SAPD: Was it supposed to be a state-wide police force?

[The Mysterious One]

Here is what I never understood about the SAPD. First off, San Andreas was a state and each city had its own police department. Even the badlands like the countryside, mountains, desert, etc. had their police forces with their cowboy hats and driving SUVs in those areas. However, I was never sure what the deal about the SAPD was. Were they supposed to be the state police? They dressed like regular local police officers, not like state cops. Tenpenny and Pulaski were of the LSPD, so they represented their own city, and of course only appeared in other parts to give CJ missions and were seemingly on the run.

 

What do you think?

[Osho]

Yup. A state wide.

For more

Edited August 19, 2015 by Osho

[EekhoornSWAG]

Well, it could be an idea added late in development, because Police Mavericks first had "LSPD" standing on it! Enforcers still have "LSPD" on it!

[Helegad]

I believe the different police departments are just another unfinished feature. Aren't there also dedicated models for LSPD and LVPD motorbike officers in the game files that were never implemented?

Edited August 21, 2015 by Helegad

[Niko Montana]

Well I guess so. SAPD couldn't have stood for anything else except for "San Andreas Police Department".

[GreenOnions]

My guess is that they handled the rural area cops this way so they didn't have to make a separate SUV model for every little town. I suppose they could have divided the cops in rural areas by "county," (Bone County PD, Red County PD, etc.) but that probably would've been more trouble than it was worth.

 

Another oddity that's sort of related to this is how most of the vehicles in San Andreas have license plates with the name of the city (Los Santos, San Fierro, Las Venturas) rather than the State of San Andreas. Which kind of makes it seem like LS, SF, & LV are semi-independent city-states, while the "SAPD" patrols the areas between the three cities. Of course, I'm about 99.99% percent sure that I'm reading way, way, way too much into this, haha.

[Yorpie]

Yes, SAPD is basically the state police.

In the cities you have LSPD, SFPD and LVPD. Those rural cops with the cowboy hats and SUVs, those are SAPD, patrolling each area which does not have its own police force. The bike units and air support units are also part of the SAPD. I believe same goes for the boats. The FBI Truck and the S.W.A.T. tank are also SAPD vehicles, the Enforcers are however LSPD, so I guess both the LSPD and SAPD have their own SWAT. Its kind of a mess, tbh.

 

And yes there are seperate cop biker models for each city. There even is a desert variant of the cowboy cop, but he won't spawn unless mods are used.