I, being an lawful or semi-lawful 98.31% of the time, had a horrible encounter at the Barrier Gate Station one time.
Me, flying an IMG Battletransport, Civilian Transport shield (that small one, yes) and a pirate, flying a borderworlds gunboat. He stopped me right at the station. Had a very short talk, normal pirating stuff. Was considering whether to do some longer RP or not, considering I was in no danger as I could just dock on the station, 1k away, or fight back if necessary, but before I could make the decision a patrol of IMG ships spawned: two fighters, two civilan freighters, I think. Pretty sure it wasn't much more.
Let's just say, I was not expecting a gunboat shield could drop that fast, but the pirate had problems very fast, taking hull damage as the few NPCs dropped his shields in seconds almost. When I was then still deciding about whether to pay or nor or what else to do, a patrol of, I think it were rogue VHFs (Greyhounds), spawned and did the same to me, what the IMG patrol did to the GB...so, there was no other option than to cut the talk short and just quickly pay the small demand.
I was shocked to see what heavy impact just a few NPCs have on even the more heavily shielded ships and I felt bad seeing how hard it was for the pirate even around a station that's "friendly" to them.
First of all, can't NPCs changed, so that they don't fight you around BGS?
And second, I think all NPCs who're not around absolutly major bases (like primary planets; e.g. Manhattan, Los Angeles, Denver, Houston in Liberty or New Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart in Rheinland, etc. or other high security zones like Norfolk, Westpoint and Fort Bush in New York or in main systems like Alpha, Gamma, Iota and Omega-52) should not have absolutly top equipment. They shouldn't have anti-shield guns, shouldn't have heavy mines or heavy missiles, they should have lower shields and no armor buff, they should do some damage, but at best only 25% of the high tier ships. Still be a bit annoying, but not disrupting gameplay.
Certain points like JGs or normal stations should still retain heavier, but not absolutly max tier equiped, NPCs...
EDIT:
Also, remove heavy guns (Cerberus turrets) from NPC caps. Unlimited powercore just makes them overpowered...