In the interest of saftey, all panic button presses must be responded to regardless of anyone on scene asking for it to be disregarded. It should only be disregarded after an independent officer, preferably of higher rank, can validate that no response is required.