Do you have a full police force? Do you just have some sims working in the Maxis Law Enforcement Career? Perhaps your neighborhood doesn't have a police force and lives lawless? Tell us!

In the state of Simvada there's a State Police (Simvada Highway Patrol) and then the 3 counties each have a sheriff department. The two major cities, Mesa Flats and Lucky Palms, have their own police departments as well.

In my custom neighborhood, Townie Place, there is a police force along with Captain Hero on their side. The police force consists of:

Spencer Toyonaga
Trent Traveller
David Cameron (not really based on the real one. I just like naming my sims after real people.)
Russ Bear (I know, I know...)
Gordon King (Same thing here...)


Demi Love is Captain Hero.

These are only the playables of course. The rest (three) are NPCs. So I guess 9 in total. Not a lot, but eventually it will increase (or decrease).

I have a police station with a small holding cell, but those officers are really just for show, this is the "chair force" lol they don't really see any action and are basically useless. I like to send fresh cops here.

The police force is also responsible for one of the most important area in my government:
Operating The County Jails and State Penitentiary.
They serve as wardens and at the prison they are in charge of Death Row.

Basically that. And this applies to each subhood (city) in every neighborhood (state)

I have a gaol (Strangesims) and a police station in both Sirencester and Carping Magna and sims working in the police career. I do this thing where I clone over the appearance of my NPC sims so the cop sim currently looks like George Grant. Otherwise, I don't play anything too elaborate except that certain sims serve time in the gaol.

Kristen Loste ended up staying in Strangetown working as the town detective. She's a kind of one-woman police force, although Cyd Roseland also works as a security guard.

Sandra Roth plans, once she has graduated, she will move to Belladonna Cove and join the police there.

In Strangetown which I'm playing at the moment, there is only General Buzz to represent the State, and he feels he's fighting a losing battle. There used to be a sizeable military base here, which explains why the military are responsible for law enforcement, but with government cutbacks to pay for tax cuts, he's on his own now. Police patrols drive through along the highway, but they never stop. He's sure that old witch who lives up the hill is a serial killer, but how can he prove it on his own? He's also convinced he's in the middle of an alien invasion which threatens all human civilisation, but no one higher up seems to care. Now he feels he's even losing control of his own family. He still hopes he can depend on his eldest son, Tank Grunt, but he's not even sure of him any more! Help!!

My island 'hood of New Desconia has one NPC police officer. They used to think they didn't need the police on the island, but she was appointed when there was a spate of burglaries. They think the burglar comes from the mainland in a boat, but she's never caught him. And, what's more, she doesn't know what side her bread is buttered on. She got the job after a beautiful white piano was stolen from the founders Desmond and Cony on their wedding night. A thoroughly mean and despicable crime, if I say it myself, in a place dedicated to free love and pleasure. Then a couple of nights later Desmond and Cony were having a second party to celebrate their wedding with guests who couldn't come to the first party (and to help them get over the loss of their beautiful piano). Then PC Chris Bar had the nerve to drive up in her patrol car and break up the party. Despite the fact that there were no other occupied houses at that end of the island: the only other house there is the one next door that Cony had just moved out of. ...And the fact that it was Desmond and Cony who had given her the job. Does she not understand that it's the founders who make the law here, and her job is just to enforce it. And no one in New Desconia, except herself, objects to noisy parties. There must be a mod to deal with anomalies like that!

In my other 'hoods including my main game of Veronaville, law enforcement is left up to the NPC police officers, and they seem to do a reasonable job. There has only been one burglary in Veronaville (actually in Downtown) and everyone started fitting alarms after that. Just like in real life!
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It's good to hear of a Veronaville townie doing so well. She's a bit feisty, but I like Demi.

Just make sure the stereo is off by ten o'clock, and your parties can go as long as you like!

In Drama Acres, Captain Hero is a job title, though they have never needed more than one at a time, and not everyone has the potential to acquire superpowers in the Captain Hero ritual. The nature of these superpowers, apart from the obvious flight, is a closely guarded secret, but the current Captain Hero, Erik Swain, has convinced the teens of Drama Acres (particularly the boys who used to hang around his daughter before she took off for college) that one of them is Drug Test Vision. The value of the position to society was recently demonstrated during the Night the Satellites Fell, when Captain Hero - who long ago made contingency plans for every conceivable emergency - organized evacuation, ferried citizens to safety, and even caught a few satellites on the way down, though he couldn't be everywhere at once. Other than that, it's like law enforcement everywhere. (Without, you know, the institutionalized racism, ableism, etc.) Sometimes you catch the burglar, sometimes he gets away; sometimes you're just answering a noise complaint.

