User:Lonesoldier55/sandbox

Security Guidelines

The ultimate role of Security is to protect the crew and the station itself against threats internal and external (even though the crew is most often the larger of these two threats). Your actions as Security should aim to protect the crew, the station, and maintain order. If you do something in good faith with intent to further one of those, odds are you have made a good choice given the situation.

Above all, these are guidelines, not rules. Use your best judgement when deciding the course of action to take. Remember that the crew you detain or arrest are players too, and its no fun to throw those players in the permabrig all game for a comparatively minor offense.

Enforcement

Enforcing the law is, loosely put, stopping the crew from doing illegal things. In general the biggest thing you need to look out for are things like contraband, illicit access, and obviously, physical harm and murder. Offenders must be subdued and brigged where possible, but ultimately your duty is to protect the crew and the innocent.

Security has the difficult task of trying to quickly assess a situation and make the best possible choice with usually little to no information. Breaking up a fight, for example, usually results in one person arrested, who claims they were in the right, and the other person running away scott free. Make your best possible judgement with what you have and try to use less-forceful options where it may be applicable.

Sentencing Guidelines

These are very rough guidelines for sentencing to give you a feel of where certain types of crimes fall in terms of severity. Always remember you have discretion to increase or decrease sentencing based on the crime and circumstances around it, or to adjust it based on their behavior during arrest.

Sentencing Guidelines

Brig Time	Duration	Description
None	Release after search	For very minor crimes that do not typically require waiting in the brig as the initial detaining and search usually warrants enough of an interruption.
Minor	1-3 Minutes	Minor crimes like petit theft or minor vandalism and especially for repeat offenders of similar and lower crimes.
Moderate	3-6 Minutes	Most average crimes like theft, aggravated battery, or trespassing in secure areas, depending on the circumstance. May also be used for repeat offenders of lower crimes.
Major	6-10 Minutes	For most serious crimes (like homicide) that do not elevate to a Permabrigging and for major repeat offenders of lesser crimes, or repeat offenders in the moderate crimes category.
Demotion	Release after ID Change	Generally, demoting someone is done if they cannot be trusted with their current job assignment given the circumstances. This could be applicable to Heads of Staff who are genuinely terrible, or chemists who are only making meth and explosives as usually these two people will cause more damage then they prevent when released back to their job. Lawyers that cannot be trusted to steal everything in the brig are also a good candidate for demotion. Keep the demotee detained in the brig until you can get their ID sorted; dragging them around in the halls to the Head of Personnel's line yourself is asking for trouble.
Permabrig	Until Release	If you think releasing someone from the brig is probably much more danger to the crew then not, you can probably justify permabrigging them if you have proper reasoning and evidence to back it up. Releasing someone from permabrig can be easily done, so remember to offer that to the permabrigged if they behave as it may more positively earn their cooperation. It is also much easier to recover from a bad permabrigging decision then it is to recover from a bad execution decision, so use this when you aren't sure between the two.
Execution	Quick and Painful	For only the worst offenders who cannot be contained in the permabrig or are a major threat to the station as a whole and where keeping them in permabrig probably wouldn't end well. You should absolutely get approval for executions with your Head of Security and the Captain where possible as nothing paints security in a worse light then the crew hearing about how they are freely murdering the innocent inside the brig. Use extreme caution as executions are usually much less preferable to permabrig if you can help it.

Remember: circumstance is important in your assessment of sentencing. Someone who is cooperative, apologetic, or was committing the crime to genuinely help someone or the station can probably be left off easier or given amnesty entirely. Someone who is lying, intensely uncooperative, threatening to kill or bomb all of security, or threatening to call the admins you can probably let stew a little longer in the cell.

For repeat offenders who you have arrested previously, consider the situation and generally run them a harder sentence to discourage them from re-offending. Use your best judgement and consider the crime being committed. Someone with two or three minor thefts is still probably only moderate brig time, but someone with two or three aggravated batteries or attempted homicides should probably be permabrigged.

Below is a very generalized list of types of crimes you may run into and the elements of them as well as a rough sentence guideline. The elements of a crime are what need to be met to be guilty of it. Remember that it is poor form to brig someone just because you "think" they committed a crime; you should have very good reason to believe they did or have personally witnessed it, and intent is usually key. If the crime looks like it could be accidental, consider if an arrest is appropriate.

