Public-order missions count specialist people as well as vehicles. Empty seats and unassigned qualifications do not satisfy those counts.
Plan the team before the carriers
Public order expansion is a personnel project as much as a vehicle project. A PSU Carrier may have nine seats, but those seats are useful only when the correct officers are assigned and available. Start by listing the trained roles needed for your representative incident, then decide how those people will travel.
Our recommendation is to keep ordinary patrol response available while building a dedicated public-order group. Train a usable first team before spreading partial teams across several stations. Add a second group when overlap is common, rather than buying additional carriers that depend on the same few qualified officers.
What the official UK vehicle FAQ establishes
- PSU Carrier can carry up to nine officers; the published range is 1–9 crew.
- Multiple Dog Carrier can provide four dogs at maximum crew size and uses Dog handling education.
- Detention Van carries up to four prisoners and has a dedicated parking constraint.
- Mounted Unit carries up to eight mounted officers and requires Mounted Training.
- The FAQ lists Police & Public Safety extension access for these units. Check the current UK market because this help page predates later police additions.
A small disorder mission can expose a large staffing gap
Rival Fans Mass Disorder (Small), mission 608, lists twelve Police Stations and two public-order extensions. Its available-personnel conditions include 20 Level 2 Public Order Officers, five Police Medics and three Police Sergeants.
The on-scene requirement is different: twelve Level 2 Public Order Officers, two Police Medics and one Police Sergeant, alongside six Police Cars and one DSU. There may be up to two prisoners and one or two patients. Sending six unqualified patrol cars therefore addresses only one part of the incident.
Recommended commissioning and troubleshooting
- Use the live academy to verify the intended qualifications and train the required roles.
- Assign staff deliberately to the vehicles that your alarm rule actually chooses.
- Check vehicle counts and educated-person counts independently.
- Prepare prisoner transport and available custody capacity before a larger public-order test.
- Keep medical response in reach for patients created by the incident.
- If a role remains missing, inspect the people physically on scene before purchasing another carrier.
Scale for simultaneous demand
A large depot is an infrastructure option, not proof that an account needs one. The official UK depot FAQ lists one depot per fifty Police Stations and a 1,000,000-credit base price; confirm the current build menu before budgeting. Smaller, fully staffed regional groups may solve travel delays more effectively than centralising every specialist.
Do not assume multi-trained officers can fill every specialist role simultaneously. Test the actual team on an incident and keep a record of what the game counts. Public forum discussions about changing education conflicts are proposals or reports until the current behaviour is verified.
Sources and further reading
Latest editorial change: Added an answer-first summary, action checklist and related planning/reference link. Detailed source dates remain independent.
Official sources establish game rules; practical build orders and planning examples are TKB recommendations. Follow the UK game’s current requirement panel where a later update differs.