Police campaigns

[hal]

Hi All,
Just curious, has anyone ever run a police campaign for their players? If so, what sources did you find for generating Calls for Service? Right now, I'm scouring the net for average time spent on calls for service, as the campaign I'd like to run revolves around a single beat. Various events such as car accidents, burglary alarms, and an occasional check for welfare, etc - will be the background for the player as he gets used to the environment. After that, there will be some "projects" style policing involved where the poverty level of the tenants will come to the fore, with violence, drugs, etc being involved.

So, I'm looking for just about any resource outside of GURPS COPS or GURPS MYSTERIES for use with this upcoming campaign set in a major metropolis in California.

At present, I'm toying with a two man patrol using cars in the city. Iv'e been digging into information on crime statistics in the City of Los Angeles for inspiration.

So, thoughts? Comments?

Thanks

Hal

[ArmchairGamer]

I think you'll find a lot of inspiration in the old series Adam-12 (1968 to 1975). It's everything you're looking for: Two-man car patrol in the Los Angeles area. It was one of the early police procedurals, following in the footsteps of Dragnet. Everything purports to be inspired by real-life events. Although I'm sure dramatic license was employed, its claim to fame was how closely it adhered to actual police procedures. So, you'll get inspiration, lots of ideas for plots- ranging from the silly and mundane to the dangerous and intense, and an education on all sorts of police protocols.

Although shot in the sixties and seventies, it has aged well in my opinion. And the kinds of trouble they faced can easily be translated to 2020.

The acting in the first episode of season one is a bit over-the-top. So don't let it dissuade you. The quality improves dramatically from the second episode onward.

You'll find a few random episodes on YouTube. You can purchase season 1 on Amazon Prime for $10.

Hope this helps.

[dcarson]

Apparently the police show that many cops think is the closest to reality is Barney Miller.

[Humabout]

Definitely look into GURPS Action 1 and 2. Those contain some of the best and broadly useful rules in the system outside of Basic Set - especially Action 2 - Exploits.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by ArmchairGamer

I think you'll find a lot of inspiration in the old series Adam-12 (1968 to 1975).

I'll second Adam-12, CA encouraged a lot of procedural's in that time period to publicize civil service, especially new programs like EMTs with Emergency, and early SWAT.

[rkbrown419]

If you're going to be realistic keep in mind that officers end up spending more time doing paperwork on calls and arrests than actually in the field. At least that's what my (now retired) police officer father would tell us. These days they might be able to do some of that using a computer in the car, but they also have to worry about body cameras and other gear they didn't have in the era of Adam -12.

[smurf]

There is an old 3rd Ed called Cops and another called SWAT. Plus campaigns for Espionage, Covert, and Special Ops.

They are available on W23 as PDFs.

[cdru]

Originally Posted by Humabout

Definitely look into GURPS Action 1 and 2. Those contain some of the best and broadly useful rules in the system outside of Basic Set - especially Action 2 - Exploits.

In particular, they have the rules for chases, which is pretty important for a police game

[hal]

One of the problems I'm facing is the details for the player character involved (Solo one on one game over the net).

Beat Size - how big of a beat does a patrol cruiser patrol?

Average time on call for types of calls for service

The player character will be running a beat that will be in a relatively high crime region with "projects" like housing, some light industry, and some warehousing. The usual bars, mini-marts, gas stations etc will abound throughout the area of patrol. Then there will be those calls that require the officer(s) to respond because they're mobile.

The idea is to harvest some "encounters" from the TV shows to be certain (and Adam 12 is a good one to consider!) - so mining the TV shows is probably a good one. Those who have enjoyed THE ROOKIE probably have enjoyed the intro to the episode in which the humorous or bizarre incidents get the spotlight. Nothing like a routine traffic stop to have a bunch of young kids bailing out in every which direction - including the driver. Which one do you chase?

I've been digging into the stats from NYC as to the population sizes, the number of precinct houses, numbers of cars, etc and trying to figure out a way to detail a city setting better for use in the game.

The idea is to try and get it reasonably close to reality and still incorporate elements from GURPS. It should work equally as well for a near future campaign as one set in say, 1970. I've got a few "supplements" from my vast collection of games that I've accumulated over the past 40 some years - including some from DOG TOWN (where the emphasis is on the criminal side instead).

In the end, while GURPS COPS have some good things within, its those things NOT within that a GM might want that has me digging through material here and there.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[Refplace]

I think the area of the beat varies based on circumstances, including police budget, crime and property rates, etc. I doubt your going to find any uniform size beat.
Perhaps call the police department for the area your looking at. Turns out many are online. My city doesn't have an actual map but then its a small town just west of Oklahoma City.
http://hub.arcgis.com/datasets/cityo...olice-beat-map
My area
https://www.okc.gov/departments/police/patrol-divisions