Guide to Internal Affairs

[bryanayalalugo]

Here's some tips as to how to do Internal Affairs at a reasonable manner that will at least help you be listened or not be considered as incompetent.

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Appearance:

As a IAA, appearance is able to make you look more credible and less likely to be ignored, keep in mind the following: Name, clothing, and body appearance.

Name: A name that isn't memey or isn't too weird will make you less likely to be seen as a joke.

Clothing: 

• Dos
  • Wear muted color clothing, such as suits - Darker clothing, especially business suits or similar variations will help you look more that you are intending to work and not waste time.
    • Recommended clothing includes: All dark colored suits, suit jackets, laceup or brown shoes, white gloves, leather satchel (grey satchel is also a alternative, but may make you be associated with assistants).
• Don'ts
  • Do not wear clothing associated with civilians or other departments - Civilian clothing tends to look unprofessional (especially the grey jumpsuit), along with other department clothing which will make you look less competent or not serious at all.
    • Avoid gloves that are not white gloves. Wearing insulated gloves, which is not part of the IAA description, makes you seem more like greytide.
    • Avoid hats all together. If you have a somewhat reasonable hat, such as bowler hat, fez, boater hat or similar, do not use it while attending to business.
    • Avoid shoes that are not the brown or laceup ones.
    • Avoid the grey backpack, it seems too ugly and usually associated with assistants.
    • Avoid accessories that stand out too much.
    • Avoid wearing belts. None of them will go with any suit.
    • Avoid any armor/jackets that are not the suit ones.

Body Appearance: Don't stand out too much, never use neon or overly bright colors for your character's body, along with any overly large, spiky, or weird hair/facial styles. A bright green neon vulpkanin, with a huge neon pink afro, IAA is less likely to be listened to compared to a vulpkanin with light brown colored fur and a short or normal looking hairstyle that is a also a IAA.

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Cases

As a Internal Affairs Agent, you are expected to see to certain cases. Unfortunately, cases tend to last too long or information ends up not being given or it's sources goes missing, you have to remember to be both efficient as best as you can, along with making sure that you don't waste time with unreasonable cases.

Remember to get as much information as possible, and quickly, before it goes missing and record it!

All involved parties should be interviewed or it may look biased!

Remember the following points to ask for at the beginning of the investigation for all parties: Who is involved, when did this happened, where did this happened, what exactly happened, how can it be resolved, and why did it happened?

• Reasonable Cases: These are cases that have some merit on being investigated and will most likely get results if investigated and dealt properly.
  • Command Incompetence: Usually a command member doesn't know what they are doing, are breaking Space Law and or Standard Operating Procedures, or has done no work at all. Recommendations for how to deal with it includes, depending the severity: Demotion, reprimand, or having the Captain, or a higher level official, to speak to the command member.
  • Crew complaint: Usually done because  two or more parties are at a conflict, usually at the expense of the other. These recommendations includes: Exchange of money, having the parties involved to talk it out, demotion (if the conflict is caused within the same department for the involved parties) or brigging (if a crime is actually involved).
  • Break of the Standard Operating Procedures: With exception of certain circumstances, SOP should be avoided on being broken. If there is a emergency, the breaking of SOP is fine as long as it doesn't have a severe effect on the station or the crew. Recommendations for a illegal SOP break includes: Brigging (if a crime is involved), demotion, or a reprimand.
• Unreasonable Cases:
  • Dumb or unreasonable complainer: Usually the one who is complaining is straight out salty, an example is a legal brigging, and clearly wants revenge for having faced a legal procedure. It is recommended to at least listen to them, but at most you could just make a note of it to the relevant staff and/or tell them there is no grounds to continue the case.
  • Legal Break of Standard Operating Procedures: In extreme cases, SOP is fine to be broken as long as there are severe circumstances present, such as a bio hazard and guns are needed for the crew to deal with it. Please note however that certain SOP should not be broken at all, due to the consequences it may have on the station. Examples include the bio hazard handling procedures and unmerited tampering with the AI (such as giving them dumb free form laws).

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Central Command:

You have access to a fax machine that can contact Central Command, remember the following tips.

• Dos:
  • Keep your forms short and concise, remember that Central Command (aka admins) usually are busy seeing to other things, keep it short with a quick summary, along with a quick recommendation, request of action, or question.
  • Remember to stamp, sign, and add a time stamp. It makes your forms more official, along with making it more credible to be read.
  • Remember to label your paper. By default, the normal paper shows up as 'paper', by right clicking it, you get the option to relabel it. It is recommended that you give a title that includes: The station's name, the department it is from, and what the paper will be on. (e.g. NSS Cyberiad - Internal Affairs - Captain Incompetence).
• Dont's
  • Never EVER send a butt picture to Central Command, you will die, be demoted, cluwned, or worse: Be ignored for the rest of the shift.
  • Don't send trivial cases to Central Command, such as a complaint of the clown calling a crewmember as fat, such issues can be deal with the station command staff.
  • Don't ask for stuff that are not bureaucratic in nature (a good example is asking Central Command to have the Captain to comply for a legal investigation, a bad example is asking for a bike from Central Command).
  • Do not let any other crewmember use your fax machine. Only authorized personnel, such as yourself, the Magistrate, Head of Security, Captain, Head of Personnel, and Nanotrasen Representative, should be given the chance to use it. Any other crewmember usually has no business contacting Central Command.
• Chain of Command:
  • Remember that all legitimate issues, especially severe ones, should be dealt with on the station first, specifically by the command staff. If a command member doesn't resolve the issue, despite having the time and resources to, the issue should be taken the Captain, the issue becoming a failure to perform their duties within a reasonable window. If the Captain fails to deal with it, then it becomes a failure to peform their duties on remedying their command staff and should have Central Command informed about it.
  • Example: A issue of constant workplace harassment within the station can become more and more severe towards the command staff if not dealt with, as they have failed to managed their department.
  • Note! Reporting a failure to perform duties of a command staff should avoided if the initial issue is not severe enough (the janitor not using signs when mopping in green alert is a bad example, station engineers not working at all to deal with severe damages, the Chief Engineer ignoring it, and the Captain also ignoring it is a good example).

