This is the Police

This Is the Police PC is a single-player strategy adventure that combines police-department management, crime investigation, and branching narrative decisions. Steam and Epic currently list the game under its original title, with no verified storefront rebrand or replacement edition. You play Jack Boyd, the chief of Freeburg Police Department, as he balances daily emergencies, staff problems, City Hall pressure, organized crime, and a personal financial goal.

Running Freeburg from the dispatch desk

The main perspective is an isometric city map presented through a clean interface rather than a first-person patrol view. Each day, police calls appear across Freeburg. You choose which officers and detectives to send, judge whether their experience and condition suit the situation, and decide how much of your force can be committed without leaving the city exposed.

Cases range from minor disturbances to robberies, assaults, hostage situations, and larger emergencies. Assignments take time to resolve, so every dispatch creates a tradeoff between immediate response and future availability. Officers can become tired, injured, unavailable, or killed, making workforce management more important than simply sending the largest possible team.

The routine is deliberately administrative. You review personnel, manage two shifts, answer calls, and watch the map for new incidents. That structure will appeal to players who enjoy prioritization and resource pressure, but it is not a conventional police action game with direct driving, shooting, or free-roaming patrols.

Choices, corruption, and competing demands

Meaningful decisions drive the story as much as the dispatch system. Jack must respond to demands from the mayor, the police department, criminal organizations, the press, and people caught in individual cases. Supporting one faction can create money or short-term protection while damaging another relationship, reducing political standing, or putting civilians and officers at risk.

The game also uses text-based decision scenes for interviews, negotiations, interrogations, and courtroom-style exchanges. These moments are not isolated flavor events. They shape Jack's relationships and determine how the wider conflict develops, so players must often choose between legal procedure, personal survival, institutional loyalty, and financial gain.

Investigations add a slower criminal-case layer. You gather evidence, identify links between suspects, and work against organized gangs operating inside Freeburg. The detective material is less about freely examining detailed crime scenes and more about selecting responses, managing information, and deciding when a risky lead is worth pursuing.

The 180-day management challenge

At the center of the campaign is a strict 180-day objective: Jack wants to secure $500,000 before retirement. The target gives the otherwise open-ended management loop a clear direction. You are not simply trying to maximize public safety. You are also deciding how much money to earn, which favors to accept, and how far Jack is willing to compromise himself.

That goal creates the game's defining tension. Sending officers to official calls protects the department's standing, while certain criminal or private requests can provide income at a moral and professional cost. Refusing too many demands can trigger consequences, but accepting everything can expose the department to failure and leave Jack with fewer reliable officers.

The campaign is therefore a story-driven management loop rather than a sandbox with unlimited expansion. Players replay days to understand outcomes, improve assignments, and test different decisions. It is best approached as a tightly authored narrative experience with management pressure, not as a long-term city builder.

What is included on PC?

This Is the Police is sold as a standalone paid game on the major PC storefronts checked for this guide. The current listings identify Weappy Studio as developer and THQ Nordic as publisher. The available storefront information presents the game as a single-player title and does not list a separate season pass, licensed expansion lineup, or mandatory multiplayer component.

The commercial structure is straightforward: the base game contains Jack Boyd's Freeburg campaign, its dispatch mechanics, investigations, faction conflicts, and voiced narrative scenes. The PC storefront listings also offer the sequel separately and may present a series bundle, but that does not change the identity or contents of the original game.

Players looking for a broader emergency-services management experience can compare its police focus with multi-department emergency management games such as Rescue HQ The Tycoon, which places police work alongside fire and ambulance operations.

PC features, controls, and localization

The Steam version includes full controller support, Steam Cloud, achievements, collectible Steam cards, Family Library Sharing, and Steam Remote Play on TV. Mouse and keyboard remain a natural fit for the dispatch interface because the game is built around selecting units, reading case information, and navigating menus rather than aiming or driving.

The game uses English voice audio, including Jack Boyd's fully voiced dialogue, while text and interface localization cover English, German, Russian, French, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, and Japanese. The storefront listings identify it as a single-player PC game; there is no verified co-op, split-screen, competitive multiplayer, or dedicated-server feature to plan around.

No separate anti-cheat system is identified in the current storefront information. The Steam edition is tied to the Steam platform, while Epic lists its own PC storefront version. Players who need a gamepad-friendly, direct-action police simulation should look elsewhere, because this title's strengths are dispatch decisions, narrative pressure, and personnel management.

Who should play This Is the Police?

This is a strong fit for players who want morally compromised protagonists, noir presentation, branching conversations, and management systems that create difficult tradeoffs. It suits people who enjoy reading case details, assigning limited staff, and accepting that a correct decision may still produce an ugly result.

It is less suitable for anyone expecting a realistic law-enforcement simulator, a tactical shooter, or an endlessly replayable strategy sandbox. Crimes are represented through interface events, images, text, and timers rather than direct action sequences. The dispatch rhythm can also feel repetitive if you are looking for constant mechanical variety.

For a more hands-on police game, first-person patrol simulations like Police Simulator Patrol Officers offer a very different structure based on walking the streets, issuing citations, searching suspects, and responding directly to incidents.

Comparable PC games

911 Operator is the closest comparison on the management side, although it focuses on emergency calls and dispatching multiple service types rather than Jack Boyd's personal corruption story. Its call-screening and unit-assignment structure makes it a useful choice for players who enjoy the operational side of This Is the Police.

Rescue HQ The Tycoon expands the emergency-services premise into a broader station-management format, while Police Simulator Patrol Officers moves the perspective into direct patrol work. These games overlap with This Is the Police in subject matter, but not in camera perspective or moment-to-moment interaction.

Players drawn more to investigations, dialogue, and unstable protagonists may also appreciate isometric detective RPGs with consequence-heavy conversations like Disco Elysium. The comparison is strongest in narrative decision-making and urban crime themes, not in police-department management.

This Is the Police FAQ

Is This Is the Police still listed under its original name?

Yes. The current Steam and Epic listings checked for this guide use This Is the Police. No verified rebrand, renamed definitive edition, or storefront replacement was found for the original PC game.

Is This Is the Police multiplayer?

No. The storefront descriptions identify it as a single-player game. There is no verified co-op, split-screen, versus mode, or online campaign.

What do you actually do in This Is the Police?

You manage Freeburg's police department, assign officers and detectives to emergencies, investigate criminal organizations, handle staff availability, and make narrative choices involving City Hall, the mafia, the press, and local citizens.

Is This Is the Police a police simulator?

It is best described as a police management strategy game with adventure and narrative elements. You do not directly patrol the city or control officers during real-time firefights. The emphasis is on dispatching, prioritization, investigations, and consequences.

Does the game have a campaign or an endless mode?

The core experience is a finite, story-led campaign organized around Jack Boyd's 180-day retirement challenge. Its replay value comes from testing different assignments and decisions rather than building an endlessly expanding department.

What languages are supported on PC?

English voice audio is supported, with text and interface localization in English, German, Russian, French, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, and Japanese.