Crimes

Caption text

Crime	Elements	Brig Suggestion	Notes
Trespassing	Being in a secured area without permission or authorization from appropriate authority which oversees that area.	None to Minor	Check with the Head of Personnel to make sure they did not assign access without notifying anyone. A search of the detained is appropriate if they are suspected of stealing anything. Verify the accesses on the suspect's ID.
Trespassing (Felony)	Being in a high-security area without permission or authorization.	Moderate to Major	High-security areas include the Bridge, Captain's Quarters, Head of Staff Offices, Engineering, Atmospherics, the Armory, and Security's equipment and gear rooms. These areas have sensitive equipment which can cause a lot of damage if mishandled and are held to a higher standard of security. A search of the suspect is almost always appropriate if they are found unattended in a high-security area.
Petit Theft	Taking of minor items of little practical importance with the intent to deprive the owner of its use or control.	None to Minor	This covers theft of most minor objects like shoes, materials, food, or very low level ID cards. Returning the stolen property to its owner should be attempted.
Theft	Taking of items of practical importance with the intent to deprive the owner of its use or control.	Minor to Moderate	Typically more valuable but not irreplaceable items, including and not limited to: medical supplies, departmental ID cards, machines or gear relating to job functions, and most personal effects from the crew. Returning the stolen property should be attempted.
Grand Theft	Taking of sensitive items and equipment with the intent to deprive the owner of its use or control.	Moderate to Major	High level and dangerous equipment, including and not limited to: Head of Staff IDs, nuclear disk and codes, head of staff's personal equipment (hypospray, ID Computer board, etc.), firearms, guns, or other important objects. "I found it in disposals/maint" is not a valid excuse.
Minor Vandalism	Willfully breaking station equipment or property of minor importance.	None to Minor	Breaking or damaging station objects or equipment like interior windows (not those bordering space), doors, tearing up floor tiles, smashing lights, and other annoying behavior.
Vandalism	Willfully breaking sensitive station equipment or hampering station operations.	Minor to Moderate	Breaking windows to secure areas, destroying station infrastructure, cutting wires, tampering with airlocks to the degree they are non-functional, or building/placing structures in a way that impedes general movement or station operation (like building walls across main hallways).
Sabotage	Willfully destroying, damaging, subverting, degrading, or otherwise rendering vital station equipment non-functional where such action endangers station operations.	Major to Permabrig	Atmospherics sabotage, attempting to expose areas to space, sabotaging power by cutting wires or destroying substations/power generation/SMES units. Depending on the severity and scope of damage incurred, adjust punishment accordingly.
Arson/Bombing	Intentionally causing or facilitating a fire or explosion to damage the station or the crew.	Major to Permabrig	This crime is also designed to punish those who facilitate fires to take place but do not light them, such as dragging canisters of flammable gas into public areas or releasing it without lighting it. A person who facilitates arson or bombing in this manner is just as guilty as the person who intentionally lights it. Adjust punishment according to scope of damage caused.
Fighting, Affray, Brawling	Causing or participating in a fight in public venue outside of a sporting function (boxing) to the discredit of the public.	None to Minor	This is essentially any public fistfight or other similar brawl where both players mutually are fighting (example: barfights). Split the parties up as best as you can and try to arrest the instigator if you can determine one.
Assault	A direct threat of violence which causes the recipient of the threat fear of bodily harm and where the recipient believes the suspect has the means to carry out the threat.	None to Minor	Assault covers threatening violence and similar mannerisms. Do not arrest people on assault lightly as it is hard to prove and typically will put you in a more difficult situation if that is your only charge.
Battery	Any unwanted physical contact between two parties.	None to Minor	This includes shoving, punching, pulling, cuffing, stripping, disarming, and all similar behavior. Separate the offender(s) and victim(s) as best as you can and try to determine the instigator if you can (sometimes both parties are at fault).
Battery (Aggravated)	Any unwanted physical contact which causes great bodily harm to the victim.	Minor to Moderate	Any amount of fighting, shooting, or otherwise injury to another party that needs a solid trip to medbay can usually be called Aggravated Battery. If the suspect makes an effort to bring the victim to medbay you may consider leniency.
Kidnapping, Abduction, False Imprisonment	Intentionally and without a valid purpose restraining or restricting someone's free movement or actions.	Moderate to Major	This includes things like cuffing someone and dragging them around, welding them in a locker or crate, or bolting them into a confined area without any valid reason.
Resisting Arrest (Without Violence)	Intentional fleeing or non-compliance with an arrest which does not cause undue harm to officers or the crew.	Minor	This constitutes running away from an arrest, moving away from cuffing attempts, or other evasive actions while trying to detain someone. Generally this charge will be an add-on.
Resisting Arrest (With Violence)	Intentional non-compliance with an arrest while trying to harm or disable those effecting the arrest or other crew.	Moderate	This includes open violence against you or other crew while trying to be arrested, disarming you for your equipment and using it against you, or other means to harm or disable you and the crew while escaping an arrest attempt.
Obstruction of Justice	Intentionally inhibiting the efforts of an officer to detain a suspect, or interfering with an officer's escort or handling of a detainee. Intentionally degrading an officer's ability to investigate a crime through non-compliance or other means.	Moderate	This is anyone's attempt to stop you from arresting someone, whether or not they believe the arrest to be valid is irrelevant. This can also include those trying to inhibit security's valid investigation by refusing to cooperate with them (i.e, not allowing them access to the department to investigate a valid complaint or intentionally withholding information or identities of those under investigation). A popular strategy to employ on those interfering with an arrest is to give them the same brig time as the person they tried to free.
Attempted Homicide	Causing harm to the victim with the ultimate intent to kill them.	Major	Proving intent to kill can be difficult but is possible (like if they're hitting the person after they go into critical condition). Consider the totality of the situation. If someone renders medical aid after they crit the victim, they probably didn't have the intent to kill.
Manslaughter	Killing or allowing another human being to die through negligence and without the intent to kill.	Major	The suspect has to have some kind of role in the death of the victim and has to have exhibited some kind of negligence that ultimately led to the victim's death. Examples: opening firelocks to spaced areas, allowing those in critical condition to expire, and other similar behavior.
Homicide	Willfully killing another human being.	Major	While this can obviously be observed directly, a homicide charge can be applied with strong circumstantial evidence (example: finding the ID of a deceased crewmember in the possessions of the murderer and finding the deceased crewmember's body hidden somewhere with the rest of their gear. This would be enough evidence to point they likely killed the person, hid the body, and stole the ID). Make sure your evidence to support this is strong, try to clone the victim if possible and get their story.
Treason, Enemy of Nanotrasen	Being employed by an entity known to be hostile to Nanotrasen.	Permabrig or Execution	This is definitive and strong evidence that the suspect is highly likely to be working for a hostile entity such as the Syndicate. Being in possession of highly dangerous and restricted contraband (like C4, syndicate firearms, Holoparasites, etc.) known to be used by Syndicate Agents, without an extremely good excuse, is generally enough to support this charge. This charge could also be established by the suspect's own admission.