 

 

[BryanR]

Sihsse's Tips and Tricks of Being a Professional Internal Affairs Agent

First and foremost All Internal Affairs Agents must remember that your greatest asset in performing your duty is that the crew sees you as someone who is professional and can be trusted to handle their issues. If you act biased, unprofessional, or you lack sufficient knowledge in Space Law or Standard Operating Procedure, the crew are less likely to seek you out to resolve their issues or even ignore you outright. At worst you can be deemed a hindrance to productivity and may lose your position.

• Make the crew aware that Internal Affairs is open and operating. This can easily be accomplished by stopping by the Head of Personnel's Office and asking them to broadcast a station wide message on your behalf. Failing that putting up a few papers on the airlock can also let crew know that Internal Affairs is there to help, not as effective as an announcement however something is better than nothing.
• Get in contact with the Magistrate and NanoTrasen Representative.The former is your boss and can often refer cases to your office or asking you to keep an eye on things, your boss is also a very good source of information and will provide their own opinions on Space Law and Standard Operating Procedure when you're unsure of how to proceed. The NanoTrasen Representative is very interested in Standard Operating Procedure and making sure the Station functions properly, if you have complaints about a member of Command its always important to forward those to the Representative to handle if there is one on board before attempting to handle it yourself. They can also be an excellent source of cases should something between crew is brought to their attention or a department needs checked in on.
• Standard Operating Procedure: Guidelines for a better Station. Standard Operating Procedure is definitely important, however you have to remember first and foremost that they're A Set of Guidelines and Not a Checklist for Firing Someone. While someone can be fired for violation of Standard Operating Procedure you have to look at the context in which it is broken. If Genetics are handing out genetic powers to civilians without authorization, is it because they're giving them to friends for fun or is it to help bolster the crew against the Terror Spiders that are currently rampaging. Context is king in assessing a situation and the two questions you should ask yourself are always "Is the effect for the benefit of the station?" and "Is this action hurting the station and causing issues?"
• Politeness, the Strongest Weapon in your Arsenal. Being polite and cordial when approaching someone will have a multitude of effects. Not only will you often receive a much more open reception when asking questions and investigating, if an individual is being unreasonable and hostile towards you it strengthens your position when you need it. Nobody enjoys someone who screams and tries to flout authority, make sure you don't slip in to this category.
• Knowledge is Power. One of your greatest assets is the extensive library of Standard Operating Procedure and Space Law within your Office. You're expected to have a firm grasp of Space Law and Standard Operating Procedure for various departments however no single agent can remember every single procedure for every single department. If you need a refresher or you haven't memorized the SoP for a particular department it never hurts to carry a few books with you, especially Space Law and Legal Operating Procedure when you're hanging around the Brig.
• Legal Therapist with Paperwork. Sometimes an issue that crew brings to you isn't sufficient to warrant an investigation or even intervention from you and they're just looking to complain to you about it. Be open and receptive to their complaints, let them know they you're there for them and that you'll try to do something to curb the problem that they're having or even offer advice to them on how to avoid or resolve their conflict with a co-worker who is an asshole. Not only will they appreciate being able to complain but they'll thank you for your time and you'll build a stronger more positive relationship with the crew.
• Reputation is Important. If you're fresh and new to the Internal Affairs game, you won't get a lot of cases to handle. Keep your nose to the grindstone and build your reputation shift by shift and eventually you'll be known as that Agent who not only crew will listen to but even Security will come and ask for your opinion regarding things they're unsure of. With a good reputation for impartiality, friendliness, and strong knowledge in your field, you can even have Command seeking you out for issues that require your solid judgement.
• Demotions and Where You Fit In. A good Agent never threatens someone with demotion or demands the demotion of crew. If you believe an individual is a detriment to the department and is violating Standard Operating Procedure in a way that harms it, the best course of action is to seek out their Department Head and speak to them about your concerns. If you're unable to or they're busy, writing a simple report and faxing it to the appropriate Command member for their review will let you accomplish the same thing.
• Staving off Boredom. One of the biggest issues Internal Affairs have is what to do between cases. Brush up on Standard Operating Procedure and Space Law while sitting in processing. It gives you a chance to see how Security is performing and offers opportunities to give advice if you see something that perhaps a new Security Officer is doing that could be done better. Visit departments and watch them work, get a feel of when a department is operating good and when a department is operating poorly. You can even send a status report to Central Command if there isn't a NanoTrasen Representative to do so or just shoot off a pleasant message to inform them that you're there.

A Final Word. Internal Affairs Agents are there as problem solvers on behalf of Central Command and NanoTrasen, you're there to make sure the station functions properly and that the crew are at least doing their jobs to a reasonable extent. A good Internal Affairs Agent can handle a myriad of issues on station without Central Command even knowing there was a problem to begin with and knows when to shoot off a fax to the big bosses when the problem is beyond their capabilities. Always exhaust every option available to you in contacting the appropriate Command Members before grabbing the attention of the big guys at Central Command. Having the Magistrate and/or NanoTrasen Representative add their signature and stamps to your report can also lend it considerable weight and show its something that needs their attention.