discussion San Andreas Highway Patrol

[radreaper100]

1 hour ago, Oggy said:

 

"Adding another LEO faction into the mix, like SAHP, is not a good idea. The faction will be focused on the niche of sticking to the highways. Yes, there's a lot of highway, but as Keane already mentions, it won't take long for that to be boring, as there is not THAT much going on on the highways, especially when we suddenly have 10-15 SAHP cruisers driving around on them, and attempts to expand into the city or surrounding areas. That will cause issues all the way around, from faction politics, power struggles between factions, issues with LFM, people being unhappy and so forth.
 

In our case, SAHP would end being nothing more than a traffic unit for the highway, and both of those areas are already covered by Police and Sheriff's. Wanna be a traffic cop in the city? Join PD Traffic. Want to have your focus on county highways and country roads (TAKE ME HOOOOOME)? Join SD Traffic. Less is more, in this case."

 

In-real life they service areas with a lack of own Police, yes. That is not the issue here because we have two major agencies servicing the entire area.

 

 

It's not about efficiency, it is about creating roleplay. If we were here to do efficient law enforcement, I'd have cops roll around in MRAP's manning .50 cals and wearing full protective gear. And the issues you are mentioning are usually a problem in the city, where people drive like it is GTA:O. An area, SAHP would not at any point be servicing.

 

And with that I think you proved my point, that creation of this faction would rapidly lead to an expanded deployment area.

SAHP would be spread throughout the majority of the city though as it stands due to how interconnected the highway systems are, not to mention there’s a ton of unincorporated cities that contract with them like Rockford Hills, Puerto Del Sol, etc. I don’t foresee there being a shortage of roleplay in the slightest for them, we have Sanfire for example that is far more niche and manages to survive as is. I’m in SD, I was in PD traffic, it's not that there’s an issue with those organizations but the cultures are entirely different when compared to what CHP is all about. Different customs, different uniform, different modi. Ultimately the focus would be on cracking down on traffic enforcement and everything within that umbrella but they are just as able to handle a call for service beside a highway or interstate like anyone else and it wouldn’t detract.
 

I’m a watch deputy inside SD, I’ve spent a lot of hours sitting inside the station with the crime map up and staring at /pcad just tracking calls that roll in and dispatching people and I see a multitude of traffic accidents that go unresolved because we often have several warrants/998s/Mutual Aid requests already rolling. 

[Sharvit]

Okay, this subject has been discussed for too long, so it's time to give an official stance and call it a day.
 

I'll divide my answer into three parts:

1. Current status of LEO factions - as it stands currently, we have two major LEO factions with hundreds of members. Those players are more than capable of managing the workload they were designed and expected to cover. Adding more day-to-day policing factions will just harm the current balance in the community. We cannot allow the server to be over-saturated with LEO members. We have to keep a somewhat fair balance and ratio in the legal v illegal scene to ensure both parties can enjoy as much RP as they can. 
Now you'd probably say - "But there's an unlimited amount of illegal factions and they can do whatever". Of course, but that's not a real argument. Illegal factions do not get access to the same tools and abilities that legal factions do. The tools and abilities that LEOs have is what gives them the advantage to combat illegal factions and their activities while being slightly outnumbered. 
I personally believe we have a fair ratio in the server currently. Adding more into it wont help anyone but harm those who participate it in and others. It's completely healthy to have parts of the map that are not covered by LEO presence. You don't see police cars in every street you drive through IRL. 

2. Being a niche faction -  As described here, SAHP will fall under the niche faction title due to it being limited just to highways and that's it.  
History teaches us that being a niche faction just doesn't work, especially in the LEO scene. Throughout my years as head of LFM , I've constantly encountered the issues that niche factions have had to go through just to keep their head above water and find /some/ RP to do. 

All niche factions are divided into the following:

a. 20% of members are actually interested in said roleplay and are dedicated to it.

b. 80% of members that just joined to do something new cause they were bored with other factions and were not really attached to the actual idea that the faction was offering. Those 80% will leave the moment they find nothing to do, get bored or someone challenges them in the faction. 
It starts nice and all with people being overly excited for a new shiny thing just to realize in a few months how limited they are.  

When this realization sinks in, two major things happen:

a. People start leaving the factions to a more major faction that provides them with more RP opportunities. This eventually leads to an unstoppable decrease in said faction's activity. 

b. Said faction's leadership starts asking/arguing/demanding for more stuff to do - that eventually will lead to the faction acting outside of its scope  - which is something that I am completely against and always have been. Whenever they do not get positive actions to their demands, they usually threat with resignations and so on, which only leads to a further decay in the faction's ability to survive. 

 

3. My own personal opinion -  Would I like to see SAHP happening? Hell yes. I love the idea of SAHP, I love what it can bring and the overall aesthetics of that department. 

Do I think that's now is the right time for it to happen? Sadly, no. We are just not there yet. For it to happen I seriously believe that the server needs to double its current active population IG to justify SAHP to exist. Though the SAHP that I am thinking of and imagining won't be a niche-limited faction, it'll be a major third LEO faction - and for it to happen, we need more players IG regularly. 

 

a TLDR:

Yes, SAHP is a great idea, just not now. 

 

Locking this topic.

Decent discussion people.