Security.txt by Reignofevil

[reignofevil]

Security: Words to live by.
Security is widely regarded as the worst job on ye olde space station 13. Everyone hates you instinctively, because your prime goal (in their eyes) is to stop anything fun from happening.

The first step to being acceptable security (in my eyes) is to realize your only real JOB per says is to prevent crewmen from inflicting direct physical harm on each other. After that everything is just paperwork.

Step one: Crime and punishment.

No crime beyond attempted murder deserves more than a minute or two in the brig, max. My primary method of punishing criminals is by having short talks with them about how their life has gone wrong up to this point. Often a player I am intending to drag away temporarily for a talking to and to calm down a situation will just kill himself. Do not feel bad. Anyone who commits suicide rather than protest obviously had something to hide. Justice is done.

Example time:
As an officer I walk up to see a janitor attempting to push down a man with stun gloves. He attempts to strip the man in stun gloves in my plain view, and ignores all attempts to get him to stop with “he started it”. He continues messing with the assistant until he stuns the janitor, farts upon him, and attempts to walk away. The janitor pursues, and is stunned again. He recovers and throws a cleaning grenade, this situation is quickly escalating to a weapon engagement. I stun him and begin cuffing.

“What? You are arresting me after he has been being shit to me this whole round?!”

“No, I am arresting you because-“

*He commits suicide*

Now I was arresting him not for assaulting the assistant, which he had not really done yet. I was arresting him for failure to comply with a legal order to stand down, and also for continuing to escalate the conflict after I said “this needs to end. Now.” But I probably wouldn’t have even brig’d him had we spoken.

Step two: Nonlethal take down only.

I hate the stunning weaponry security has. For starters, as an officer I am primarily armored against blunt objects being swung at me. Half the station has decided that the ability to push down a sec officer and take his baton when he is attempting to make an arrest constitutes a good idea to do so. Against the weapon most likely to get used against me? I am armored not at all.

My preferred weapon is the extinguisher for just this reason.

Now using potentially lethal force has its drawbacks, whenever you use it you have to make sure the prisoner can receive attention for his wounds. If he dies in your custody, it is your badge on the line! Remember By being in a position of responsibility, you are uniquely responsible for the wellbeing of EVERY prisoner you arrest. If you don’t want to babysit someone for long… don’t arrest them for long!

Example:
I am an officer who has taken charge of a predator captured in the brig. As I am establishing first contact between our peoples, an officer and some guy enter and start killing the predator in my brig. I order them to stop (legal grounds: He is my prisoner even if he isn’t human and I can’t investigate him if he is dead.) and when they fail to comply I inform them that if this continues I would place them under arrest. They continue.

I take out my baton to rescue the predator, when they push me down, stun me, and resume beating the predator. He dies and explodes. I escape the brig and leave those fools in there until I can get some air and more weapons.

In the end, I arrested one of the culprits. Another immediate suicide. This was after he argued that “Since predators are not human you have no grounds to arrest me” and I let him know that assaulting an officer was, believe it or not, an offense against a human.

Step three: Be the Boss.

As a security officer I attempt to solve nearly every confrontation verbally. That said; you need to be listened to. Interfering with an investigation IS a crime; exactly the same way pushing down an officer and stealing his baton is assault. If you give an order make sure it is understood that way. Be clear with statements like “You need to go. Now.” You want it to be very clear to the reader that he is taking his own fate into his hands. That said, if he starts talking give him time to give his side. Maybe the traitor DID alter the crew manifest, and he is really the real HoP. You just don’t know until you ask.

Failure to comply should result in at least a mild stunning, but keep your legal justification in mind! Someone not telling you something you want to know or is holding out on an item you think you need is NOT failure to comply. Failure to comply is something to invoke with the phrase “Stop beating him”, or “you don’t have access to that room, please leave or be tossed out.”, ultimately it is a grey area but the need has to be a LITTLE more pressing than “the electrician wouldn’t give me gloves to stop the changeling, he HAS SO MANY.”

Let some other hero stop the changeling; champ. Also if you need gloves then the AI is probably already against you anyway. Deal with that.

Step Four: Deserve to be the Boss.
(I made it big because it is MOST IMPORTANT.)
Just because I said people should listen to you doesn’t mean you get to go all combine and force the station to collect cans for you. The reason people should listen to derives from your position as a relative force of justice on the station. If you fail to verbally arrest your subject before coming at him with a stun weapon than as far as I am concerned a person has every right to defend themselves.

