Concern Citizen Calls

[Vash Baldeus]

1 hour ago, Brian3898 said:

 

Personally I'm never specific in my calls, I always state "something seems off", or "theres a door wide open with shattered glass", or "I hear a lot of crashing noises", something along those lines. Let the cops figure out the rest. 

Pretty much how a neighbor would call 911 if he hears or sees something that's unusual to the area.

53 minutes ago, Adv said:

Ive had a couple of Concerned Citizen calls in breakins, but it's only in situations that require it. If you're robbing an apartment in an apartment block, or a building thats obviously connected to something and you're being extremely loud about it, you'll be getting a call. Smash and grabs should be just that in my opinion. You want in fast with force? Absolutely fine but also expect a response that is noticed. One guy I did a breakin with was frustrated that he found nothing so took a baseball bat to the persons TV, and their toilet. This got a quick response via Concerned Citizen.

 

Most of the time on the breakins I handle, the robbers tend to opt towards more silent methods of getting in, and i'm happy to give someone the time of day if that's the case. However, I'll add things in /do to add tension if I think they've been there for a long time. Lines like :

 

"Your anxiety would heighten as you continue through, and your blood would be pumping. The idea that someone could be home any minute while you're working your way through their apartment would be at the forefront of your mind as you continue to search the apartment."

 

Subtle reminders and nudges as to what you're trying to accomplish here and a reminder that.. even though your characters may have experience of this, it would still get their adrenaline pumping.

 

It all depends on quality of roleplay, too. If someone's taking the time to put effort into their emotes, i'll be far more lenient on timing than someone who "/me opens the cupboard and looks for anything valuable." and "/do what do I see?".

 

It's all discretionary to the admin handling and we're all just looking to provide the roleplayer the best experience we can. I personally find them fun to do, but they're a solid time commitment and a sole-focus. I also try and add a couple of flipcoin's or roll's for chance-- when aided, for things such as lockpicks breaking on entry, if someone's smashed a window to see if they've cleared all the glass before they enter, and if they'd cut themselves etc. It's all about providing a balance on what is, a risky process!

Smash & Grab its just that, you smash, you grab and get the hell out of there, you don't take your sweet time. Even when ex-thieves did AMA's on Reddit on the topic how to protect your home. They replied anything you can do to slow down a thief will raise the chances of them getting caught, for example, placing laminated windows/glass doors in the house, which will not shatter when hit and the thief will either spend time trying to get in or just run. Yes those windows are more expensive, but a thief won't stay and make noise, because that will be noticed by neighbors and police might show up.

[Moonsong]

You have to keep in mind that there needs to be a balance between letting criminal characters have fun, realism and fairness for the ones being robbed. Let's say it's an apartment robbery, but the owner is offline; would it be fair to let the criminal help himself to a coffee, or the contents of that persons fridge if he so pleased? Especially if the owner might otherwise be there IC, sleeping or such. Would it be fair to let the thief take his sweet time searching every nook and crevice of the house for whatever he believes is there, during this time he may well be caught?

 

Concerned Citizen calls give the thief some time to roleplay their robbery, find what they can and leave. Not completely trash the place without consequences, that's why I'd encourage careful planning over hoping something is there. Make sure there's stuff there IC before you rob the place, scout it out, get someone who knows the victim on your side. All sorts of things you can do to decrease your chances of getting caught. Many robberies though, are just random as the thief's don't know what they're looking for so take extra time. Brains will win over braun!

[Lightning]

On 6/28/2021 at 8:41 AM, bonk said:

To me it appears as if 99% of the breakins end from police response, either from an alarm, and if there’s no alarm, the CC calls, making it heavily unbalanced for criminal role players.

 

This bro, you get like 2-3 minutes before an alarm goes off or something happens. I'm very discouraged from doing break-ins, they waste two hours to have a "concerned citizen" call happen or an alarm go off immediately.

[goddessoflife]

15 hours ago, Lightning said:

 

This bro, you get like 2-3 minutes before an alarm goes off or something happens. I'm very discouraged from doing break-ins, they waste two hours to have a "concerned citizen" call happen or an alarm go off immediately.

 

This makes me wonder tho', thieves usually scope out houses right? I'd think they'd be checking if there is an alarm present too. Which are usually located close to the entrance anyway. I've never been to such scene's or broke into a home myself ig. That's just something that wonders through my mind.

[Kaz]

3 minutes ago, goddessoflife said:

 

This makes me wonder tho', thieves usually scope out houses right? I'd think they'd be checking if there is an alarm present too. Which are usually located close to the entrance anyway. I've never been to such scene's or broke into a home myself ig. That's just something that wonders through my mind.

 

We do get a lot of thieves tossing bricks into windows to test the alarm.

[knppel]

Throwing a rock in a window is not directly what I'd call scoping out a target location but what do I know

[TinPan]

55 minutes ago, goddessoflife said:

 

This makes me wonder tho', thieves usually scope out houses right? I'd think they'd be checking if there is an alarm present too. Which are usually located close to the entrance anyway. I've never been to such scene's or broke into a home myself ig. That's just something that wonders through my mind.

Problem is, not only is it impossible to scope out some properties (EG: An apartment room), but there isn’t anything that provides any indication that these properties are alarmed in any capacity; so breaking into somewhere becomes an immediate gamble.

 

If there were actual apartment interiors though and some sort of notification above a door that read something along the lines of ‘This property is fitted with an alarm’ though then it’d be a lot more possible to actually scope out targets and make choices.

[Paenymion]

Lately it seems like the building one of my characters lives in seems to have a CIM outside saying room so and so has been broken into almost weekly.  Do the admins take into account how frequently a particular multi-interior has been broken into and the likely extra level of vigilence residents there would have?  If rooms are being broken into weekly, I'd expect more/quicker concerned citizen calls for the next one, at least until there has been no break-ins for a while.

[SkaliX2]

Concerned citizen is /fine/ but there should be a little bit more regulations and clarifications around how and when it is to be utilized. We don't really want people who present quality role-play with the other people within the community be aborted shortly after (2 - 3 minutes) after their robbery/break-in. Quality RP should be considered as not everyone can type fast lines.

[Brett Love]

This was allowed and is now disallowed for obvious reasons.