Goonhub
11-27-2012, 08:10 AM
So, we've got a long chain of stories, threads, and other literature about Bad Security on these forums, but we don't really have any stories or discussions about what makes Good Security. The only resource for that is the wiki page, which doesn't get into a lot of specific behaviors that people seem to whine about. Really, the only direction you get is to not crush someone's face with a deactivated baton, cross-round grudge, and other shit that is awful no matter who does it. However, this isn't enough when you actually play Sec. You're always going to take some verbal abuse and hear a lot of whining in a red suit, but you should hopefully do your best to not earn the hatred and vitriol of the entire crew, which is very possible without even trying a lot of times.
Apprehending suspects
The ideal that a lot of people seem to talk up in the Good Security Officer is that they use their words before they stun a suspect. But, from my time as Sec and watching Sec work (sometimes from the business end of the baton), the reality on the ground is just plain not conducive to that. Even in the case of something hugely minor, such as an assistant with thermals, a Sec break-in, etc, telling someone to stop in the name of the law is going to prompt them to hit you with a fire extinguisher or run the hell away.
From a Sec perspective, this isn't cool. In the case of the fire extinguisher, you could very easily be KOed, robbed, and murdered because you were trying to give someone doing something they obviously shouldn't the benefit of the doubt. If they rabbit, you can now either spend 15 minutes chasing down one guy, or let them go and be assured they will be back to whatever they were doing in seconds. As Sec, you're in a quandary. If you stun first and ask questions later, you're a Bad Sec Man. If you get your shit kicked in or let random shitheads go scot-free, you're a Bad Sec Man. So which is better? Detaining for questioning causes screaming from the detainee, the alternative causes a smaller amount of screaming from a larger number of crew members. What would you do?
This goes part in parcel with repeated stunnings as transfers are being made. When brigging a prisoner, do you leave their cuffs on, and effectively give them a pair of handcuffs, or do you keep them stunned while you uncuff them and recover your cuffs? On one hand, there are a hundred ways people can fuck over a player with handcuffs, so it seems pretty Bad to make them so available to someone who's already acted up once. On the other, the sheer amount of bile I've seen hurled at guards for stunning someone two or three times during a brigging or arrest process is absolutely insane. Someone who was grumpy but placid will suddenly become a dictionary of rage and insults. This basically turns that person into a shithead with a vendetta the rest of the round, which is also easily construable as Bad, if for no other reason than the pollution it causes on the radio. How do you handle this situation?
Sentencing Suspects
This doesn't involve identified antagonists - the rules are pretty clear that if you positively identify someone as an antagonist, you can pretty much do whatever you want with the guy. The community also doesn't much care as long as you neutralize the traitor/changeling/vampire from attacking unassuming locals. Instead, let's talk about the other 95% of people you arrest - the random non-antags who are just up to no good.
The brig is on BYOND time. Everyone who's been hucked in there knows that. For every minute you get put on there initially, you can expect to go through two or three minutes getting out of there. Security gets a lot of good leeway for brigging people this way, but is there anything acknowledged as OK in lieu of or in addition to brigging?
ID demotion is often talked about, but with the HoP's penchant for vanishing and the Captain's penchant for getting killed, drunk, or obsessed with a vendetta against an Assistant, it doesn't seem very realistic a lot of times. Has anyone ever seen this happen reliably?
A few Officers on rounds I've played as Sec have a fondness for buying some Discount Dan's and force-feeding a sip as a punishment for minor asshattery. The rationale is that it skips the tedious arrest process for little shit, and the rest Food Poisoning forces mimics brig time pretty closely. Opponents say that poisoning someone is pretty much universally Bad, and if things are so fucked up that a proper arrest would take too long you shouldn't be arresting minor asshats anyway. How shitty or un-shitty is using Discount Dan's or other mild poison as frontier justice?
Let's try to avoid making this another gripefest about Sec or particular shitty Sec players and use this thread as a place to talk about what behaviors you expect to see in Good Sec - even when you're the one getting dragged away in cuffs.
Apprehending suspects
The ideal that a lot of people seem to talk up in the Good Security Officer is that they use their words before they stun a suspect. But, from my time as Sec and watching Sec work (sometimes from the business end of the baton), the reality on the ground is just plain not conducive to that. Even in the case of something hugely minor, such as an assistant with thermals, a Sec break-in, etc, telling someone to stop in the name of the law is going to prompt them to hit you with a fire extinguisher or run the hell away.
From a Sec perspective, this isn't cool. In the case of the fire extinguisher, you could very easily be KOed, robbed, and murdered because you were trying to give someone doing something they obviously shouldn't the benefit of the doubt. If they rabbit, you can now either spend 15 minutes chasing down one guy, or let them go and be assured they will be back to whatever they were doing in seconds. As Sec, you're in a quandary. If you stun first and ask questions later, you're a Bad Sec Man. If you get your shit kicked in or let random shitheads go scot-free, you're a Bad Sec Man. So which is better? Detaining for questioning causes screaming from the detainee, the alternative causes a smaller amount of screaming from a larger number of crew members. What would you do?
This goes part in parcel with repeated stunnings as transfers are being made. When brigging a prisoner, do you leave their cuffs on, and effectively give them a pair of handcuffs, or do you keep them stunned while you uncuff them and recover your cuffs? On one hand, there are a hundred ways people can fuck over a player with handcuffs, so it seems pretty Bad to make them so available to someone who's already acted up once. On the other, the sheer amount of bile I've seen hurled at guards for stunning someone two or three times during a brigging or arrest process is absolutely insane. Someone who was grumpy but placid will suddenly become a dictionary of rage and insults. This basically turns that person into a shithead with a vendetta the rest of the round, which is also easily construable as Bad, if for no other reason than the pollution it causes on the radio. How do you handle this situation?
Sentencing Suspects
This doesn't involve identified antagonists - the rules are pretty clear that if you positively identify someone as an antagonist, you can pretty much do whatever you want with the guy. The community also doesn't much care as long as you neutralize the traitor/changeling/vampire from attacking unassuming locals. Instead, let's talk about the other 95% of people you arrest - the random non-antags who are just up to no good.
The brig is on BYOND time. Everyone who's been hucked in there knows that. For every minute you get put on there initially, you can expect to go through two or three minutes getting out of there. Security gets a lot of good leeway for brigging people this way, but is there anything acknowledged as OK in lieu of or in addition to brigging?
ID demotion is often talked about, but with the HoP's penchant for vanishing and the Captain's penchant for getting killed, drunk, or obsessed with a vendetta against an Assistant, it doesn't seem very realistic a lot of times. Has anyone ever seen this happen reliably?
A few Officers on rounds I've played as Sec have a fondness for buying some Discount Dan's and force-feeding a sip as a punishment for minor asshattery. The rationale is that it skips the tedious arrest process for little shit, and the rest Food Poisoning forces mimics brig time pretty closely. Opponents say that poisoning someone is pretty much universally Bad, and if things are so fucked up that a proper arrest would take too long you shouldn't be arresting minor asshats anyway. How shitty or un-shitty is using Discount Dan's or other mild poison as frontier justice?
Let's try to avoid making this another gripefest about Sec or particular shitty Sec players and use this thread as a place to talk about what behaviors you expect to see in Good Sec - even when you're the one getting dragged away in cuffs.