Police in SL?

I have been seeing many people running around SL with the words, Police, SL police dept. SL police recruiter.

are these really people who are here to help enforce Linden TOS, or just people pretending, and how does one tell the difference if there really are groups set up by linden

Argh. No. They are con-artists and bullies. None of them have anything to do with Linden Lab.

Thanks for the quick reply.

True, and don't forget the SL Fire, Ambulance and Rangers are all the same too

Abuse Report EVERY time someone claims to be a Linden employee if their avatar does not have the last name "Linden". EVERY one is a liar and scammer.

If they do not have the last name "Linden" they are NOT a LL employee. That's the way to tell, 100% of the time.

Simple as that! ^^^ Don't take notice of anything anyone else without the surname 'Linden' says.

There is no Linden-sponsored or Linden-authorized group for Police, military, or any other government authority. Linden Lab employees have names that have the Linden surname. Anyone else has no more authority than you do.

While some people may honestly intend to do good in roleplaying as "Police" and placing abuse reports against "Criminals", most of them are merely attempting to impose on others their own personal biases and prejudices. Most are on a power trip.

Even if the Player of that avatar is, in real life, a law officer, they are almost certainly out of their jurisdiction in Second Life.

Ignore them, and if they become abusive, abuse report them.

I've had run-ins with people like that before. Threatened to take my L$ if I didn't comply with them. I just reported them directly to LL through the live chat support.

who will be the first to make a "SL Water Dept" coveralls???

you could walk from parcel to parcel pretending to read meters and leave a bill

LOL! I'd have said, "Fine, do it, take my Lindens"

Heck, I'd pay the "bill" just for the laugh that would give me.

Some of the "Police" are very nice people who are doing some harmless roleplay I even greet them with a good day officer and such, however I never ever confuse them with a Linden (who I also greet when and if I see them which is becomming very Rare)

One of the things I have noticed is the huge backlash against the "police" as people hate getting fooled in the first place

I just tell them I'm with Internal Affairs.

I like this idea. You could also dig up Linden roads, put barriers around the hole, then leave it alone.

/me is glad that somebody else thinks this, too. They're not _all_ bad, folks...

That said, they don't get to give people orders or demand money. Anybody actually pretending to be a Linden or real police probably deserves an AR.

Granted there are those out there roleplaying as police, firefighters etc that are very nice people, unfortunately there is an even larger number that make a bad name for the good ones.

Ive ventured into 'cities' and struck up conversations with that sims 'police' that they have (very nice people), but ive also been at a few of the help islands helping out people with various odds and ends only to witness a 'police officer' rez a massive pile of weapons, a huge swat van and other useless things then drive with excessive speed all over the surrounding area bowling over whoever was there only to get out and then shoot them because they were in 'his' way.

While the more seasoned SLer understands what a Linden is and how there is no other parties sponsored by them, the newer ones can be easily mislead by any of these 'officers'.

Umm you realise these Help Island and Infohub Police are just griefers with tags don't you? If we base the decission of all police being griefers on what we see at infohubs and help areas , you could also say the same of all people wearing tags from all NCI, Mentors, Greeters, VIP's, Money Islands, Clubs......................................

That was my point, read the entire message where I basically all but said those are the ones giving the bad name to the others...

I never said that based solely on the ones that come to Infohubs, they are all bad. My intention was that when newbies join SL they spend a lot of time there and thats what they see therefore come to think of these 'police' as this type of problem. However the vast majority of anyone who dawns those 'police' uniforms are nothing but greifers. Its a very wide ratio between those who arent and the ones that are.

Well actually it seems a lot of oldbies believe they are all griefers too from these forums, but many of these have never left their own land since infohub days, and hence think land tools fix everything for everyone

I've had a lot of bad experiences with so called "police" in SL, the ones who come along harassing and trying to impose some kind of twisted law on MY land. They're easily enough dealt with, but I've always found those sorts to be more abundant than the harmless role-players (who I don't mind at all).

It's a shame that the title of "police officer" online attracts all manner of idiots, when in real-life the police are a generally respectable bunch who are usually quite friendly if you bump into them on the street, but are also very professional about what they have to do.