Police

For vehicles, see Police Car or SWAT Tank. For the police outfit, see Clothing in GTA Vice City.

The police (also referred to as cops, pigs or babylon by rastafaris) are uniformed officers responsible for enforcing the law. They ensure public and social order, through the legitimized and restricted use of force. The Police are present in all Grand Theft Auto games.

The main role of the Police in-game is to make crime difficult for the player - and to provide a reliable enemy and a challenge both in and out of missions. This theme is present throughout the entire series, although the exact details vary between games.

The Police, (and all other forms of law enforcement in the Grand Theft Auto series), have been protrayed as corrupt, lazy, selfish, incompetent, and trigger-happy, although the levels of these vary greatly between each game.

Wanted Level

Main article: Wanted Level

The Police work upon a Wanted Level system against the player. If the player is noticed performing a crime, he may gain a Wanted Star (increasing his wanted level). More serious crimes will grant a higher wanted level. Police responses vary depending on the wanted level, ranging from foot chases to calling in the helicopter, FBI or even Army.

Relevant offenses include crashing into a police car, shooting pedestrians, having sex with prostitutes in GTA San Andreas, stealing vehicles, entering prohibited areas or occasionally unavoidable participation in certain missions (ex. bank heists). The police will not arrest you for trespassing on private property, traffic offenses (ex. speeding, running red lights), carrying weapons in public, damaging property, impersonation (ex. wearing police uniform). See a comprehensive list of arrestable offenses below.

If the player gets arrested by the police (or "Busted"), the player will respawn at the nearest Police Station, but lose some money and all of his weapons. Higher levels of law enforcement are not concerned with arrest, but with killing the player. Death is only temporary, and results in being returned to a nearby hospital with the loss of weapons and some money. (No weapons are lost in GTA IV)

Wanted levels can be reduced by the use of a Pay 'n' Spray. The Wanted Level in GTA IV system allows the player to evade a wanted level by escaping from a certain radius, based on the last place they were spotted. The higher the wanted level, the larger the area.

In the GTA III Era, at 4-star wanted levels, heavily armed, highly trained police officers will come after the protagonist and try killing or sometime arresting him. They all drive Enforcer trucks and are armed with weapons that will make short work of the player. Their Enforcers are fast and can smash up a vehicle in a small amount of time. Their trucks also form roadblocks. In GTA III, the have Micro UZis, Uzis in Vice City, Mac-11's in San Andreas, and Uzis in Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories. SWAT teams are a real threat to the player and come in 4 men per team. Also, in Vice City and Vice City Stories, undercover "Vice Squad" officers armed with Uzis in Cheetahs will chase the player at 3 stars and above. Their cars are fast, and they come two per unit.

Arrestable Offences

Beating a person with or without a melee weapon, even in self defense.
Throwing things at people.
Aiming a weapon at an officer.
Grand theft auto.
Running a pedestrian over with a vehicle.
Shooting a firearm near an officer, even if doesn't harm anyone.
Using a chainsaw near an officer, even if doesn't harm anyone.
Hitting a police vehicle with another vehicle or by attacking it in any way.
Attempting to carjack a police car (with or without occupants).
Murder.
Having a gas station's gas pumps explode.

Drive-bys.
Starting fires.
Robbing houses (unless you don't get caught).
Trespassing inside a police station. Applies to GTA: Vice City and later.
Knocking off stores.
Being spotted driving a vehicle with the alarm going off.
Bumping into an Officer when making an arrest.
Breaking through the tollbooth without paying.
Spraying gang tags.
Entering a police station with a weapon.
Entering or flying over a restricted area, for example Area 69 and Fort Baxter Air Base.
Entering parts of a city which aren't unlocked. Applies to GTA: San Andreas and GTA IV.
Exploding a propane tank, even if the player didn't do it (like by having someone else's car crash into it).

Killing a shop owner - If Toni kills the owner of Phil Cassidy's fully cocked gun shop in GTA Liberty City Stories, the player gets a wanted level of 1.
Selling drugs - during the mission Distribution in GTA: Vice City you get 1 star per every four drugs sold.
Smuggling drugs - the player occasionally gets 4 wanted stars in the Smuggling mission in GTA Vice City Stories. Similar thing happens in GTA Liberty City Stories when Toni smuggles drugs with Miguel in the mission "Contra-banned"
Other missions - some of GTA's missions give the player 1~5 wanted levels: Note the fact that the player cannot get wanted level of 6 unless the player kills FBI agents.
If you complete a mission with a wanted level of 5 or 6 stars, you will retain one star if there are FBI or Army officers nearby. Confirmed in GTA: Vice City.

Online Multiplayer

File:PoliceMaverick.jpg

A Police Maverick from GTA San Andreas

In GTA IV, the police in multiplayer mode will not arrest the player, but will shoot at the player in an attempt to kill them, though they can still pull the player out of a car. At 4 stars the police send in an Annihilator with two NOOSE agents with assualt rifles firing from the sides of the chopper. The police will arrive in cars containing two police officers. One will carry a Pistol while the other will (usually) carry a Pump Action Shotgun, regardless of what guns are allowed in the online game. NOOSE agents arrive in NOOSE Enforcers only, as the NOOSE Cruiser, the NOOSE Patriot, and the FIB Buffalo only appear in Race and GTA Race multiplayer modes, albeit they are only used by the players. NOOSE agents are equipped mainly with Carbine Rifles and SMGs, but sometimes they have a Pump Shotgun and NOOSE agents will sometimes fall back to their pistol if they lose their weapon. The FIB does not appear in multiplayer at all, and the Police Maverick also only appears in the Race and GTA Race modes. It is notable that Wanted Levels are usually cumulative if multiple players are riding in the same vehicle. When faced with multiple players with wanted levels, the police usually target the nearest player. The player can still use a Pay N Spray in multiplayer, though the same rules using them when police are nearby in single player apply to multiplayer as well.

Wanted Level

Arrestable Offences

Online Multiplayer

See Also