Like the cops of Drama Acres in the wake of the catastrophe, the cops of Widespot are more concerned with keeping the peace than with crime per se. The Widespot County Sheriff's department mostly deals with speeders on the highway these days, and desk sergeant Homer Land is not much concerned with rising in the department. Bigg City, now, they have home invasions, and an organized crime problem, with rumors of a mastermind in a spiky suit calling the shots, but nobody like that'd ever bother with a poky little place like Widespot!

Strangetown also has a sheriff's department rather than a city police department, and they've been spread very thin. The military base polices itself, leaving the sheriff to cover all the ranches, La Fiesta Tech, and Strangetown proper. Recently they've been hiring, hoping to make inroads against the drug cartels, which are so bold they operate semiopenly out of Strangebrewski's, till recently the only nightspot in the county. Unfortunately the current sheriff is a Good Ole Boy and he's dragging his feet about hiring women, which is not helping matters. (Guy Wrightley got a job in Law Enforcement his first day out of college; Zoe Zimmerman is still checking in every day and getting the runaround.)

In the Genderswapped Uberhood, the police force is large, unweildy, and burdened by the necessity of enforcing a number of morality laws that distract time and money from actual crime. Birth control, divorce, and abortion are illegal, paternity testing is mandatory even for married women, the bullet trains have enabled a highly mobile population to go from Viper Canyon to Riverblossom Hills in half an hour and decentralized crime, adventurers are opening up the frontier to plantsims, witches, and heaven knows what; and many young people now have dazzling visions of becoming Robin Hood figures distributing rubbers to the masses! It's a mess.

There is :-)

I don't have any kind of law enforcement in my current Widespot. In whatever 'hood I end up playing next I would like to make it a bit more integrated and actually have a police stations, or maybe even a jail. And some laws for my sims to abide by, or not, and corresponding punishments!

The law enforcement is pretty normal. There's a police station, a police force to handle crimes, and a prison for convicted criminals. Crime as a whole is pretty limited in Sim Nation, especially violent crime, so most police forces are not overburdened.

Law force? What Law force? I am the Law. There isn't any need for Sims to work for the police, army, or legal sector. In fact they can't. I forbid it.

How do i enforce the laws?

You become the Law, and then eventually as God, you may eliminate any threats to your citizens and lands.

You can make up your own laws to suit your neighbourhood and have maybe the Simlogical prison set on a lot and one sim going around "arresting" people for various crimes.

Non-existing, in response to the title.
(Other than what the game has to offer vanilla)
In my previous hood I had a prison. One of the rules there: if you committed murder, you had to wear a nice orange jumpsuit while sitting in jail.
With other crimes you were allowed to wear your own clothes.
At some point Cornerhill will get a prison too. Just this morning I was downloading stuff for it to prepare for later.

Thanks for that link Lauratje. I think I'll put that mod in whenever I play New Desconia, at least when the founders are going to be at a party. They maybe invite PC Bar as well, and let her see what she's missing!
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I don't know how I forgot to mention my Sims working in the Law Enforcement career in my last post. Especially Julian Moltke's mum and dad Manuela and Martin in Veronaville. Here is Julian's little brother Hans running to hug them both when they got home from work after their first day as Desk Sergeants.

Julian, usually not quite so effusive in praise of his parents as Andrew is for his mum, says, "Not so long ago Veronaville was a byword for violent crime. I myself know teens in the big houses who lost both mother and father in violent incidents. Nowadays people come here because they think it's a safe place to live. I like to think my mum and dad can take some of the credit for that."

You know I haven't given much thought to law enforcement. In one of my hoods it just relies on the way maxis has set-up the game. I have a new closed hood in which I have suppressed all the townies, and there are no all businesses will be player owned. I hadn't yet decided about the NPCs, but children will be home schooled so no social worker. I've been thinking I should suppress the burglar, and other NPCs as well. I hadn't really given any thought to law enforcement. Its a closed hood everyone knows everyone and they sort of have to get along for now.

I know a few of you have closed hoods with a limited number of CAS starter sims. What does your law enforcement look like?

