Concern Citizen Calls

[radreaper100]

Concerned citizen calls - fair or legalized metagame?

 

I was recently engaged in a situation where my character walked into a liquor store at around 2 AM and proceeded to hold up the only two individuals inside. Before he had even gotten to tying them up so he could begin the actual process of robbing the joint, a call was sent in by an administrator (following an actual 911 by a player that wasn't nearly as detailed or knowing)

 

[02:13:50] ********** EMERGENCY CALL **********
[02:13:50] * Log Number: 21-75862
[02:13:50] * Phone Number: 94951157 (Concerned Citizen)
[02:13:50] * Location: Power Street Liq Store
[02:13:50] * Situation: I tried to enter the store but I can't. I saw a man with a mask and two girls on the ground inside.

 

The problem with this 911 call is that it was: unknown to me in the situation at the time by any measure, not a hint. Furthermore when attempting to persuade the police during the welfare check that everything was okay, it completely ruined the ability to do so because it flat out explained what was happening. It even made it impossible to blend in with the hostages as a last ditched scenario.

 

I don't want to void the situation or get anyone in trouble but how do we as a community feel about this? I want your thoughts below.

 

Keep it cordial.

[i dont wanna od in LA]

I think the entire concerned citizen thing is pretty cool but it sort of contradicts what was established by Bospy & IFM. In their own words, they have said that regardless of the time of the day and location robberies/criminal activities can occur and as long as it makes sense with the server continuity and common sense it should be roleplayed as if there was no witnesses present, unless there were actual players present. I think the entire "concerned citizen" system should be standardized to a degree and made very clear on the forums, right now I believe it falls under the entire admin discretion thing which makes it stupid and potentially leaves a lot of wiggle room for abuse.

[Jax]

I do Concerned citizen if the robbers are being too loud, reckless, and just spending their sweet time like they own the place.

Or when approving 24/7 robberies and people do the same thing as with break-ins: reckless, and just spending their sweet time like they own the place.

If the robbers are being smart, etc. I don't turn into Concerned Citizen.

Only admins can turn into Concerned Citizen and that's on admins discretion how they want to do this Concerned Citizen thing. 

[Rohan.]

I'm not a fan of how currently the crime is being committed. The whole concept of Concerned Citizen is to keep things like break-in on a check. We can't just allow a person to break into a house and scope it around for hours without any consequences, that's not how it works. There needs to be some balance.

 

Also, the concept of Concerned Citizen is mainly used when the robbers are not exactly being smart about stuff, i.e. breaking into mansions, breaking into highly populated area, breaking in using dumb methods (like smashing windows and stuff). The system is in place for a very good reason why it needs to be removed.

 

People might argue that it goes against the ruling made by IFM, but concept of Concerned Citizen is not lightly used, as far as I know it's only used in one scenario and that is break-ins. 

 

People talk about balance, but if everything goes unchecked then there's no balance.

[Paenymion]

Maybe they are just asking for some warning that a concerned citizen might have seen something.  Also I think the name "Concerned Citizen" isn't ideal.  If LEO see that name, they know for sure that something is happening and that it's an admin calling.  It possibly generates a bigger/quicker response than normal.  Perhaps you could call under a less obvious name?  Then it would blend in with the other 911 calls and might only get 1 patrol or even ignored if LEOs are too busy.

[Pogis]

3 minutes ago, Paenymion said:

Maybe they are just asking for some warning that a concerned citizen might have seen something.  Also I think the name "Concerned Citizen" isn't ideal.  If LEO see that name, they know for sure that something is happening and that it's an admin calling.  It possibly generates a bigger/quicker response than normal.  Perhaps you could call under a less obvious name?  Then it would blend in with the other 911 calls and might only get 1 patrol or even ignored if LEOs are too busy.

I think the system is fine, however I agree with Paenymion here. If a cop sees a Concerned Citizen call, he knows there’s stuff going on for sure and it triggers a lot bigger response than a normal 911 call would. Perhaps use random names instead of ‘Concerned Citizen’?

[Rohan.]

4 minutes ago, Paenymion said:

Maybe they are just asking for some warning that a concerned citizen might have seen something.  Also I think the name "Concerned Citizen" isn't ideal.  If LEO see that name, they know for sure that something is happening and that it's an admin calling.  It possibly generates a bigger/quicker response than normal.  Perhaps you could call under a less obvious name?  Then it would blend in with the other 911 calls and might only get 1 patrol or even ignored if LEOs are too busy.

Some insight from the breakins I've handled.

 

Most of the times I call? There's no response or very late response. You might say it's due to timezone, but I pretty much have played in all timezones and have attended breakins in all of them. The peak timezone has PD busy with way more serious calls so breakins get swept under the rug usually, due to lack of units. I can attest to that as a PD member as well.

 

The main reason behind using the concerned citizen name is that people know that it's an admin so they shouldn't involve the concerned citizen in any rp or use their statement or anything in court, which only helps the case of criminal. If we start using random name, it only leaves the LEO's wondering how a person that does not exist on the dabatabase called the police.

[Vash Baldeus]

5 minutes ago, Pogis said:

I think the system is fine, however I agree with Paenymion here. If a cop sees a Concerned Citizen call, he knows there’s stuff going on for sure and it triggers a lot bigger response than a normal 911 call would. Perhaps use random names instead of ‘Concerned Citizen’?

Random name would improve on the system of Concerned Citizen, since cops already know what that means. That means something Juicy is going down.

[SugarDavis]

There seems to be a divide amongst the admin team regarding NPC calls. I was recently involved in a situation where 5 people jumped 1 guy at the Sandy Shores gas station on a Saturday at ~8:00pm. I made a report asking if an admin could do a NPC 911 call. I got told that admins don't do that and that it's on other players to call 911. 

[Seanny]

When I handle breakins, I usually make Concerned Citizen calls if the burglars spend more than 5 minutes inside a property. If you're going to be doing breakins; ideally you want to be in and out, if the suspects are doing long emotes though then I'll extend the 5 minutes on a case-by-case basis.

 

If it's in the middle of nowhere like slap-bang in the desert or forest, no way I'm making a CC call.