DPS awfully quiet

[SA_tx_88116]

I sometimes spend the whole day scanning DPS base c and mobile c but it takes hours before I actually hear anything yeah sure I’ve heard them chase a car with a dead body in it in atascosa, and the bird informing units about a riot in San Antonio. But I hardly ever hear them you’d think that being in charge of all those counties there would be way more traffic I mean they are basically highway patrol and not just a tactical agency right? And also anybody know what’s going on with SAPD east? For three days in a row now I’ve heard the dispatcher air calls unencrypted all day! BCSO also seamed to lighten up on encryption I’ve heard lots of surveillance and warrant ops on their tactical channels all day yesterday.

 

[NC5267]

DPS does a lot over their laptops these days, and many of the troopers in this area are part of different task forces. The troopers are on the Sheriff's dispatch channels in the surrounding counties. When monitoring the old Provoice system channels, you could often hear troopers on the gang and other task-force channels. All that is encrypted now.


Sometimes it's a dispatcher hitting a button by accident or a unit or two that have the encryption knob turned the wrong way(Harris XL-200 radios have an on/off knob for encryption.) When they were on the Provoice system, the same thing would happen before you could monitor Provoice. Random dispatchers would be in the clear for days, and then someone would notice and secure the channel again. I heard the Alamo College dispatcher the other day in the clear, then back to the E that night.