Ok so since both abilities do the same thing i want to know are they affected by the rule of 3s.

Example say i have 4 pieces with the police TA.
Next to another friendly character all are witin lof to tge target character and i make the ranged attack.
Would the target characters defense going down by 4 or only 3.

The rule of three doesn't care how you're modify a combat value

Whenever the sum of all modifiers applied to a single combat value is greater than +3 or less than -3, the sum of all modifiers is instead +3 or -3, respectively. All modifiers continue to apply to the combat value; only their sum is changed

You can't get his defense lower than -3, but it has nothing to do with whether the TA's count as the same source because source does not matter. I can't get my damage to +4 even if I use 1 perplex, a light object, close combat expert and empower.

Just keep in mind that the rule of three doesn't mean that you can only apply 3 modifiers one way or the other.

It's a total change from the printed value.

If you are making a ranged attack against someone has a 17 printed defense and ES/D, you could apply -5 in modifiers to their defense and have them all count.

They get a +2 and you give them -5, which makes for a net -3 and you are trying to hit a 14.