There's been an influx of players applying to the LSPD in GTA roleplay like it's a real police force—except the crimes are fake, the paperwork is real, and everyone appears to be shouting codes they found on Google into their headsets

From vampire nightclub owners to Proclaimers-singing reality TV stardom, pretend journalist bank robberies, and genuinely astonishing in-game Shakespeare ensembles, GTA roleplay is no stranger to turning full-blooded virtual violence into imaginative theatre production. The latest subculture to capture my imagination, however, is RP police academies.

And I'm clearly not alone. Because while player cops in GTA roleplay servers are nothing new—I first happened upon the homemade law-serving...