I´m an on the fly - player, but as a rule of thumb I use penalty points. Depending on the laws of a neighborhood certain actions (i.e. insulting on the phone, stealing from money trees, reaching reward level and top level of the criminal career) warrant one point. Once a sim has collected four they go to prison (or the mines). Sometimes I play court scenes where I interpret the dialogue icons of the sims for hilarious results, but usually having accumulated enough penalty points is enough and no court scene is needed.
However, I love playing prisons and even more so penal colonies and so I´m more likely to set up a themed neighborhood just for that purpose than to wait till my regular sims commit a crime.

My playable police and law career track sims represent only a small percentage of the the actually existing ones, so I do not feel the need to have policemen in every neighborhood. I assume NPCs fill all the neccessary roles. Also the ranks I assign I sims within the story doesn´t always match the career level they have. For a long time Rick Contrary was the police minister in Desiderata Valley, but despite this I had him work his way up from the bottom.
At the moment Tank Grunt in my new Strangetown goes to police academy where he focusses especially on the psychology of criminals (psychology major). It´s just a regular college dorm that follows no special rules, only with themed outfits and furniture.

In lawless neighborhoods like Port Priesnitz there is no "justice" other than a corrupt mayor, so in those neighborhood you can buy yourself free from every crime for the right prize (atm the top crime, murder, is fined with 20000). If the mayor has reason to believe you are not able to raise the money quickly enough, she drafts you for the criminal career track.

I let the game spawn a burglar and a police officer. I like seeing them around. The burglar surprised me one day by walking into the post office to buy a MP3 player while heads turned. I shared a photo somewhere on here, as really they did all turn and look at him, even my playable cop who was also at the PO just then. Then the NPC cop turned up and bought some cards. I've seen him come past my other playable shops and take a squiz. He has such a baby face he only looks about 18.
Walking passed the fish shop.

So far I have one playable cop but I will add a couple more in time, it's a new hood and the first born in sim just turned teen. He wants to be a cop so I may just let him. They have a small police station with one jail cell. There is a court room but no judge yet.

I must have done this on accident but I used to have a lot of criminal career sims and hardly any law enforcement. Then the criminal ones got out of the business or died or retired and now there are a lot more law enforcement career sims and hardly and criminal ones. I'd say the police force is strong and doing their job or else I haven't had a lot of sims wanting to go into the criminal career as of late. I have a married couple where one is Captain Hero and the other is a judge so between them bad guys are found, tried, and put away (metaphorical bad guys of course that are never seen)

oooh no, in Sirencester Jail they all have to wear the orange jumpsuits. Or the yellow one. Even for formal, though not for bed. For bed they wear the boring grey pyjamas - it's the only time that skin gets used.

You're strict! lol
I did consider the yellow suit for the other crimes, but luckily for them I decided against it. That yellow color was bugging me and I didn't download it.
So, it basically was to single out the worst by forcing them to wear 'the orange'.
That's why Ben Magee walked around in that jumpsuit (serial killer) and his colleague inmate (forgot his name) wore his own clothes (kidnapper).

I'm the President of the United States of Sims.
So I make the laws, I am also commander in chief
So at the end of the day, I'm in control
Well it's Less of a democracy more of a totalitarian government but it works well in the end.

I have a police station with a couple of cells. Sims who repeatedly steal or vandalise go there for a couple of days, first time offenders have to pay a fine. For more serious crimes - the burglars, plus I have a serial killer, organised crime gangs and a dodgy cult - there's a small prison. Although the serial killer (Syd Serial) has so far managed to evade detection.

I think I've mentioned this before - but Sandy Bruty is the vice cop in my police station.

I have a combined police station, court and prison. The station also has accommodation for the prison governor and any probationers. It's the second-largest residential lot in SimHampton, after the Palace.

Various Sims work in Law Enforcement, Law and Prison Services, but most of them spend little time at this centre. They live in their own homes and do various jobs - patrolling the streets, representing victims and defendents, running rehabilitation programmes... - off-screen.

However, the governor is always resident at the centre, for someone must be available to supervise any crisis situation involving the rather volatile prisoners. At the moment, two of the four prisoners are capable of using magic and one of the others is a known traitor renowned for manipulating people in authority, so there are often problems at unexpected hours. The governor always works in Law Enforcement, Law or Prison Services, as they are often required to do such things as advise the government about prison reform (often a hot topic in politics given SimHampton's deplorable crime rate) and help train the (usually off-screen) prison guards. The governor gets a good three-room house, with a full bathroom, a bedroom that usually has a choice of beds, and a big living room/kitchen with lots of space for when governors decide to hold those legendary parties they sometimes hold when particularly hardened criminals prove they've turned a new leaf.