Crime Considerations

Make sure your application of charges is logical. You cannot charge someone with a murder and with the battery they did to commit the murder; only the highest charge counts in this case. For repeat offenders, consider upping the brig time to discourage re-offending.

Lethal Force

Security is expected to remain non-lethal when the situation logically permits it. If you kill someone, you are usually expected to get them to the cloner and properly arrest them (or, deeply apologize if it was an accident and probably get demoted). It is almost always preferable to arrest someone rather then to kill them on the spot, but circumstances can enable the use of lethal force as an option if you so deem it needed (example, red-hardsuited nuclear operatives breaching the station and gunning down the crew? You better believe they are open season and left where they fall until there is no longer a threat).

Situations

Remember that where possible, Less Lethal force is usually preferred. Harming someone with lethal force when the situation could have probably been resolved more effectively with less lethal is not a good look for you and should be avoided where possible as this damages your relationship with the offender and sometimes the crew. Do not laser people to death after they collapse into critical condition unless you have a very, very good reason to do so, as you are expected to effect an arrest and tend to them instead of killing them outright.

Situations where lethal force may be permissible against a crew member:

• Attacked with lethal force - Against you or a fellow innocent crewmember, this usually permits you to answer with the same lethality if such means are available to defend yourself or the crew (but if you make the wrong call on the situation, be prepared to answer for it, less lethal is preferred where possible)
• Less-lethal not effective or available, must prevent escape - If you only have lethal force left after exhausting other options and whoever you are chasing poses a threat to the station or crew (very likely to cause harm to the crew or station assets, i.e stealing weapons, high value ID cards or other equipment, or syndicate agents/murderers), lethal can be used to incapacitate (not kill) them to effect an arrest. This is less preferable but acceptable.
• Suspect using less-lethal weapons against you - Generally you should meet this with your own less-lethal weapons, but it is safe to say if someone hits you with a taser and cuffs you, you are completely at their mercy and may be killed. If the totality of the situation permits, you may engage someone with stolen less-lethal weaponry with your own lethal weaponry to effect an arrest.

Rioting or Numerous Offenders

The crew may sometimes group up and riot for various reasons at various locations. A large number of crew participating in this type of behavior makes it difficult to arrest any of them without getting attacked by the other members of the riot. The context of a riot or demonstration is important to determine action: if the participants are not actively impeding anyone's usual business and aren't committing any crimes, leave them alone to assemble and do as they please as merely assembling in one location isn't illegal.

A demonstration from a few members of the crew becomes a riot when the crew involved starts committing crimes. Harming other crew members, causing damage to the station, or otherwise committing crimes as a group generally constitutes a riot. A whole riot can be immensely difficult to safely detain. Your best option if you want to move to detain them is to try and identify an instigator or a leader of the group. Use as many officers as you have available to rush the group, single him out, and remove him from the location. Try to arrest and remove one or two people at a time as if you are not at least on equal numbering with the rioters, other rioters will likely try to interfere and free their comrades. You can deposit the arrested in the brig and go back out for additional arrests if needed.

If rioters are causing significant damage or disruption you may choose the option to utilize greater less-lethal or lethal force to subdue them. Any deployment of lethal force on rioters should be preceded by warning any participants that lethal force will be used if they do not disperse. Any crew member who values their life will generally remove themselves from the location on being warned of such and may save you the trouble. If they continue their behavior and disruption at a serious level, you may need to engage them with warning shots to get them to move away (hitting a few participants with a laser or a Drozd SMG with rubber bullets can help them get the message). Be prepared for a fight if any of the rioters have weapons as they may choose this moment to fight back. Try not to outright kill the crew, but if any pose a serious danger do not be afraid to gun them down after the warning has been given.