The police department provides policing services to Vice City and responsible for enforcing laws within the city's jurisdiction. The department itself is heavily based on the Miami-Dade Police Department due to similarities in both uniform and vehicles that the officers use.
Police Stations
Seal of the VCPD
The department has four police stations located throughout the city with the department being headquartered in the Washington Beach Police Station, one of the police stations in the city. The other stations are located in Vice Point, Little Havana, and in Downtown.
Vehicles
The VCPD Cruiser is the primary car of the department. This car is from GTA VCS.
The VCPD's car of choice is the 1980's green and white VCPD Cruiser, which can obtained from every police station in the city. The player can steal one if they are not locked which sometimes, the cars will appear to be locked. The car is fast and light, prone to tip over easily if the car hits some sort of ramp. In Vice City Stories, officers can be seen traveling the streets on VCPD Wintergreens, a motorcycle that isn't featured in GTA Vice City.
The department also patrols Vice City's waters in Predators, chasing and shooting at the player if the player enters the waterways with a two-star wanted level. When the player reaches a three-star wanted level, officers on the ground will begin to deploy spike strips and road blocks, trying to stop the player if the player is driving a vehicle. Also around this level, they will call in a helicopter that will start deploying SWAT officers.
Officer Appearance
"Show me some ID."-VCPD Officer
An officer speaking to a pedestrian.
The officers themselves can be seen wearing a dark tan military style shirt, brown pants, and grey shoes. The only weapons that they carry is a nightstick and a pistol. They happen to travel alone in their cruisers, but will also be seen traveling in pairs if the player has a two-star wanted level. They also can be seen walking a foot beat on the streets, talking to pedestrians or chasing down criminals that they encounter. If the player is running on the streets with a wanted level, the nearest police officer on the street will give chase.
Branches
"Freeze. Fight!" -Vice Squad Agent
Vice City SWAT officer.
Besides them doing the work, they also house the Vice Squad, undercover officers that will appear in Cheetahs at a three-star wanted level and up. They are headquartered at the Little Havana Police Station, as in the PC version of the game, a Cheetah can be seen spawning there.
The Vice City SWAT team are headquartered in the Downtown Police Station. A Police Maverick can be seen spawning on the roof of the station. A cruiser is also parked on the west side of the building. They will appear chasing the player in Enforcers when the player reaches a four-star wanted level.
The FBI is another branch of the VCPD. There headquarters is unknown. It could be possible that they are located in the building where the FBI Washington is found, but this is uncertain. They will begin to chase the player in their FBI Ranchers, FBI Washingtons in GTA VCS, when the player reaches a five-star wanted level. Their ranchers will also replace both the Cruisers and the Enforcers in roadblocks. The agents are seen
FBI agents in Vice City.
weilding MP5s and are more dangerous on foot than the Army, despite the fact that each FBI Rancher that shows up is seen carrying four agents instead of two.
Although the Army isn't considered to be part of the VCPD, they show up in Rhinos and Barracks OLs if the player reaches a six-star wanted level. Even though the army isn't that dangerous on foot, they are dangerous to the player if the player is driving a vehicle, which will explode if it makes contact with a Rhino. The army is headquartered at Fort Baxter Air Base.
The VCPD in the game was mainly based on the Miami-Dade Metro Police Department. The livery of the VCPD Cruiser were based on the livery used on the marked patrol cars used in the Miami-Dade Metro Police Department in the 1980s.
The uniforms that the VCPD officers wear in the game, are identicial to the uniforms that Miami-Dade Metro Police officers wear.
Before the game's release, the VCPD Cruiser had a white body color, red and blue stripes running along the side. It was to resemble the 1980's Miami Beach Police Department's cars.
The police will still attack you if you recieve a wanted star in Vigilante missions.
The police will still attack you if you attack or fire a gun at a gang or pedestrian, reguardless if it was in self-defense.
Some members of Diaz's Gang can be seen chasing you in VCPD Cheetahs if you have a three-star wanted level. This probably indicates that a small portion of Diaz's Gang are undercover cops.
There is a glitch in the game that makes a cop a "Super" one. This glitch happens when the pursuing the officer "teleports" or slide to the player's vehicle and immediately arrests them. This is commonly known as the "Super Cop" glitch.
Gallery
Tommy wearing the Cop Outfit.
A police chase involving the police to use their spike strips to stop the player.
Tommy attacking officers in GTA Vice City.
VCPD Wintergreen in GTA Vice City Stories.
Vice Squad in GTA Vice City.
VCPD Cheetah in GTA Vice City. Notice the red strobe light on the dashboard on the passenger side.
Little Havana Police Station.
Downtown Police Station.
A motor officer patroling the streets in GTA Vice City Stories.
Washington Beach Station in Vice City.
Vice Point Police Station.
Fort Baxter Military, another law enforcement branch of the VCPD
Artwork of VCPD officers from GTA Vice City Stories.
