How to join and what you get
Police duty starts at the Police Station in Looty Bay. For the shift you receive free issued gear and a vehicle. Your personal items are not available on duty: they are stored and returned when the shift ends. That is the main appeal of the role — you risk nothing of your own.
Police exist only in the city: there is no police in the settlements and the desert. An officer may only kill criminals, respawns after death, and sees more than anyone else — alarm markers and the kill feed are always visible to him.
What an officer is paid for
The values below are from the game settings. The key rule is in the first two rows: an arrest pays several times more than a kill.
| Action | Reward |
|---|---|
| Arresting a criminal | 9 000 – 15 000 $ |
| Killing a criminal | 2 000 $ |
| Salary for killing a criminal | 5 000 $ |
| Confiscating a criminal’s loot (base) | 4 000 $ |
| Confiscating loot from a vehicle (base) | 2 000 $ |
| Share of the killed criminal’s gear value | 4% |
| Killing a surrendered or arrested player | 0 $ |
| Salary cap | 1 000 000 $ |
What you earn goes to an account, and at the end of the shift it is paid out in confiscated goods for that amount; cash is only a part of it. So a good shift ends with a trip to the fence or to your base.
Temporary bonuses
- Order the criminal to surrender before you shoot: the order itself gives a reward bonus.
- Keep the siren on in the service car.
- Answer a backup call: you get the bonus and free equipment for the call.
All three push you the same way: toward a loud, visible officer who arrests rather than ambushes.
Badges: Sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain
You can serve without a badge, but only with the basic kit. A badge is a single-use item: the rarer the badge, the better the gear issued for the shift. Badges are found around the city or bought from Larry after research.
| Barter | You give | You get |
|---|---|---|
| Lieutenant badge | 15 × Sergeant badge | 1 × Lieutenant badge |
| Captain badge | 5 × Lieutenant badge | 1 × Captain badge |
A Captain badge therefore costs 75 Sergeant badges. Current recipes are on the barter page.
Arrest and bribe from the officer’s side
You can arrest a criminal who has surrendered or is knocked out. The arrested player loses the contents of the bag — that is your confiscation — and keeps the equipped gear. Other criminals may try to break up the arrest, so do not arrest alone in the middle of a gang.
The arrested player may offer a bribe from the bank account: the amount grows in steps of 10 000 $ up to 200 000 $. If you accept, the criminal leaves the city with the bag and the gear. A bribe is often larger than the arrest reward — but you give up the confiscated loot.
Do not leave confiscated goods in the patrol car: the trunk of any car, police cars included, can be opened with a lockpick.
Violations and the holding cell
Officers and civilians collect violation levels for traffic offences: hitting people, vandalism, blocking traffic, knockdowns. At level 10 the offender is sent to the city holding cell for a while; there you cannot use personal items or change your role. The level drops by one over time. Reckless driving with the siren on is the fastest way to end a shift early.
The criminal’s view of the same rules is in How to escape the police; the complete reference is Police and prison.