The court is rarely played as a court, as most cases occur off-scene. However, it is a useful place for "prison guard school" as SimHampton's prison guards are expected to be educated in all aspects of the justice system, and actually be some sort of help to the prisoners in reforming themselves, rather than simply be there to make them go to places they don't want to be. It may be the only court in SimNation to have seen multiple cases of Sims stealing their own cars - and being declared guilty of it.

Many crimes (ifrom insulting the current ruler to high treason - read "trying to destroy entire town in blaze of non-glory again) invoke prison terms, but some crimes don't. Low-level career criminals are assumed to be dealt with by the police with cautions, forfeits, community service and/or restitution. "Forfeits" deserves explanation - it is possible for someone doing something minor but not worthy of a prison term (such as upsetting a neighbour) to be asked to do something embarrassing in public (such as spending all afternoon pretending to be a squirrel in the local park or attend a lawyers' conference in a silly costume) in exchange for nothing further being done against them. The record for cautions is believed to be 232, held by Bella Pedersen (she never got jailed, probably because some police thought cautioning her was the perfect antidote to a hard day's work trying to stop more competent criminals...)

Courts might be off-screen, but it's important enough that a pop band "Justice 4 All" has released several albums to raise money for defending cases. General sentiments among the population for the court are "harsh but fair". Imprisonable offences have a tariff of between 10 and 100 points, with additional penalty points if a Sim commits a crim of equal/higher severity before they clear their records through a "not guilty" verdict or completing their sentences. All court cases above 80 points (such as theft - which is distinguished from non-imprisonable "petty theft" by the value of what was taken) or involving people accused of crimes above 80 points (for example, someone who worked during a holiday and also counterfeited money) are played out. Cases where exile or execution are possible (Sims who have accumulated 200 or more points, or committed 100-point high treason) are especially strict. Sims who have that many points are normally banned from ever visiting SimHampton again and executed if they break that restriction, but the High Ruler is entitled to order immediate execution for a Sim who would otherwise be exiled - or is found guilty of treason. All executions happen at the Royal Palace in front of the public, and are usually done by sword.

Anyone sentenced to prison is required to place all their possessions in the "confiscated goods" room (these are given out, used or sold at need, at the governor's discretion), place a prisoner tag on themselves, and exchange their clothes for green prison garb. They're not uniforms (those are reserved for guards), so a whole range of shabby green clothes are worn by the prisoners during their sentences (though formal clothes are allowed to be a bit nicer, since they are only worn if a prisoner gets day release, which is very rare). Every stitch of clothing they have must be replaced by some form of green prison wear for the duration - even maternity outfits get swapped out for appropriate prison wear. Babies born in prison are sent to the orphanage, to be collected by the parent after sentence is completed (or by another family member at a convenient moment, if one is willing to take the responsibility).

The current design of the prison has 5 cells. One is a multi-person cell with a few "luxuries" like privacy, a real bed and an en-suite bathroom with actual bath for "priviledged" prisoners. It is very difficult to become a "priviledged" prisoner and is a reward for sustained good behaviour. Most prisoners have single-prisoner cells with shatterproof, soundproof glass walls to allow everyone to see justice be done. In all cases, prisoners may only leave the cells for approved rehabilitation programmes.

Each of the "standard" cells is equipped with:

- a prison bunk (modelled on a sofa)
- a mini-fridge (which is refilled when emptied)
- a cheap shower
- a bin
- a cheap toilet
- a bookshelf
- an easel
- 3 squares of soil for tending vegetables

Completing paintings, growing vegetables successfully and completing rehabilitation programmes count towards the points tariff. Each partial or complete $20 earned through these by anyone in the building means counts towards the tariff. Except... ...it's first-come, first-served (except for prison escapes, which are themselves a 40-point crime and put the escapee last in the queue for release), so everyone works towards the same person's tariff until that person completes their sentence, dies, escapes or otherwise leaves the system, and only then can the next person's sentence be worked off. It sounds unfair, but it's my way of ensuring I can keep track of sentence length.

People who complete their sentences do not instantly walk out of prison. They are instead put on probation. They are permitted to wear all their own clothes again, and to live in the prison governor's accommodation. In return, they must take on approved work (usually in Law Enforcement, Law or Prison Services) and get promoted, and also accept any personalised conditions for release. Evil magic-users have their powers "binded" professionally to prevent them ever being used again. Other Sims may have restitution to make to victims, or be called upon to help bring a criminal associate to justice.