CHAPTER 1 – Open World Crime
Open world crime is everywhere. Whenever someone rams a window or garage, mugs a pedestrian, steals a car, delivers a stolen vehicle to a chop shop, or destroys a vehicle in-game, they are committing an open world crime. Most of the time, open world crime is committed with the sole intent of making money.
Generally speaking, your everyday criminal lacks organization, situational awareness, and the ability to effectively defend themselves from ambush. All of these factors allow us to effectively ambush and eliminate criminals partaking in open world crime.
Basics of Witnessing
In order to initiate a witness mission, several factors must be present. First, a criminal who is carrying a value of $100 or more in cash, items, or both, must commit a crime. When this occurs, an icon of handcuffs will appear to the right of their nameplate. If a criminal has more than $2,500 on them in cash, items, or both, they are permanently witness-able and you will always see the handcuff icon over their head.
While the handcuff icon appears next to the criminal’s name, you are able to put your crosshair or dot over their body or vehicle (if they are in one) and hit your Left-ALT key. This will initiate the witness mission.
When you put your crosshair over the criminal, before you witness them, you are able to see how much money (cash and value of goods) they have on them.
Once you witness a criminal, you and your group are automatically placed into a mission against them and their group. You then have to recover the money from the individual you witnessed and turn it in to your drop off before time runs out. If you turn the money in to your drop off before time runs out, you will get to keep the money. If they turn the money in to their drop off before time runs out, they will get to keep the money. If neither team drops the money off before time runs out, the money is lost and neither team will get it.
Your multiplier plays a major role in how much money you receive from witness missions. The table below shows the enforcer multiplier based on prestige level.
| 2 Prestige | x 1.0 |
| 3 Prestige | x 1.5 |
| 4 Prestige | x 1.8 |
| 5 Prestige | x 2.0 |
When a witness mission ends, the total amount of money is divided between each team member, then each individual’s multiplier determines how much they receive. This means that if a team of two wins a witness mission and receives a total of $1,000, the following will apply.
Officer #1 has a prestige level of 3. This means he has a 1.5x multiplier.
Officer #2 has a prestige level of 4. This means he has a 1.8x multiplier.
Each officer will receive $500, which is then multiplied by their multiplier.
After the division of money and multiplication:
Officer #1 receives $750 and Officer #2 receives $900.
Premium does not affect the amount of money you receive from a witness mission. It only applies to the kills you score during the witness mission.
Ramraiding
Ram raiding is defined as ramming a vehicle into a storefront or garage and stealing the items that were inside.
Once the criminal fills their vehicle, they head back to one of the criminal contacts, which in this case is known as a “fence”. They proceed to deliver the stolen items to the fence for money. This money then goes on their character and they carry it around on them until delivered to the laundry.
It isn’t uncommon to see criminals ram raiding on streets that have many storefronts and garages, and it’s especially common to see them doing so near a contact.
Ramraiding with Stolen Vehicles
When criminals ram raid with stolen vehicles, the items they steal that are inside the van don’t count toward their estimated cash value. This means that if you witness a criminal who has items in their stolen vehicle, the items don’t convert to cash and will stay inside the vehicle. Because of this, it is better to wait until a criminal has turned in all stolen items from their stolen van.
Ramraiding with Deployed Vehicles
When criminals ram raid with deployed vehicles, the items they steal that are inside the van will count toward their estimated cash value. This means that if you witness a criminal who has items in their deployed vehicle, the items will convert to cash and will disappear from the vehicle.
“Bankers”
The more organized criminals sometimes use a system where one member of the group is considered the “banker”. The banker’s job is to unload items from all the group member’s vehicles and turn them in to the fence.
The banker’s responsibility is to hold onto the entire group’s money and stay hidden in a particular contact until the group is ready to turn in.
Telltale signs of groups using bankers include:
- Putting up no resistance when witnessed, even for several thousand dollars.
- Putting up some resistance when witnessed, but one particular group member is nowhere to be found.
- Multiple vehicles ram raiding and turning in at the same contact.
- Ram raiders who have been ram raiding for a while, without visiting the laundry, but have little to no money on them.
There are two effective ways to counter the banker system. They include:
1. Waiting for the banker to hit the laundry and witnessing them there.
2. Staking out the contact where the banker is located and raiding it after all of the group members leave.
The first method is risky because the group will tend to follow the banker during a turn-in. Unless we have equal or greater numbers waiting at the laundry, things can go sour in a hurry.
The second method is a lot safer. Waiting for the ram raiders to leave the contact means that the banker will be alone. Assaulting the banker and heading to the drop off before the other group members can be dispatched is a great way to snatch a large amount of money out of the criminal’s hands with little to no resistance.
Mugging
Mugging civilians is another way that criminals can make money quickly. The reason it isn’t more popular than ram raiding, is because unlike ram raiding, their notoriety continues to rise until they get a bounty.
With recent updates, bounties are no longer visible on the map and they cannot be killed outside of missions in mission districts. The notification of their bounty and record of it will still appear in the “District Messages” section of your map.