After all, how on earth do you know the guy stunning you is even legitimate? Would you bet your life upon it?


ONE MORE THING:

I try NOT to actually patrol the station armed with anything better than a fire extinguisher. A security officer does NOT need a stun baton, a taser at the belt, a flash in the backpack and a flashbang in the pocket, and cuffs. Now when I hear threatening reports ("Asshole mcsomeone says" When the whole station is AFLAME! THAT is when I stop shooting AI!"), or whenever I see a situation develop that requires heavy firepower I return to security to grab it. It is far more fun to try and resolve a situation verbally or later with improvised melee than it is to sit around, armed up like a tank, pacing back and forth through your zone just WISHING some fool would mess with you, and then a changeling eats you anyway.

But isn’t talking to suspects dangerous? They know you are out to get them then!

REMEMBER: As a security guard IT IS IN YOUR JOB DESCRIPTION to face more danger than a criminal. When the space yeti attacks research it is your JOB to help the AI lure it into the toxins mixing chamber so an asteroid will kill it.
So stop complaining and be nice, be in charge, and ultimately serve the station.

[UrsulaMejor]

Using a fire extinguisher as security is universally a shitty thing to do.

Use a flash. It's nonlethal. It does no damage. It can stun almost anyone you'll need to be able to stun.

best of all, with your sunglasses, it can't be used against you.

[reignofevil]

But does it have any flavor? Fire extinguishers are red, I am red, a flash is some green color.

Secondly, anyone being enough of a threat to human life to deserve being actually stunned can deal with a little head trauma. Assault doesn't pay.

[UrsulaMejor]

Never use any sort of damaging force on anyone except a confirmed traitor, or someone already using lethal force. And guess what: A fire extinguisher isn't powerful enough against a traitor to take them down reliably. Again, even just a regular ol' flash is more powerful than a fire extinguisher against anyone dangerous enough to need to stun.

[reignofevil]

Never use any sort of damaging force on anyone except a confirmed traitor, or someone already using lethal force. And guess what: A fire extinguisher isn't powerful enough against a traitor to take them down reliably. Again, even just a regular ol' flash is more powerful than a fire extinguisher against anyone dangerous enough to need to stun.

Yes. I agree fully in all parts. Indeed I was I felt rather explicit in my giant security manifesto at the top of the page that you shouldn't just run around beating people, which it seems you are implying I was.

Let me be clear, I am absolutely saying that anyone who is not being an immediate threat to another life should be at best electrocuted (harmlessly!) and bitched out for a few moments without any permanent harm done to them (keep the extinguisher... lowered!), after all there is SOME use to nonlethal vs. less-than-lethal force.

But honestly it is NOT your job as security to be more heavily armed than a potential traitor at all times! So what if his E-sword is gonna best your extinguisher? If there are lives in danger security does not FLINCH. And if nobody is gonna die that you can see, run away and arm up!

Well, actually I agree except for a flash being useful against a traitor, those fellows wear sunglasses!

[Conor12]

This was going well until you said to use an extinguisher, then it went awful.

Well, actually I agree except for a flash being useful against a traitor, those fellows wear sunglasses!

What, no. Traitors don't usually wear the sunglasses. Even less so, now that they don't reveal other traitors.

[reignofevil]

This was going well until you said to use an extinguisher, then it went awful.

Well, actually I agree except for a flash being useful against a traitor, those fellows wear sunglasses!

What, no. Traitors don't usually wear the sunglasses. Even less so, now that they don't reveal other traitors.

I posted this so it could be discussed, amended as needed etc. I am still not convinced that when I use the extinguisher it has not thus far always been a justifiable use, and that it would honestly improve the game if security was both expected to be competent enough to keep crew members alive and possibly the entire security force outfitted with blunt objects instead of one hit KO devices for the whole crew to enjoy. (Okay, less certain about this last one.)

I admit that this might not BE the best way to be security, but that is why I invited this discussion!

[FrontlineAcrobat4]

okay, so I respect the fact you prefer to keep your weapons back in security, it leaves you vunerable to one of your other officers screwing everything up by losing his Id so anyone can take all the weapons without you having any. Also running around with nothing but a blunt object will only cause more shit if you end up trying to break up a brawl by bashing their brains out everywhere due to your decision to ignore stun weaponry. No one will ever take the side of a sec officer covered in blood.

[reignofevil]

Ah shit- is there really no way to edit one second after the message? I am gonna have to be more careful and preview before posting.

