Tips & Tricks - SC4 Public Safety (MAXIS)

Riots are caused by a low Mayor Rating. Basically, your local population has gotten fed up with things and have decided to vent their frustration on your city. Police can stop riots by being dispatched to the scene. Riots need to be surrounded by police dispatches in order to suppress them. Sometimes riots will settle down on their own accord, but don't depend on it.

Reducing Crime
Education, education, education! Police keep crime in check by catching criminals and jailing them, but to truly solve your crime problems, your Sims need to hit the books. Economics slumps will cause crime to spike as well, so keep your economy in the black.

When to Place Jails
Each police station has some capacity to jail inmates. Once this is exceeded, it's time to start thinking about jails. You can get by in most cities to at least 50,000 residential population before ever needing a city jail. Check on just how full your police stations and jails are by querying them.

Dispatching Police
Each police station has a certain number of dispatches: 2 for a small station and 4 for a large. These dispatches can be used to put down riots as well as catching criminals in the act. The Police Dispatch is available by clicking on the Emergency Tools button under Mayor Mode. Riots need to be surrounded by dispatches in order to suppress them. Underfunded dispatches are significantly less effective in suppressing riots.

Prevention
The best way to prevent fires is to make sure your city is adequately protected by fire stations. If you can't afford to blanket your entire city with fire stations, concentrate your firehouses in areas of high flammability, usually your industrial zones. In addition, water your city to reduce your fire risk. Abandoned buildings greatly increase your risk of fires starting, mostly due to arson.

Dispatching
If a fire does break out in your city, try to dispatch fire trucks as quickly as possible. You have only so much time before the fire consumes the building or, even worse, spreads to other buildings. The sooner the fire trucks reach the fire, the more likely they'll put out the fire before it can do more damage. Your best chance to extinguish the blaze if the fire trucks can reach the fire with their hoses.