You can’t have a Grand Theft Auto without a well-funded police force.
After all, who will chase you down and force you to jump off a bridge in hopes of escaping, if not the noble officers of the Los Santos Police Department?
Love or hate them, cops are a vital part of the experience in any GTA title – and GTA 5 is no exception.
The following mods offer numerous ways to improve your interactions with the police. There are better cars, more sophisticated prosecution systems – and even the possibility to play as a cop.
As a crime simulator, GTA5 is lacking in some of the finer details.
One example is kidnappings and hostage situations. You can grab someone to use them as a meat shield or steal a car with someone inside, but there’s much more to it in real life.
Arrest Peds V makes things a little more interesting by allowing you to hold people at gunpoint and give them orders like raising their hands or getting out of a car. In addition, you can handcuff them and take them to your vehicle.
Calls for disarming the police are commonplace after police brutality scandals come to light.
Unarmed Police gives us a privileged peek into this anarchist dream by taking all LSPD officers’ guns, leaving them to do their job with their bare hands.
Now, every arrest becomes a brawl – like Street Fighter, where Interpol prefers to send ‘roided out agents to take down criminals rather than gunning them down.
In addition to the Unarmed Police module, this mod can give the forces of order some unusual weaponry like baseball bats, golf clubs, grenade launchers, RPGs, and more.
If your concept of American police comes mainly from classic cop flicks, you picture them as cowboy-ish bad-asses like John Baxter in A Fistful of Dollars or Little Bill Daggett in Unforgiven.
That’s certainly not how most officers look nowadays, but you can recreate this attractive aesthetic with the help of this add-on.
Once installed, most police officers will be replaced by mustache-and-sideburns sporting cops dressed like the ones in GTA: Vice City. Even their weapons are replaced by old-school shotguns and revolvers!
I dream of an open-world game where every building can be accessed and explored, just like in real life.
All Police Stations Open does this for the police stations all around Los Santos, including the Davis Sheriff’s Station, the Vinewood Station, the Vespucci Station, and the La Mesa Station.
Now, you can bring the fight to the authorities or just revel in the fact that you’re a high-level criminal fooling around in the Police Station’s main room.
Long-time fans of GTA are familiar with Liberty City – the setting for GTA3, GTA4, GTA: Liberty City Stories, and many others.
Many gamers have become attached to this New York parody’s feeling and aesthetic. The Liberty City Vehicle & Ped Pack is one of the best ways to bring some of it into GTA 5.
This mod simply replaces many vehicles and pedestrians for their LC variants, including – of course – the police!
Let’s see if LCPD is any luckier at arresting the city’s top-wanted criminals than LSPD.
Cops act a little bit different in GTA5 than they have in previous installments.
Among other things, the police presence in Los Santos is greatly reduced compared to previous games – at least until you start committing crimes and they’re magically alerted to your activities.
If you want a bit more realism in your interactions with the police, Cops: Back on the Beat is a no-brainer.
This mod adds a ton more patrolling officers around town, both on foot and on their police cruisers. It enables a faster response if you commit a crime in these areas and forces you to be more careful with stolen vehicles.
Citizens of Los Santos have been complaining about the police being too militarized for years now.
To make the forces of order inspire a little less fear in the hearts of law-abiding citizens, the Los Santos Police Department has decided to roll out a new vehicle: the Nagasaki Pigeon.
This three-wheeled automobile copies the style of a Thai tuk-tuk. Well, it’s actually based on a Parking Enforcement vehicle from Westward Industries, but it’s pretty much the same thing.
This “car” features dirt mapping, breakable glass, rigged suspension, and many liveries.
If you want to overhaul the LSPD vehicle collection with something a little bit more… normal, then the LSPD Pack is the way to go.
This add-on gives every car in law enforcement garages an attractive makeover featuring detailed textures and gorgeous liveries. Even the inside of the vehicles looks fantastic!
Something I love about the LSPD Pack is the lore-friendly approach to updating GTA5’s police cars. These look absolutely amazing, and they won’t break your immersion.
This mod touches everything from the LSPD Stanier to the LSPD K9 Sadler and everything in-between, so you don’t have to worry about getting any other overhauls to match these designs.
Do you feel like you don’t get the attention you deserve despite repeated acts of terror all over the city?
Are you a masochist?
If any of the above rings true, then The Sixth Star is the mod for you.
This add-on makes police chases more exciting by replacing regular LSPD officers and vehicles with the army once you max out your Wanted level. Good luck outgunning a tank.
The Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat is one of Dodge’s most powerful and attractive cars.
