Liberty City Police Department (3D Universe)

''For the LCPD in the HD Universe, see Liberty City Police Department (HD Universe). For information about how the LCPD pursuit the player, see Wanted Level in 3D Universe.'' 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.

Like GTA police departments are based on other renditions of cities and that 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 counterpart.

Equipment
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. LCPD stations can be found in the following places:


 * Portland View, Portland Island
 * Torrington, Staunton Island (headquarters)
 * Pike Creek, Shoreside Vale

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.

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 Liberty City Stories. The SWAT division's standard weapon is the Micro-Uzi in GTA III and GTA Advance, and the Micro-SMG in Liberty City Stories. The only part of any GTA III Era game where the LCPD uses any different weapons is in the Liberty City Stories mission, The Guns of Leone, where they use MP5s.

Development
In the beta versions of GTA III, the LCPD had different appearances. Vehicles (the police car, and the Enforcer) had a blue-white color scheme. Officers originally had mustaches. And there was an army helicopter 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 from which the LCPD is based on. Changes to the final designs may have been linked to the September 11 Attacks in 2001. However the beta depictions on the helicopters still exist in-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.

Prominent LCPD members
There are three known police officers in the LCPD: Police chief Jim Ramirez, Leon McAffrey and Ray Machowski. 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.

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.