Criminals can carry a total of 50 small ticket items on them before they have to deliver them to a fence.
Some civilians will drop medium-sized items such as suitcases, so it’s not completely uncommon to see a criminal with a van nearby while mugging.
Criminals will often go to uncommonly treaded areas such as shopping malls and back alleys to mug. This is because there are often a lot of civilians in the area, and enforcers aren’t likely to find them committing the crime.
The best way to catch a mugger is to listen for the “squeaky noise” that is made when items are dropped.
Carjacking
Carjacking is the most common crime committed in San Paro. This is because criminals need to get where they want to go, and quickly. Whether they’re in a mission, ram raiding, mugging, or doing anything in between, they’re always in need of transportation, and stealing a vehicle is easier than spawning one of their own.
Chop Shopping
Chop shopping is the act of turning a stolen vehicle in to a chop shop. In real life, chop shops take stolen vehicles, strip them of all their valuable parts, then sell the parts.
Destruction of Vehicles
Most criminals don’t know this, but if they destroy a vehicle, even if it’s their own deployed vehicle, and they have more than $100 on them in cash and/or items, they become witness-able. Sometimes antagonizing a criminal into blowing up a car is an easy way to witness them.
Forced Crime
Sometimes you’ve got a ramraider that’s just too spooked to commit a crime. Perhaps they saw you drive by, or you’ve made yourself too obvious. Forced crime can be the solution.
Forced crime is the act of ramming a criminal’s vehicle into a window or garage in order to witness them.
Even if they aren’t in the vehicle anymore, in many cases you can still ram their vehicle into a window or garage and cause it to break. Once this happens, handcuffs will pop up over the head of the criminal, and you will be able to witness them. (Assuming they have $100 or more in cash and/or items)
CHAPTER 2 – Patrol & Laundry
Patrol Procedures
One of our goals is to be the most conspicuous enforcer clans in APB. Our vehicles, uniforms, and name all discourage criminal activity. When we enter a server, the criminals run to the laundry.
There are two equally important roles when going after open world crime. Patrol and Laundry. This section is dedicated to the patrol portion of the fight against open world crime.
Because criminals are forced to deliver stolen goods to their contacts, also known as “fences”, in order to receive money, they usually commit crimes close to their contacts. This makes criminal contact locations hotspots for criminal activity.
It is advised when patrolling districts to frequently check criminal contacts and the areas around them for any criminal activities.
Officers are encouraged to be as unsystematic as possible when patrolling San Paro. If you patrol according to a predictable, set pattern, criminals will be able to predict where you may be and may modify their habits to avoid patrol routes.
When selecting districts to patrol, try to think like a criminal. The less police, the less likely you are to be witnessed. This means that if you find a server with 0 enforcers and 1 or more criminals, you should always check it out, as there’s a good chance someone is ram raiding.
If you find broken windows or hear the squeaky noise, follow the trail of breadcrumbs until you find your criminal. If you suspect an individual is part of a large group, call for backup and wait until it arrives before witnessing them.
Always patrol in groups of two. It’s always ideal to have a driver and a gunner, so you can effectively stop a retreating vehicle and return fire if being fired upon.
Sometimes when you find a ram raider who doesn’t have much money, it’s best to let them continue building up money. If you don’t catch them on your next sweep around the district, laundry will catch them and it will be with a substantially higher amount of money.
Laundry Procedures
Although slower, laundry duty is equally important as, if not more important than, patrol duty. The entire purpose of laundry duty is to catch anyone that patrol missed or let go before they turn in their big money.
In order to cash in the money they receive for “fencing” stolen items, criminals must visit the laundry. There is only one laundry per map, so we know right off the bat where they have to go to cash in.
All officers will eventually pull laundry duty, and will inevitably get bored. They need to keep in mind that stealth and focus are extremely important. The second they look away, a criminal may walk right by. The second they fire a shot, a criminal may hear it and sneak around.
Officers should not play the in-game radio in their vehicles. This is because if a criminal approaches the laundry and hears music, they will know that someone is or was there, and they may get spooked.
Like in patrols, while staking out money laundries you must be unsystematic and completely random as to where you watch.
Be sure to park your vehicle in an area where it is readily available to you, but is out of view for criminals who are entering the laundry.
Remember that the more organized high-rolling criminals will always be more cautious, and will often take back alleys to try and avoid being witnessed. We need to be equally sly, and we need to always cover as many areas of approach as possible.
Sometimes psychological warfare works great against criminals, especially the ones who know they can’t stand up to an organized force like us. Heading to the laundry and announcing our presence in a server, especially if it had 0 enforcers before we entered, is a great way to cause criminals to flock straight to the laundry.
Likewise, if someone announces our presence at the laundry, it may cause criminals to continue ram raiding in hopes that we will grow bored and leave. If they do avoid the laundry, it will allow patrol to make bigger busts.
We have seen instances where criminals will scout the laundry before their group-mates make a drop and they will try to grief and distract us so their friend could slip through. Try to keep vigilant even when being harassed at the laundry.