Second Life Police.

In Real Life, candidates for police have to spend several years training first, then even after they get the job they receive extensive training, they are closely monitored by superiors and heavily regulated by a ton of laws mostly designed to protect citizens from their potential to abuse power. And even with all that, law enforcement is tough to do well for those who are serious and committed to it (leaving aside the small percentage who still just get off on abusing their own power).

And while Real Life police are trained, monitored, and regulated such that they should know what their jobs are and accept an appropriate amount of responsibility for the power they wield, I have a hunch that the pool of candidates for Second Life police will be full of those who have received their law enforcement training from Dirty Harry movies.

Actually, I think even calling them "police" rather than "customer service volunteers" alone greatly raises the level of abuse that will occur.

RL Police = Trained individuals, with verifiable ID, backed by verifiable laws and jusrisdiction boundries, and personally held accountable for their actions. Impersonating an officer is a criminal act.

SL Police = Any joker off the street with a costume and a badge, anonymous, unaccountable, with no laws or jurisdiction backing them. Anyone can claim to be part of a "Police" group, and in fact this is a popular type of group with griefers.

See the difference?

Unless Linden Lab actually creates in-world laws that must be enforced, with the appropriate trained forces to enforce and judge such laws, then anyone wearing a "police" uniform is just a vigilante with no authority. And all too often those attracted to "wear the badge" are individuals into abuse of power. Line up 10 people who are members of 5 to 10 assorted SL "Police" groups today, and I'd be quite certain that the majority of them are griefers with a long list of AR's and suspensions to their names. Assuming that you could find out who all their alts are.

While there certainly may be well-intentioned individuals who would like to "Make SL a safer place to be" by joining a legitimate SL Police organization, the reputation of such groups in SL has already been dragged through the sewers by the Griefers, who took it as their own identity. And since SL is an interantional community, and since LL refuses to create any "Laws" beyond vague community standards and TOS regulations that are open to a very wide range of interpretation, most SL PLayers will not accept the "Authority" of anyone in SL who claims to be a police officer.

Aside from the Lindens themselves, none of the rest of us has the authority, the access to proof of actions, or the ability to enforce any discipline. A land owner can ban a named person from their land, but can't ban their alts. None of us can check chat logs or verify that player X used an "illegal weapon" or launched a scripted attack. The Lindens can. But they refuse to "get involved", except via an AR process that seldom works, because Joe Griefer can come back in minutes with a shiny new unverified account.

I have the utmost respect for the RL Police. I grew up with a cop as my next door neighbor, and he was almost like a second father to me. But I can't give that kind or respect to an anonymous individual who simply claims to be a cop, and who has no law or jurisdiction to back his actions.

They way I see it is, since a lot of us come here to be what we aren't in RL, anyone withe the smarts to be a cop in RL would probably be one already and not want to do it here......

In my opinion Dan Linden is a griefer.

Exactly what kinds of power trip, nosy people are going to apply for the police job in SL?

Actually, I shouldn't have referred to Dirty Harry as the source of popularly available "information" about law enforcement. That was way out of date. The contemporary source of "information" about law enforcement is "COPS"- or, as we like to call it around the office, "America's Funniest Civil Rights Violations."

Just look in Mom's basement. Or a donut shop that has wireless.

DAN Linden is a bug fixer
the other person, DANIEL Linden is a bug....... something

...ger

When I say Dan I mean Daniel - the Broadly Offensive guy, the one from the video that was directly mention.

I had no idea there was more than one Dan Linden.

Every time I have ever refered to Dan Linden I meant the Daniel Linden Guy

Everytime from here to eternity if I say Dan Linden I mean Daniel Linden the broadly offensive guy. Unless for some warped reason I say "Dan Linden the Bug fixer guy"

Which I wont.

thank you.

Reno 911

I prefer that analogy, but I'm biased when it comes to RL Police.

Focus people, lets move this along.

Do you think it is time for an official Lindens immediate response investigative unit?



Don't know about you but in most of the cop shows I watch they don't wear uniforms. They wear cheap suits

All things considered, No.

You may be asking the impossible of this group.

I think I already answered this as a "No" also.

'No' - from me as well.

if you saw the movie - theres a whole bunch of actual competent cops

then there is the Reno 911 people .. (who have to save them)


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Amity's point about "COPS" makes sense - however I wonder a bit which professional police are going to agree to a camera man following them around like that. I somehow doubt most of the better cops are all that interested in being on TV.

I have no problem with roleplay police, roleplaying on their own region, with consenting individuals.

Once they step outside of that area... they are just regular players, and if they're on any land I'm involved in, they'll get the BBI treatment (Boot, Ban, Ignore) if they start any crap.

*click click*

Bring it on, Punks.

Broccoli

It already exists.
There is a function within LL that is the intake point for ARs.
The back end just happens to be mostly missing, or is too busy trying to get the wrapper off a stick of gum.

The only cops in SL should be working at bachelorette parties. As the entertainment.

In short, No. LL should get the AR system to work, and should allow bans on one named individual to also ban all that banned RL person's alts, rather than adding volunteer Players as in-world Police.

It's usually the younger ones who agree to it. My brother told me when COPS came to his precinct, all the veterans declined the offer. I wouldn't be surprised if in a lot of cases the guys don't have a choice, probably being ordered to do it in the interest of PR

Police? What a god-awful way to spend one's SL time! As others have said, this would select for the most deranged individuals with an internet connection.

(Oh, duh! That would thin out the ranks of official griefers, though, wouldn't it? And we could *license* the police! Ingenious!)

Then we'd be a Focus Group.....