Jail and the law

Tickets (1 to 3 stars)

An officer within 15 m writes it. The fine depends on how serious your recent crimes were. You have 30 seconds to pay it with /payticket (/pay) within 15 m of an officer, which clears your stars and your circles. Not paying in time is Unpaid Ticket, 4 stars.

Speed cameras are separate: crossing one too fast costs $200 or $300, half as much again driving against traffic. Pay it at any police station desk. You can’t join the police while one is unpaid.

Arrest (4 stars or more)

The officer has to be within 4.5 m of you (more if you’re in the same vehicle, less indoors). Cuffing takes 5.5 seconds, and the arrest completes about 4 seconds later. /breakcuffs (/bc) gives you a 5 in 16 chance of breaking free, every 10 seconds; a failed try is Escape, 1 star, and the whole server hears about it.

Takedown: killed by an officer while you have 4 or more stars, you go to a cell just as if you’d been arrested.

Stopping when told

An officer’s megaphone reaches you within 30 m. You have 5 seconds to pull over, or on foot to kneel (/kneel) or surrender (/surrender, /handsup); G stops kneeling or surrendering. Ignoring it is Evading Police, one more star.

Being searched

An officer can frisk a civilian within 1.5 m, and for six seconds you’re playing different games:

You see a clock and a key. Every six taps of E hides one whole pile where the search won’t reach it, up to three (contraband first). A worn duffel bag costs two of the three. Backspace pulls away instead, which ends the search and is Escape, 1 star; so is walking more than 3 m off. Cuffs take that option away.
The officer sees nothing for those six seconds, then a list: contraband in red, legal items in white. Contraband goes into evidence, or the officer keeps it and takes the risk.

You can’t be searched again for 45 seconds.

Jail

Sentence: 30 seconds, or 60 with an APB. You get an APB from walking out of a bank or the jeweller with the take, or when five officers have you in sight at once.
After the sentence, a $1,000 bail counts down by $50 or $100 a second; at zero you walk free. /bail pays what’s left, and /bail [name] pays somebody else’s.
You serve it in a prison outfit in a cell at Mission Row, and walk out on its front steps. Your weapons are taken and handed back when you leave.
Dying while jailed puts you back in a cell, with no hospital bill.
Dying while cuffed takes the cuffs off before you respawn.

What you lose

Your stars, your circles, and any robbery you were in the middle of.
Till cash from a hold-up, if you’re arrested inside that job’s circle while an officer is online.
Your own car, if it’s within 60 m when you’re arrested: it’s impounded, and getting it back costs $1,000 a star, plus $10,000 with an APB, up to $100,000. If a Contracted tow driver is on duty nearby, the car waits at the kerb for 2 minutes as a tow call, and nobody can drive it; if nobody comes, the lot sends its own truck.

Tips

At 1 to 3 stars, paying the ticket straight away is usually cheapest.
Cuffs stop you pulling away from a search, so break them before the officer starts one.