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-   -   Police Rank Progression titles... (https://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=135188)

GoblynByte 05-24-2015 02:19 PM
Police Rank Progression titles...
 
What follows is a rather superficial list of police ranks (and superficial is fine for my purposes) taken from Wikipedia. What would you suggest for a per rank progression of these titles? Do you think it would be as simple a 1 to 1 progression matched to this list? Or do you think some of these would group into a single level of the Rank advantage?

Thanks in advance!

Note: I'm not really concerned with the accuracy of this list with real-world police agencies. What's presented is more or less adequate.

Quote:
The United States of America police rank model is generally quasi-military in structure. Although the large and varied number of federal, state, and local police departments and sheriff's office have different ranks, a general model, from highest to lowest rank, would be:
  • Sheriff (the highest ranking law enforcement official within a county)
  • Chief of Police, Police Commissioner, Superintendent, Constable (highest ranking law enforcement official within a city/municipality)
  • Chief of Police, Deputy Commissioner, First Deputy Superintendent, Undersheriff
  • Deputy Chief, Assistant Commissioner, Deputy Superintendent, Assistant Sheriff
  • Assistant Chief, Assistant Superintendent, Associate Sheriff
  • Commander, Deputy Assistant Superintendent, Chief Deputy Sheriff
  • Colonel
  • Lieutenant Colonel
  • Major
  • Captain
  • Lieutenant
  • Sergeant Major
  • Master Sergeant, First Sergeant
  • Sergeant First Class, Sergeant II
  • Sergeant, Sergeant I
  • Master Trooper, Master Trooper
  • Detective, Investigator, Inspector (this is generally only an actual rank in larger departments, and often include different levels for "career detectives")
  • Corporal Grade 1, Senior Trooper
  • Police Corporal, Deputy First Class, Trooper First Class, Master Patrol Officer
  • Police Officer, Deputy Sheriff, Trooper, Patrol Officer

Phantasm 05-24-2015 03:06 PM
Re: Police Rank Progression titles...
 
I have the following setup for my games as a rough outline. Because each police department has different ranks, the titles will change. For example, "Inspector" in one department could simply be another name for Detective, while in others they're a Homicide division chief.

I should also note that in many departments "Officer" and "Detective" are the same pay grade, but Detective has more authority.

Code:
Rank        Typical Titles                Notes
7        Commissioner                Head of the Department for larger cities and state police forces
6        Chief                        Head of the Department for smaller cities
                                Day-to-day manager for larger cities and state police forces
5        Commander                Section, Division, or Bureau Commander for larger cities and state forces
                                Head of the Department for larger municipalities
4        Captain or Inspector        Precinct or Unit Commander; head of the department for smaller municipalities
3        Lieutenant                Duty or Shift Lead Officer for precincts and smaller municipalities
2        Sergeant                Squad Leader
1        Detective                Investigator, CSI team lead
0        Officer                        Beat Cop, CSI technician
Fill in other rank titles as you see fit. I don't see a county sheriff exceeding Rank 4, though, probably maxxing out at Rank 3.

GoblynByte 05-24-2015 03:24 PM
Re: Police Rank Progression titles...
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by tbrock1031 (Post 1903344)
I have the following setup for my games as a rough outline. Because each police department has different ranks, the titles will change. For example, "Inspector" in one department could simply be another name for Detective, while in others they're a Homicide division chief.

I should also note that in many departments "Officer" and "Detective" are the same pay grade, but Detective has more authority.


Fill in other rank titles as you see fit. I don't see a county sheriff exceeding Rank 4, though, probably maxxing out at Rank 3.
That is very helpful!! Very concise and functional. Thank you!

GoblynByte 05-24-2015 03:48 PM
Re: Police Rank Progression titles...
 
Here's what I'm thinking for a Space Patrol organization.

Code:
Rank        Typical Titles                Notes
8      High Commissioner      Head of ISF
7        Commissioner                Regional Commander
6        Chief                        Sector Commander
5        Commander                System Commander
4        Captain                Mobile Squad Commander
3        Lieutenant                Duty or Shift Lead Officer for ISF Mobile Squad.
2        Sergeant                Squad Leader
1        Patrolman                Crew member of ISF Mobile Squad
0        Officer                Station/ground based security

Infornific 05-24-2015 10:00 PM
Re: Police Rank Progression titles...
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by GoblynByte (Post 1903350)
Here's what I'm thinking for a Space Patrol organization.