Regarding sunglasses: I suppose I can't exactly say "people totally wear them when traitoring all the time", but they are very readily available to everyone on the station, syndicates etc. I suppose it may actually be a minority of the time traitors actually use the things though. I will have to keep an eye out.

okay, so I respect the fact you prefer to keep your weapons back in security, it leaves you vunerable to one of your other officers screwing everything up by losing his Id so anyone can take all the weapons without you having any. Also running around with nothing but a blunt object will only cause more shit if you end up trying to break up a brawl by bashing their brains out everywhere due to your decision to ignore stun weaponry. No one will ever take the side of a sec officer covered in blood.

This is true! However I can not exactly take the entire security room plus the armory (emag) around at all times! There are rarely four or five security to actually keep all the weapons, the best thing I can do is verbally inform assistants that they are not authorized to have that weapon and unless they turn it in I will have to set their status to arrest and put a call out on the baton/taser until it returns.

And generally I try to keep my arrests to a single suspect, usually the most belligerent one. After breaking up the fight by incapacitating whoever I saw to be the most escalating while I was ineffectually shouting at them to stop, and then after hearing his story constructing the actual case to determine how much action is needed. Finally I generally try to get both parties to peacefully talk, apologize, and go about their lives in peace. (rare)

[Nubcake]

For anyone who doesn't want to read the wall of text:

a thread in which a guy who thinks it's ok to beat people with fire extinguishers as security to 'non lethally take them down' offers tips about how to be a 'good' security guard

[reignofevil]

For anyone who doesn't want to read the wall of text:

a thread in which a guy who thinks it's ok to beat people with fire extinguishers as security to 'non lethally take them down' offers tips about how to be a 'good' security guard

That is certainly a way to describe it! I don't feel like it is moving the conversation in the most productive avenue however.

Honestly this is just a thread about a 2D spaceman game on a forum dedicated to asking permission to get to continue pretending to drink in a fake bar after you spaced the captain. I am not sitting in game, as we speak, bashing people in the brain, there is no need to treat this thread with hostility and derision. Criticism? Argument? All things I feel this thread can be for.

To take the conversation back to security, one idea in my head now is that perhaps a culture where the primary means of arresting someone is running at him full speed silently, taking away his control of the game for like two minutes via stun, and then handcuffing him to take him to the brig, is not in of itself a good or particularly fun system.

To me, having the extinguisher represents knowing that when I am using it, it has to be a completely justified action in case some omnipotent guy decides to look into the attack log. A guy with a stun baton can stun almost anyone for anything. That said I am fully open to why this might not be so! It is just a conversation I felt like attempting to start and would like people to contribute!

My final thought is regarding my semiserious proposal to just outfit the whole security force with blunt weapons. I put forward that if security could only harm belligerents, but would still be faced with a ban for failure to provide medical treatment to the person they "accidentally" let die (it is not THAT hard not to murder people... people!), then there might actually be a sense of restraint before you just start fucking bashing people. Nobody who has ever arrested me has bothered to show restraint when tasing me because "it is nonlethal" and can't actually harm me (the implicit motive being: I will not be punished for this fuck you), versus what I attempt to do which not only leaves me using a weapon that I am pretty immune to, and also since I can't just taze everyone to get my way (forced gas mask removal for syndicate rounds, taking batons off assistants who aren't USING them, generally an easy solution to any breaking and entering) I usually actually have something to DO when a crime happens beyond "big hero arrest-em-all" and "Die to the changeling, good try!"

[Dauntasa]

was the assistant in your first example me?

[reignofevil]

was the assistant in your first example me?

Very well could have been, it was pretty recent. I recall that the dispute was up by crew quarters.

I never did find out what actually happened there, but you got sent away in a coffin properly if it WAS you.

[reignofevil]

was the assistant in your first example me?

Very well could have been, it was pretty recent. I recall that the dispute was up by crew quarters.

I never did find out what actually happened there, but you got sent away in a coffin properly if it WAS you.

Ah fuck. Seriously sorry.

I mistook you for the janitor of the story!

[Sundance]

Step two: Nonlethal take down only.

My preferred weapon is the extinguisher for just this reason.

....

A security officer does NOT need a stun baton, a taser at the belt, a flash in the backpack and a flashbang in the pocket, and cuffs.

If I was playing HoS and I saw you use a fire extinguisher to subdue a person, I'd beat you with all the above (which I have on me), plus the energy rifle I did not accidentally put on lethal.

You know jack-shit about security.