This potent street car is hard to define. Thanks to its Charger pedigree, slick body shape, and supercharged HEMI V8 engine, it’s a sports car, a pony car, and a family sedan – all simultaneously.
This multifaceted beast is perfect for the police force of a place as wacky and dangerous as Los Santos.
You’ll love the HQ body and interior, working lights, and breakable glasses of this GTA 5 vehicle add-on, and it’ll make any high-speed chases 100% cooler.
While it’s definitely cool, the Dodge Charger is still within the realm of possibility in real life.
If you want something you’ll only see in a video game, consider the Bugatti Chiron.
Taken straight from NFS: Hot Pursuit, the Bugatti Chiron police car is the most potent automobile you’ll ever see the LSPD driving.
In real life, the Chiron’s capacity to reach 100km/h in less than 2.5 seconds and max speed of 420km/h would make high-speed chases a thing of the past – because they’d be over in a matter of seconds.
8. Mercedes-Benz AMG GTR (2017) Hot Pursuit Police Car
If you care more about style than performance, consider distributing the Mercedes-Benz AMG GTR among Los Santos’ police force.
Like our previous entry, this gorgeous supercar was ported over from NFS: Hot Pursuit. The attention to detail is obvious in the high-quality interior, the detailed engine model, and the many functional lights.
With a max speed of 320km/h, the Mercedes-Benz lags behind the Bugatti Chiron – but what it lacks in speed, it makes up for in style and comfort.
Once installed, you can be sure the LSPD officers driving it will do their job with gusto.
Lamborghini vehicles have been the go-to choice for police supercars ever since Dubai unveiled its elite police fleet of Lamborghini Aventadors back in 2012.
Now, Los Santos PD can celebrate founder Ferrucio Lamborghini’s 100th birthday with the Lamborghini Centenario – one of the boldest, most bad-ass vehicles ever made by the Italian manufacturer.
If I saw one of these in the rear view mirror during a police chase, I’d let myself get arrested just for a chance to ride this beauty.
Escaping the police is a staple of GTA games and a source of pure, unadulterated, high-adrenaline fun – but what about the other side of the equation?
LSPD: Dangerous Individuals lets you become a justice warrior and enjoy the action-packed fun of a police chase from law enforcement’s perspective.
This mod introduces intelligent and crafty criminals who’ll stop at nothing to outrun you. On the other hand, you have access to roadblocks, calls for backup, and all sorts of tools to help you catch your prey.
Thanks to three distinct game modes, you’ll enjoy a lot of gameplay variety.
The cops and criminals can use your add-on vehicles, too, so as long as you keep the mods coming, no two chases will be the same.
Something that can’t be missing from your arsenal while enjoying the previous mod or any other police roleplay add-on is the NFS Spike Mod.
As you probably guessed, this simple mod lets you deploy a row of spikes from the back of your vehicle to pop the tires of anyone unfortunate enough to fall into your trap.
It’s like a banana peel in Mario Kart, but considerably more bloody.
You can also deploy these on foot to set up a complex ambush, slow down the highway, or do anything you find entertaining to do with a row of iron spikes.
Chases in GTA 5 are fun and action-packed, but they’re not necessarily realistic.
If you want to feel like a real runaway criminal, you’ll find much to love in Better Chases +.
Among other things, this mod revamps the Wanted Level progression system, makes police response more proportional to the threat posed by the player, and adds an all-new Arrest Warrant system.
Thanks to Arrest Warrants, escaping a chase is no longer enough. They’ll still be on the lookout for you – as they should be – so you better not let them get a good look at your face to begin with.
One of the most valuable things in any GTA fan’s arsenal is a beefy cheat menu or trainer that gives you access to all vehicles, weapons, resources, and skills with just the click of a button.
PoliceMenu V brings the magic of cheat menus to LSPD, allowing you to produce any sort of police-issued tool from thin air.
LSPD First Response is the most ambitious and well-loved police roleplay mod ever created for GTA 5.
This mod allows you to live the life of an LSPD officer with incredible detail.
It’s not just high-speed chases and shootouts but investigations, negotiation, and a bit of the daily life of a cop in Los Santos.
One of my favorite features is the possibility of roleplaying a corrupt cop. You can let criminals get away with murder or send someone to jail just because they looked at you funny. Damn those hippies and their police brutality allegations.
There’s plenty to experience in LSPDFR, but once you’ve gotten used to it, you should definitely check out expansions such as:
Nelson Chitty is a Venezuelan expat living in Argentina. He’s a writer and translator passionate about history and foreign cultures. His ideal weekend is spent between leisurely playing games of Civilization VI and looking for the next seinen anime to marathon.