Code:
Rank        Typical Titles                Notes
8      High Commissioner      Head of ISF
7        Commissioner                Regional Commander
6        Chief                        Sector Commander
5        Commander                System Commander
4        Captain                Mobile Squad Commander
3        Lieutenant                Duty or Shift Lead Officer for ISF Mobile Squad.
2        Sergeant                Squad Leader
1        Patrolman                Crew member of ISF Mobile Squad
0        Officer                Station/ground based security
Depending on the scale you might want to go for more levels. I understand the semi-formal rule of thumb is:

Rank 1: Commands 1-5 people
Rank 2: Commands 6-20
Rank 3: Commands 21-100

with *100 subordinates for every +3 rank. So the NYPD chief would have about Rank 8, while the sheriff in small county with a couple dozen deputies would be Rank 3. If a Mobile Squad Commander is Rank 4 that suggests a Mobile Squad consists of more than a hundred but less than 500 officers. Of course Patrol officers could have a level or two of Rank relative to planetary law enforcement, kind of the way federal agents typically get Rank 2.

GURPS Cops has a list of police officer ranks. It's 3e but might be of interest if you want to play up the law enforcement end of things.

nondescript handle 05-25-2015 06:52 AM
Re: Police Rank Progression titles...
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Infornific (Post 1903419)
Depending on the scale you might want to go for more levels. I understand the semi-formal rule of thumb is:

Rank 1: Commands 1-5 people
Rank 2: Commands 6-20
Rank 3: Commands 21-100

with *100 subordinates for every +3 rank. [...]
This 'semi-formal rule of thumb' doesn't seem significantly easier to me than the official (Space page 189) GURPS rule of

Quote:
Each level of Military Rank means that the character has about four to five times as many subordinates under his direct command.
[...]
So someone with Rank 0 has no subordinates, Rank 1 has four to five people, Rank 2 commands 16-25 men, Rank 3 has 64-125 troops, and so on.
why not just use them?

GoblynByte 05-25-2015 07:50 AM
Re: Police Rank Progression titles...
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by nondescript handle (Post 1903486)
This 'semi-formal rule of thumb' doesn't seem significantly easier to me than the official (Space page 189) GURPS rule of
Holy crap, I missed that!!! Thank you!

I actually need to change some of my terminology. In the list presented, my rank 4 (Mobile Squad Commander) is in charge of a single ship's contingent of patrol squads. Probably 100 or so people. So that works out.

Below that, the Lieutenant (Rank 3) would be in charge of an entire shift, so may be 1/3 the total patrol contingent on the ship.

The Sergeant (Rank 2) would be in charge of about 3 to 6 people (depending on the purpose of the squad).

With the bottom two ranks, I wanted there to be a difference between the Patrolman that served on board the venerated Mobile Squad ships (perhaps mobile precinct is a better name) and the "beat cops" who had the rather unenviable job serving simple patrol duty on space stations and ground-based offices. But, seeing as how people on the ground would still need higher ranking officials, maybe that's not a realistic take on the subject.

GoblynByte 05-25-2015 07:52 AM
Re: Police Rank Progression titles...
 
Maybe this looks better?

Code:
Rank        Typical Titles                Notes
7      High Commissioner      Head of ISF
6        Commissioner                Regional Commander
5        Chief                        Sector Commander
4        Commander                System Commander
3        Captain                Mobile Precinct Commander
2        Lieutenant                Duty or Shift Lead Officer for ISF Mobile Precinct
1        Sergeant                Squad Leader
0        Patrolman                Crew member of ISF Mobile Squad

GoblynByte 05-25-2015 08:06 AM
Re: Police Rank Progression titles...
 
I'm rather embarrassed. It seems I explored this same subject on the forums back in 2011. I lost all memory of it. I must have lost my notes on it, though, and my forum search turned up nothing.

Humabout 05-25-2015 08:23 AM
Re: Police Rank Progression titles...
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by nondescript handle (Post 1903486)
why not just use them?
Because GURPS Social Engineering, p. 14 presents a more current scope of rank. There are a lot of awesome things in there about rank, too, if you want more detail.


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