+1
Awesome ideas all around- white collar could go a long way for helping players starting out have a pipeline that gives them another form of income to consider, that way they don't feel strangled starting out.
As for spitballing ideas, perhaps some benefits for officers as well to make sure it isn't wildly out of balance. I've never been opposed to police keeping factions on their toes after all.
It would be interesting if undercovers/rats had more physical listening devices. Instead of just needing to do a '/me' to lazily plant or disclose a listening device, in certain circumstances you could have electronic devices that have a bug in them and must be inspected to notice. Activated bugs in an inventory could have the 'equipped' square icon on them to indicate whether they are on or off- however this could be too easy to see for some peoples taste.
(Ex: A flashlight that would be in your inventory and, but once you hover over it to find its different from the normal description i.e 'Flashlight | Good thing you inspected this. After a closer look you notice this flashlight is attached to a listening device powered by the batteries of the flashlight. It appears to be operating/not operating right now.')
I'd expect you could do the same with other standing devices like a Hi-fi, Cassette Player which can be placed and cycle through a dozen random songs or so to feign its utility- but when a player interacts with it the device has an observable and tunable radio frequency modulator or other means of transfer/recording that gives away the fact is a bugged item.
It would be very interesting for these devices to not be exclusively limited to the police as well- perhaps purchasable at the barge or other shady NPCs for an exorbitant price.
(Perhaps also a 'Jerry-rigged Radio' available at the barge as well? It would be available for $1,500-$3,000 and allow Citizens of New York/Delivery/Cabbies to read /rumour chat. Most rumors are probably either going to get you mugged or give you charges anyway; but it allows for the potential to let more renegade citizens make money illegally. (To keep factions more viable, it could have limited uses before it breaks much like the fishing pole.))
Tacking onto that point just a little, another interesting idea for a 'new' racket (im sure someones mentioned it before me) would be a 'Fencing Racket'.
The idea centers around the concept that there is an nameless 'contact' within the PD and/or Department of Waste Management with access to a mix of low end firearms or drugs confiscated from the lowly and clumsy criminals of Southside.
Perhaps not directly linked to items that have been confiscated to prevent accidentally getting too powerful from idiots getting pinned with an LMG/AR shipments, their fence racket would allow their members to get small amounts of random drugs (3-8 bags?) and random small arms (low end pistol, shotgun, and SMG?) from their shipments. Shipments would generally only have drugs OR firearms in them and not both. They would purchase shipments of 'Stolen Evidence' and would not know the contents of their shipment until it arrives in the city.
Said faction with the fencing racket would likely be unable to sell drugs directly either, as they have direct access to any of them and it would prove to just be a money printer. However they would be inclined to sell their small amounts of processed good on the street to turn profit. Firearms would take a similar avenue and be treated as an underground market removed from the firearms database. (If people are caught with a firearm acquired in this way, possession of a stolen firearm would likely become an aggravating charge as well, bringing more use to the concept of filing serial numbers off of weapons.)
(Factions could negotiate for the Fencing faction to not sell 'their goods' in order to keep their product scarce; but because of their ability to draw naturally from it in the random fashion they do , it may wise to not have it be directly cause for war. This is more of an IC matter however and I feel it may be wrong of me to weigh in- rather it should be established in game and dependent on the factions involved.)
Pricing may very well be a bit of a pain in the ass however, but the expectation is that there can be losses in some shipments and gains in others. Some days are 3 baggies of weed, other days its a brand new Uzi. I imagine it would have to be test-bedded a little to make sure it isn't skewed, but I believe the idea gives enough variety to at least look into!
I know it won't exactly be happening this week; but it'd be awesome to see some of the ideas in this thread considered and even introduced one day!