Austin/Travis CapMetro

[KI5IRE]

Where does CapMetro operate? I have seen CapMetro police driving around the Austin area several times and have always wondered what system they are operating on. Also where are the buses operating on? The only talkgroup I see is 3347 on GATRRS, but have never heard it keyed up.

 

[KTR722]

CapMetro employs ~150 part-time, off-duty Austin PD officers as its security force currently. They are in the process of starting its own police force (2022) and reducing its number of off-duty APD officers. Currently I believe anyone working P/T off-duty work for APD, to include Cap Metro, will monitor the APD patrol sector TGID that they are working and I hear APD calling for CapMetro answering on occasion with an APD portable radio UID. I will hear other units on occasion key up to let the dispatcher know they are working off duty at a location so as to flag that location in CAD for any officers that may be dispatched to that location later to know an off-duty officer is working there already.

 

[rbarker]

The CapMetro Busses are on Open Sky I'm told. and cannot be monitored.

 

[n7uv]

RadioReference lists only 1 talk group for Cap Metro using the GATRRS.

3347

d13

D

CAPITALMETRO

Capitol Metro

Transportation

Is that the only one? Seems like way too many uses for one talk group. Or, do O&M and other functions operate on different radio systems/services?

 

[rbarker]

That talkgroup for CapMetro is no longer used. They are on the LCRA Open Sky Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) OpenSky Trunking System, Various, Texas - Scanner Frequencies (radioreference.com)

 

[garys]

I saw a Cap Metro police officer and cruiser today. Are they operating on LCRA or GATRRS? Or both?

 

[rbarker]

I'm not aware of any Cap Metro Talkgroups that are active on GATRRS, So they must be on LCRA (Open Sky) That doesn't mean they don't have radios to talk to Austin PD, I just haven't heard any related traffic.

 

[garys]

From the reading I've done on line, there probably aren't a lot of officers yet. The officer I saw looked around 50, but his uniform and hat were clearly not APD.

Maybe some of the APD officers who resigned from there got hired by the Transit Police.

The transit system in greater Boston runs on an EDACS Pro Voice system and there are two PD talk groups. The PD however operates on two UHF T Band channels, but also on the MA State Police system. So, it wouldn't be a surprise to me if the Cap Metro police run on GATTRS while the rest of the system runs on LCRA.

 

[rlopez28]

All of APD have radios issued to them as part of their issued equipment. Possible that the marked "Transit Police" vehicles they drive from CapMetro fleet are equipped with OpenSky mobiles while they do carry their portables with them when on duty for APD and on a o/t assignment. They take direct calls from dispatch in their sector for issues related directly to CapMetro and if they arenet monitoring or in a different sector are called over to handle CapMetro related calls (i.e. "Capital Metro unit to David").
I've learned how their ID's are assigned for both mobiles and portables but that's for another discussion.

 

[garys]

Interesting. I didn't get a good enough look to see if his uniform was APD, but his he was wearing a baseball cap, not uniform hat and I'm pretty sure it said "METRO" in large letters across the front.

No big deal and I expect that next time I'm down there they will have at least some of their own officers.

All of APD have radios issued to them as part of their issued equipment. Possible that the marked "Transit Police" vehicles they drive from CapMetro fleet are equipped with OpenSky mobiles while they do carry their portables with them when on duty for APD and on a o/t assignment. They take direct calls from dispatch in their sector for issues related directly to CapMetro and if they arenet monitoring or in a different sector are called over to handle CapMetro related calls (i.e. "Capital Metro unit to David").
I've learned how their ID's are assigned for both mobiles and portables but that's for another discussion.