Avoid these 5 Common Mistakes on Police Simulator: Patrol Officers

Police Simulator: Patrol Officers on Xbox Game Pass has the feel of a laid back grind on single player as you casually go about booking perps and investigating the many crimes that half of the citizens seem to be guilty of.

When playing coop with a friend however the game is completely hilarious as you clumsily attempt to dispense justice with varying amounts of success.

These are some of the common mistakes you should seek to avoid when starting out a career on Police Simulator: Patrol Officers.

Losing your cool

The citizens of Brighton City are a cheeky bunch at the best of times. Keeping your cool and avoiding losing your temper at the smug AI characters can be difficult, as can be seen in the above video.

However in order to further your career and avoid losing your progress you need to keep a level head and keep your weapons in the holster. If you shoot someone at an inappropriate time and your shift is cancelled you lose all the progress and CP points you have gained throughout the session.

Searching everybody indiscriminately

One of the common mistakes when players are starting out is doing a full frisk search on every NPC they come across just in case they are tooled up with guns and switchblades.

This will cause you to lose points and affect your progress though so you should refrain from searching people and vehicles unless you have a good reason, such as some suspicious behaviour or other related crime you know they have committed.

For example, if you see someone snatch a wallet and run off down the street, it is reasonable to search them for that wallet and any other contraband. Not so much if they just ask you for directions and you are looking for some extra points. The game tends to frown on that type of behaviour.

Driving around like you are playing GTA

Another key mistake on Police Simulator: Patrol Officers is driving the patrol cars in a similar fashion to a mission on Grand Theft Auto 5, smashing into every car that gets in your way.

This will quickly cause mounting problems, apart from generating accident reports you are supposed to attend and losing valuable CP points. The vehicles do not take much damage and if the whole thing goes up in smoke you could lose the entire session's progress.

Also if you leave NPC vehicles smashed up all over the road there is a good chance they will create a traffic jam that will stop your breakdown truck and support vehicles getting through. It is important to follow the traffic system as best you can and cruise around at a moderate pace.

However, there doesn't seem to be any penalty for needlessly turning on your siren when you want to get back to your base or anywhere in a hurry, with no real emergency present.

Being a trigger happy Rambo type with the revolver and taser

One of the hardest things on Police Simulator: Patrol Officers is exercising some kind of restraint as real police officers do and keeping your gun and taser in the holster.

We are used to playing more simple action oriented games where mostly the answer to every question is to pull your gun out and start blasting.

Police Simulator: Patrol Officers is more like a simulation of being a British cop if you can imagine that. You need to keep your weapons stowed away and adopt an even handed approach, or risk generating loads of paperwork and losing all your vital points.

For example, even things like shooting a suspect's tyres as they are fleeing the scene of a crime can be seen as "police brutality" and will be enough to end the session and reset all the hard earned points you have achieved.

The best way to approach the game is from the perspective of a lazy but relatively peaceful cop who doesn't care too much if they can't catch every criminal that passes their way. Some will slip through the net but don't go out blasting in a fit of rage.

Forgetting the minor crimes - not padding out the charge sheet

When faced with a major felony such as drug dealing or illegal weapon possession, it is easy to focus on the major crime and neglect to pad out the charge sheet with whatever else you can find.

Always check the police computer and see if there are any discrepancies with the ID or license plate being out of date or possibly stolen/fake.

If you find illegal items on the person, check the vehicle as well. You can search all 4 doors and the boot or trunk of the vehicle. Could be all sorts stashed in there.

Do not forget to check for DUI with the breathaliser and drugs kits as well. Apart from driving like an escaped inmate the citizen may also be guilty of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

These additional charges bring a lot of XP and CP so it is worth stacking them up. Once you have arrested someone for a certain crime such as illegal weapon possession, you can tag on any additional crimes by selecting the liability option in the command wheel when talking to the suspect.

Police Simulator: Patrol Officers out on Game Pass

Police Simulator: Patrol Officers is now out on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Quite a few decent new games have recently arrived on Game Pass. With the ability to play from the cloud with no download needed, plus the ability to play high spec Xbox Series X games on the older console, the offering on this service is a lot better value than it had been previously.

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