The Liberty City Police Department (LCPD) is the police department for Liberty City in Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto Advance and Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, which all share similar renditions of Liberty City.
Description[]
Since Liberty City is based on New York City, the LCPD is evidently based on the New York Police Department (NYPD), sharing various characteristics with its real-life counterpart.
Structure[]
There are five known police officers in the LCPD: Police chief Jim Ramirez, Leon McAffrey, Ray Machowski, Ray Machowski's Partner and Tanner. They keep track on the criminal elements in Liberty City. In 1998 they were tracking Vincenzo Cilli, Toni Cipriani and Salvatore Leone. In 2001 they continued to track Toni and Salvatore, but also concentrated on Joey Leone and Luigi Goterelli along with investigating the gang problems in the city. The LCPD appears to be under funded by Mayor Miles O'Donovan, as they only received helicopters in April 2001.[1] This creates an inconsistency, as in GTA Liberty City Stories (which takes place in 1998) the LCPD freely uses as many helicopters as necessary when chasing down the player.
Leon McAffrey was a corrupt police officer, who was involved in selling stories to Ned Burner of the Liberty Tree newspaper and in helping various gangs. The first can be seen on the GTA Liberty City Stories website, whereas the second can be seen during GTA Liberty City Stories (as he helps the Leone Family and the Uptown Yardies). An investigation was launched into the corruption within the LCPD, and McAffrey is placed under arrest.
Ray Machowski, another corrupt police officer, was straight but later became a corrupt officer under the influence of McAffrey. He began to work with the Yakuza, but in 2001, Leon McAffrey threatened to turn state evidence against him. He employed Claude to kill McAffrey and then assisted him in Ray's escape from the city. Moreover, Ray also had a partner that he suspected of being a rat, so he hired Claude to take him down as well.
Tanner was working undercover as a driver for the Yakuza, until Asuka Kasen figured out his true colours. Claude was ordered to kill him.
Divisions[]
Special Weapons and Tactics[]
The police department houses a Special Weapons and Tactics, which appears at the four-star wanted level. These highly trained officers travel in fours in the fast and durable Enforcer, wielding Uzis. They will spawn alongside the police cruisers in four-star-wanted level. In GTA Liberty City Stories, when the player stays in one place at a four-star wanted level, S.W.A.T. officers will rappel down from the police helicopters. They are lethal to a player on-foot, even with armor, and can destroy a car in a matter of seconds.The S.W.A.T. team is based in the Liberty City SWAT Headquarters, located next to the Staunton Island Police Headquarters.
Stations[]
LCPD stations can be found in the following places:
- Station in Portland View, Portland.
- Headquarter in Torrington, Staunton Island.
- Station in Pike Creek, Shoreside Vale.
Grand Theft Auto III[]
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories[]
Equipment[]
Uniforms[]
In GTA III and GTA Liberty City Stories, LCPD officers wear uniforms consisting of a navy blue jacket over their uniform with their gold badge in the front and long navy blue pants. LCPD officers also have a navy blue cap with a gold cap badge on the front. The shirt color is black in GTA III and blue in GTA Liberty City Stories.
Vehicles[]
The LCPD's vehicle of choice tends to be the "Police", a generic squad car, and a police helicopter (which appears an unnamed and uncontrollable police helicopter in GTA III, and a Police Maverick in GTA Liberty City Stories), and the Predator for maritime pursuits. The SWAT branch operates Enforcers.
The livery of the police car varies between the three games. In GTA III and GTA Advance, police cars are depicted with a panda-like black and white color scheme, which looks similar to the LAPD livery. The police car in GTA Liberty City Stories, however, features a black body and white roof, with a pair of horizontal white strips. The GTA III and GTA Liberty City Stories renditions feature "LCPD" and "Police" text on the sides, and the trunk and boot lids, respectively.
Grand Theft Auto III[]
Grand Theft Auto Advance[]
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories[]
Weapons[]
The standard weapon of the LCPD in all of the GTA III era games is the pistol, which in GTA III and GTA Advance is based on an M1911, and the Glock 17 in GTA Liberty City Stories. Note that in some missions, they use different weapons: for example, some officers carry shotguns in GTA III's mission Decoy, and SMGs in Liberty City Stories' mission The Guns of Leone.
