Each time I read SOP I find a number of things that I don’t think jive or make sense, so here is a list of changes I would make for any admins to take note of. Feel free to leave any of your own below. Just so I don’t have to repeat myself every time, anything in bold was emphasis added by yours truly.
Basic SOP
This section is a little strange as it almost entirely pertains to security and security only.
Code Blue - High Alert
Elevated alert level. There are reports or other proof available to indicate that there is a threat to the station, or chaos, mutiny, or rioting are occurring. This should be performed by a poll of available heads of staff, with a majority in favor of raising the alert level.
According to this blue alert can only be declared if there is a threat to the station. That’s vague and should be clarified, does an emagged door count as a threat to the station or are we talking more along the lines of asteroids. Context would lean towards the latter. For the second part, when I play heads I rarely ever see a poll actually being held. Sometimes no heads even have any say because some random law 2’s the AI into raising to blue. This part of SOP should be enforced more and possibly silicons should have its ability to raise removed. They aren’t heads or part of a department.
Code Blue - High Alert
Notice what it doesn’t include. Technically you could argue that riot shotguns are included under riot gear, but considering they come preloaded with non lethal shells and people immediately ditch those for lethals I don’t think its applicable. Either enforce it or change it.
Code Blue - High Alert
- Security is authorized to use lethal force on suspects suspected of Major or greater crimes who actively flee and resist arrest, and suspects who assault officers without responding to verbal warnings to stop.
I think merely running shouldn’t be a death sentence for all major crimes as there is a lot of variation between them. Shooting someone who flagrantly murdered someone when they run away? Quite reasonable. Shooting someone who sent a meme message using someone elses PDA? Not so reasonable. This is more of an issue with space law than SOP though.
Captain
The Captain may not take Armory equipment outside of Code Blue or Red Alert, and the Captain must return it once the alert level is lowered.
Why even let them do it in the first place, what does the armory have that they need? They have the best armor and a good melee and ranged weapon on blue alert already. Security needs the gamer gear more than they do.
Captain
The Captain may only promote personnel to an Acting Head of Staff position if there is no assigned Head of Staff associated with the department. Said Acting Head of Staff must be a member of the department they are to lead. The captain may appoint other heads of staff to oversee a department without a current head of staff.
This part should be included under head of personnel, they are more likely to have to deal with people wanting acting positions than the captain is.
Head of Personnel
The Head of Personnel must confirm with the relevant Head of Staff when giving a crewmember access to their department.
Logically we know this to mean that the HOP must ask permission from the relevant head, but you could easily argue that confirming just means stating that you’ve given out access in this context. Twisting words thematically fits with a HOP so I’m cool with it.
Head of Personnel
The Head of Personnel may not process demotions on behalf of the relevant Head of Staff without prior authorization. Demotions may be processed if required under Space Law when requested by the Head of Security.
Whose authorization, the captain or the relevant head? If it’s on behalf of the relevant head why not leave it as a responsibility of the relevant head, they have a console to do it. For the second part, can a HOP just flat out refuse a demotion if the HOS asks for one? It does say may, I think this option should be kept open in case of power trips.
Head of Personnel
The Head of Personnel is not permitted to open extra job slots for civilian slots unless the original crewmember of this job is dead or missing.
The Head of Personnel may approve and open additional non-civilian job slots at the request of the relevant heads of staff.
These rules are here to prevent the HOP from opening 50 clown and mime slots, but the inconsistency is a bit of a slap in the face. Rules for thee and not for me.
Head of Security - Green Alert
The Head of Security is permitted to carry any non-lethal weaponry, plus a concealed lethal sidearm.
Clarification is needed, are weapons that are currently non lethal but have lethal capability considered lethal or non lethal weapons? The way it’s worded it seems like the idea is that the X-01 uses the concealed lethal sidearm and thus lethal capable weaponry is considered lethal. Same issue with the warden, the intention seems to be their compact shotgun is the concealed sidearm.
Head of Security - Blue Alert
All Code Green guidelines except 3, 6, 7, and 9 are carried over.
9 on Green: Lethal force is not permitted unless the person poses an immediate threat to your life. Refer to lethal force guidelines as described in Space Law.
Obviously the HOS can’t shoot to kill anyone on blue, but strictly the way it is worded they could argue they can. Add a line to blue alert correcting this.
Warden - Green Alert
The Warden must conduct a thorough search of every prisoners’ belongings.
The Warden must read to every prisoner the crimes they are sentenced for.
The implication in Warden SOP and throughout the rest of security SOP is that the warden should be in charge of the brigging and sentencing of every prisoner. This should be outright stated in SOP or trashed.
Warden - Blue Alert
The Warden is permitted to hand out Armory equipment as they or the Head of Security deems necessary. Equipment must be returned once the alert level is lowered.
This clashes with the second statement I pointed out on the general SOP page. That page says only energy/laser guns and riot gear are to be given out on blue. Are riot shotguns considered riot gear? It has riot in the name, but they are almost universally used lethally. If lethal shotguns are okay, why are combat shotguns specifically excluded when they are lethal? In my opinion it doesn’t make sense for them to fall under riot gear. That to me means riot armor and shields, shields you cant use a shotgun with.
Security Officer - Green Alert
Security Officers must ask a person to surrender peacefully before incapacitating them, unless they pose an immediate threat.
This is more of a player issue than a SOP one much like alert raises but admins need to enforce this more. I have seen people get wordlessly batonged and drug to the brig and it sucks for them. If people whine about risk too much it could be added to the audio on the gas mask.
Security Officer - Green Alert
Security Officers are permitted to conduct searches, provided there is reasonable evidence/suspicion that the person in question has committed a crime.
I would add a section saying that said security officer has to state what crime or why they are suspicious of said person. That way if they say something dumb like “You walked into maint roundstart” you know you can ahelp them for metagaming.
Security Officer - Blue Alert
All Code Green guidelines except 5 and 7 are carried over.
6 on Green: Security Officers may not use Armory equipment.
4 on Blue: Security Officers may have Armory equipment. Equipment must be returned once the alert level is lowered.
They are both simultaneously allowed and not allowed to have armory equipment.
Detective - Green Alert
The Detective may not perform arrests or searches.
In this context searches likely means searches of people, but searching environments is the detectives schtick. Make it clearer that searches only means people if this is the case.
The Detective may not discard any evidence. It needs to be stored securely for the duration of the shift.
I think this should be changed to just say hand it over to the warden or put it in secure storage if one is not present. It gives something for the warden to do and prevents detectives from leaving eswords in their locker as I have seen happen before.
Brig Physician - Green Alert
The Brig Physician should tend to the wounds of any security department member.
I would make it clearer that their responsibility is to security and not medbay. I see brig physicians just become a MD that treats security on the side rather than doing their actual job. Maybe include something on the on the other jobs telling them to seek treatment from the physician first so the brig phys has something to do.
The Brig Physician is not a law enforcement officer, and should not perform the duties of one.
This implies that they don’t have the justification to charge into danger like security officers do. Make that explicit if it is true.
End
Just doing two departments took forever, I’ll finish this in the comments later. Hopefully command/sec were the hardest
I don’t see an issue with this. The cap can only assist security in certain cases, and if he does then why shouldn’t he have access to the same tools. On top of that the captain just arming themselves with security gear for no reason is powergaming. (Common sense again)