Grand Theft Auto III[]
Grand Theft Auto Advance[]
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories[]
Development[]
In the beta versions of GTA III, the LCPD had a much different appearance. Vehicles (the police car, and the Enforcer) had a blue-white color scheme, based on the color scheme used by the NYPD during the 1990s. Officers originally had mustaches; there was also an army helicopter (which would eventually become the Hunter) that may have been used alongside of the LCPD in higher wanted levels.
The blue and white colors were reminiscent to that of the NYPD, which the LCPD is based on. Changes were made after the 9/11 attacks, likely out of respect for the emergency personnel who responded to the tragedy. However, the blue-white scheme on the helicopters is still used in the game. The beta LCPD still appears in the instruction manual of the original PS2 version. There is also an unused LCPD skin in the game files.
During the development of GTA Liberty City Stories, the LCPD were originally going to use the baby-blue/white color scheme as well as the template used in the 1990s by the NYPD. However, at some point in development, the color scheme was changed back to black and white, but the template still remained.
Prominent Appearances in Missions[]
Grand Theft Auto III[]
Note: Unlike other gang appearances, police appears in almost all missions of GTA III if the player commits a crime during the mission. This is the mission appearance list for the police appearing without the player committing an unnecessary crime.
- Introduction
- Give Me Liberty
- Van Heist
- The Getaway
- Chaperone
- Two-Faced Tanner
- Kanbu Bust-out
- Silence the Sneak
- Evidence Dash
- Plaster Blaster
- A Drop in the Ocean
- Decoy
- S.A.M.
Grand Theft Auto Advance[]
- Hot Wheels
- Fake IDs
- Getaway
- Grand Opening
- Political Will
- Factory Wages
- Ante Up
- Bad Pimpin'
- Freedom Flies
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories[]
- Smash and Grab
- Hot Wheels
- Don in 60 Seconds
- Dead Meat
- Shop 'til You Strop
- Contra-Banned
- The Guns of Leone
- The Made Man
- Driving Mr Leone
- A Walk in the Park
- The Morgue Party Candidate
- Search and Rescue
- L.C. Confidential
- Karmageddon
- Love on the Rocks
- Rough Justice
- Dead Reckoning
- Shogun Showdown
- Morgue Party Resurrection
- The Shoreside Redemption
Scanner codes (GTA III)[]
- 10-3 (firearm homicide)
- 10-9 (running a red light; unused)
- 10-11 (firearm going off)
- 10-29 (reckless driving)
- 10-48 (trying to hit a cop, speeding)
- 10-50 (civilian on fire, melee assault)
- 10-55 (assault on police officer)
- 10-65 (stolen vehicle; vehicle on fire)
- 10-73 (vehicular manslaughter)
- 10-74 (vehicular assault on police officer)
- 10-92 (destroyed aircraft)
Gallery[]
Grand Theft Auto III[]
.jpg "LCPD (GTA3).jpg (49 KB)")
.jpg "SWAT Team (GTA3).jpg (215 KB)")
Grand Theft Auto Advance[]
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories[]
.jpg "SWAT (GTALCS).jpg (25 KB)")
Trivia[]
- The logo for LCPD is an exact copy of the NYPD logo, except that it says "Liberty City" rather than "City of New York".
- In Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition and mobile versions of GTA Liberty City Stories, the logo for LCPD was changed to match the logo for its HD Universe counterpart; however, this may be a Grove Street Games oversight similar to using FIB textures instead of FBI in the 10th anniversary edition.
- LCPD might have been originally called just LPD (Liberty Police Department), as evidenced in GTA III mission Payday for Ray, where Asuka refers to Ray as a 'friend in the LPD'.
- In GTA III, the LCPD will only address crime in which the protagonist is personally involved in.
- According to the Liberty City's Finest recruitment radio ads in GTA Liberty City Stories, new police recruits go through two weeks of training before becoming police officers.
